By Clifford Ward
Chicago Tribune
OSWEGO, Ill. — A convicted murderer from Oswego will learn Thursday whether his outburst to a probation officer in which he noted he had killed before will lead to a conviction on a charge of threatening a public official.
A Kane County judge is scheduled to deliver her ruling in the felony case against Kurt E. Johnson. Judge Linda Abrahamson listened to a day of testimony and argument Monday in Johnson’s bench trial and said she would review the evidence and announce her verdict Thursday.
Johnson, 53, has been in the Kane County jail more than a year awaiting trial on the charge, and still faces a 2013 charge that he stalked a stripper. He has a murder conviction for the 1993 stalking-related murder of a man in Will County; Johnson was paroled on the murder in late 2012.
He had been on bond on the 2013 stalking charge, but outfitted with a GPS anklet monitor when he had a verbal altercation on April 21, 2015, with a probation officer who was adjusting the device.
At the trial, the probation officer, Sara Fair, and her supervisor, Charles Kaski, both testified that Johnson told Fair that he had committed a murder before and would either do so again or was unafraid to do so. Testimony varied as to the exact words Johnson uttered.
Fair testified that she feared for her safety after Johnson’s remark, which she said he delivered in an angry tone as he pointed a finger down at her as she worked to adjust his anklet.
The incident took place on the front steps outside the Kane County Judicial Center in St. Charles, and portions were caught on video taken by a rotating security camera. However, there was no audio feed, and Fair said the moments when Johnson made his statement were not captured.
Jim Ryan, Johnson’s attorney, argued that his client was frustrated with malfunctions of the GPS anklet and with the stalking charge that had led to Johnson having to wear it. Johnson, Ryan said, was venting, not threatening.
Johnson, who chose to not testify at trial, walked away after the exchange after Fair had finished the adjustment, but Johnson was arrested two days later.
He was outfitted with the anklet as a condition of bond following his 2013 arrest after security saw him parked down the street from an Elgin-area strip club from which he had been banned, according to authorities. Police say the club banned Johnson after he had repeatedly given gifts to a woman employee and had shown up uninvited at her home.
The stalking arrest came three months after Johnson’s parole for the 1993 Joliet murder of Michael Beshoar of Morris. Johnson was found guilty of fatally shooting Beshoar, who was dating Johnson’s former girlfriend.
After Johnson was charged for allegedly threatening the parole officer, a judge increased his bail by $250,000, and Johnson was taken into custody. He also has a pending DUI case in DuPage County from February 2015.
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