New judge ordered in Aurora sex assault
By Dan Campana For The Beacon-News February 22, 2013 4:36PM
Corderro Pollard
Updated: February 24, 2013 7:38PM
One of two Aurora men charged with sexually assaulting a woman last summer will have his case heard by a new judge.
Corderro Pollard, who has been indicted on multiple sex assault counts, recently filed a motion seeking to have the case reassigned because of concerns about two judges.
“(Pollard) believes he cannot receive a fair trial before Judge M. Karen Simpson or before Judge James Hallock,” the motion states.
Pollard and Eric Stallworth, who is charged with a total of 13 sex assault counts, are accused of having sex with a Joliet woman while she was too drunk to consent. The three were at a home near the Aurora University campus after a night of drinking when the assault occurred, according to authorities.
A third man, Shammrie Brown, originally faced a sex assault charge on allegations he failed to intervene on the woman’s behalf, but prosecutors dismissed the count in late 2012. Instead, Brown is now charged with misdemeanor battery, and is listed as a witness for prosecutors, court documents show.
Pollard’s case will now be heard by Judge John Barsanti, with a hearing set for March 22.
Cold case delay
The trial has been delayed for at least two months for Arnoldo Aguilar, charged in the cold case murder of Brian Lambert of Aurora.
Aguilar’s case was in court Thursday for what was expected to be a final status hearing before his trial was to begin Monday. Instead, an April 26 hearing was slated for attorneys to argue pre-trial motions.
Prosecutors recently filed a motion seeking to use evidence of Aguilar’s gang ties to support the motive that Lambert was shot because he was associated with a rival gang. Aguilar’s attorney is seeking to bar the state from mentioning Aguilar’s previous conviction for aggravated discharge of a firearm.
Lambert was shot to death while sitting in a car on North Anderson Street on Aurora’s near East Side in May 2001.
Aguilar and a co-defendant were arrested in connection to the killing as part of the Operation First Degree Burn police sweep in 2007.
