The Christopher Bollyn trial date, which had been scheduled to begin on Monday, April 23, has been postponed until Thursday, May 31, 2007.

The trial is now set to begin on May 31st at 9:00 a.m.

The 38-day extension was granted today by the Hon. Hyman I. Riebman of the Cook County Circuit Court (3rd Municipal District) at the Rolling Meadows courthouse.

The fundamental reason Bollyn's lawyer had requested an extension was to have the necessary time to discover exculpatory evidence to compensate for the evidence lost by the destruction of the video tapes made by police officers on the scene.

"I am informed that all tapes have been recycled," Richard Williams, attorney for Hoffman Estates, wrote to Bollyn's attorney in a letter dated March 29, 2007.  This statement indicates the police position is that the video evidence has been destroyed, which is a clear violation of their General Order No. 79 concerning "Mobile Video Recording" and the preservation of video evidence:

"Tapes containing information, which could be useful to an investigation or prosecution, will be treated as evidence.  Tapes deemed to be of evidentiary value shall be processed according to departmental procedures governing property custody.  The narrative of the associated report shall indicate that the video tape was inventoried as evidence."

The police transcript of their communications reveals that the video camera on at least one car had been activated.  The police assault was evidently videotaped by Ofc. Joseph Kruschel, who was the first police officer logged in "on scene."

The fact that the technical expert for the 911 dispatch system would not have been able to attend on Monday was another reason that Judge Riebman saw fit to grant the motion for an extension.