John Edward Lakas is released locally for lack of evidence. But Chicago police hope to find some.
By STEVE THOMPSON
Published September 17, 2003
NEW PORT RICHEY - When Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's nephew began demolishing a home he bought in June, workers discovered remains of a body and the Chicago Tribune found some headlines.
The victim, Barbara Boyd, had been missing since 1996. Last week police in New Port Richey arrested a man they suspect murdered her.
On Monday the suspect, John Edward Lakas, was released from the Pasco County jail on his own recognizance - meaning he didn't have to post any bail.
"I think they came down here fishing, hoping to get a statement," Lakas' attorney, Brian Mulligan, said of the Chicago police detectives who persuaded New Port Richey police to make the arrest on Sept. 11.
State attorneys in Illinois had not come up with enough evidence to keep Lakas in custody and seek his extradition, said Mulligan of the Port Richey law firm of Proly and Laporte. Mulligan represented Lakas before Pasco-Pinellas Circuit Judge John Renke III, who ordered his release.
"I don't think they're going to come up with anything," Mulligan said, "so it looks like it's over from here."
But the Chicago Police Department on Tuesday said that Lakas, 42, still is a suspect and that police there are still hoping to build a case against him.
"We're not done, by any means," said Detective Will Svilar.
"Were it not for a reporter from the Chicago Tribune, he'd be charged," Svilar said. A Tribune reporter tipped Lakas off that he was a suspect, Svilar said, and so Lakas hired an attorney who made sure he made no statements to police.
Svilar said without such a statement, they did not have enough evidence to proceed with the case. But they still are hoping for a break.
"We have to build the best circumstantial case that we can because we're a little short of eye witnesses," he said.
According to Mulligan, the eyewitness who helped Chicago police build probable cause for Lakas' arrest is not credible.
"My indications are this witness is a very unreliable witness and may have changed her story," Mulligan said.
Among the problems with the witness' statements, said Mulligan, is that she claimed to have seen Lakas strangle Boyd in 2000, but Boyd had been missing since 1996. "All indications are that this didn't happen in 2000," Mulligan said.
"And why didn't she notify authorities?" Mulligan asked of the witness, who apparently had waited until more recently to make her statements.
Mulligan said the actions of Illinois authorities seemed bizarre.
"They just flip-flopped within 48 hours and said they didn't want him (Lakas) anymore," he said. "Chicago police really stuck it to everybody down here."
New Port Richey police said they weren't familiar with all the facts of the case and could not comment on the reasons for Lakas' release. "We were basically working as an agent of the Chicago PD," said Cpl. Jeffrey Harrington. "I don't know what the decisionmaking process was."
On Sept. 4, a construction crew demolishing a home on the 3700 block of Chicago's S Parnell Avenue discovered Boyd's body wrapped in a blue tarpaulin.
Lakas had owned the home and lived there with his elderly father and with Boyd, who was his father's girlfriend. Daley's nephew bought the home after it had been vacated and boarded up.
A man who answered Lakas' door Tuesday at Apartment B-8 5543 Executive Drive declined to comment.
