After living in Poland for 25 years as a fugitive from Lake County, while wanted on charges of reckless homicide in the death of a Waukegan man, Marek Josko now faces between three and 14 years in prison.
Josko, 67, was convicted Friday of one count of reckless homicide in the 1995 death of Dennis Bourassa by a Lake County Court jury after a four-day trial in Waukegan.
Driving southbound in the northbound lanes of Route 41, just north of Deerpath Road in Lake Forest, on Dec. 9, 1995, police believe Josko’s vehicle hit one vehicle leading to a crash with another driven by Bourassa.
At the time, Josko was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol with a .19 blood-alcohol level. He was released on bond. Before the charges were upgraded to reckless homicide and he could be taken into custody, he fled to Poland where he remained until he was extradited last summer.
Assistant state’s attorney Scott Hoffert, one of prosecutors in the case, said after the trial that despite some witnesses having died and with airline records destroyed, a reconstruction of the crash scene done at the time provided evidence showing damage to the vehicles and their final resting spots.
“Using the immutable laws of physics, our crash reconstruction experts determined there was only one way the crash could happen,” Hoffert said. “Marek Josko was speeding and driving the wrong way in the northbound lanes of Route 41.”
Hoffert said in a news release from the state’s attorney’s office that both the Lake Forest Police Department and Bourassa’s family had to wait a long time to find closure in the case.
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“The family and the Lake Forest Police Department have waited a quarter of a century for justice in Dennis Bourassa’s death,” he said. “We are pleased with the jury’s work and its verdict in this case.”
While Josko lived as a fugitive in Poland, extradition laws made it hard to return him to Lake County. After they eased, a joint effort by Lake Forest police, the state’s attorney’s office, the FBI and the United States Justice Department was started in 2014, according to the release.
Working with Polish authorities, Josko was arrested there in 2018 and extradited to the United States last summer. After the verdict, State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said in the release a collaborative effort of multiple law enforcement agencies made the arrest, trial and verdict possible.
“It is important that we acknowledge what a collaborative effort it was to return Mr. Josko to Lake County,” Rinehart said. “The age of the case brought many challenges, but everyone was up to the task.”
Since Josko was driving under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash, the case is a special Class 2 felony which carries a sentence of three to 14 years in prison, according to the release. No sentencing date has been set. He next appears in court Oct. 12 for a status hearing.