Ex-prosecutor charged with mishandling high-profile murder case made son erase phone after he was fired

After being fired following a shocking revelation that he had a close friendship with a con man who became a witness in a high-profile murder case, former Cook County prosecutor Nicholas Trutenko is said to have asked his son to help him delete the contents of his cell phone to help.

Joseph Trutenko recalled Tuesday’s exchange on the final day of testimony in his father’s trial on charges related to the difficult prosecution of Jackie Wilson, whose case was instrumental in exposing systemic torture within the Chicago Police Department.

Jackie Wilson and his brother Andrew Wilson were convicted of the 1982 murders of Chicago police officers Richard O’Brien and William Fahey, but their convictions were overturned due to allegations of torture by detectives working under the notorious Cmdr. Jon Burge. The pair were later re-convicted and Andrew Wilson died in prison in 2007.

Charges against Jackie Wilson were ultimately dropped after Nicholas Trutenko testified in a final trial in 2020 when he admitted that he did not disclose his relationship with a key witness he encountered as a prosecutor in Jackie Wilson’s second trial had.

The two became so close that the witness, a British fraudster named William Coleman, asked Nicholas Trutenko to be his daughter’s godfather – according to a 30-year-old baptism certificate revealed at Jackie Wilson’s final trial.

After that bomb, Nicholas Trutenko returned to the home he shared with his son in La Grange and collected his work ID cards, cell phone and computer to return to his boss, Joseph Trutenko testified Tuesday. The younger Trutenko said he asked his father if he had been fired and his father nodded yes.

“I could tell he was upset,” Joseph Trutenko told Lake County Judge Daniel Shanes, who took over the case, which was played out in a Rolling Meadows courtroom after the Cook County justice was rejected.

Joseph Trutenko said his father began deleting personal photos and videos from his work phone. But the younger Trutenko said he ultimately suggested doing a factory reset when asked for help, wiping the phone’s data and settings in the process.

Joseph Trutenko said he didn’t know that his father didn’t give the phone to his boss – and that it was instead recovered by a Cook County inspector nearly a week later.

When special investigators asked why they didn’t just delete data in bulk, Joseph Trutenko said they didn’t know how to delete multiple personal contacts at once. A factory reset was the easiest way to get rid of the personal content, he testified.

He said his father did not tell him that the content was related to an ongoing court case. And he said he didn’t know whether Coleman’s contact information was among the deleted data.

Nicholas Trutenko, 69, is charged with perjury, official misconduct, obstruction of justice and violating a local recording law while testifying during the 2020 trial. Andrew Horvat, another former deputy prosecutor, is accused of official misconduct for representing Trutenko in the same trial.

James Reilly, a former public defender who represented Coleman in the 1980s, testified later Tuesday that Nicholas Trutenko was working as a prosecutor when Coleman took on a drug case and was charged with escaping from state custody.

Nicholas Trutenko helped negotiate a plea deal for Coleman, Reilly said. In exchange for truthful testimony in the case against Jackie Wilson, the state would drop the drug charge and give Coleman the minimum sentence for escape.

After testifying in the second Jackie Wilson trial in 1989, Coleman gave two statements in the civil trials of Wilson’s brother and was deported back to England at the end of the year. Nicholas Trutenko was not present for the depositions and Reilly said he has not seen or spoken to him since.

Prosecutors peppered Reilly with questions about Coleman’s close relationship with Nicholas Trutenko, and Reilly repeatedly said it would have been impossible for the two to meet privately without his knowledge. Reilly insisted he had “no issues with Trutenko’s integrity or honesty.”

Throughout Tuesday’s testimony, Nicholas Trutenko and Horvat could be seen whispering to each other and their lawyers. The cross-examination became contentious at times, and a brief outburst from Nicholas Trutenko prompted both his lawyer and Horvat to silence him.

Closing statements are expected on Wednesday.