During a pretrial conference on Tuesday, Associate Circuit Judge John C.
Redington granted Ogle County State’s Attorney Eric Morrow’s request and entered an order
appointing the Illinois State’s Attorney’s Appellate Prosecutor’s Office as special prosecutor in
the case of People v. Marc W. Mongan.
In December 2016, the Ogle County Grand Jury found that there was no probable cause
to proceed with the felony charges of Felony Operating a Watercraft Under the Influence of
Alcohol and Aggravated Reckless Operation of a Watercraft against Marc Mongan in relation
to a June 24, 2016 boat crash which resulted in the death of 31 year old Megan Wells of Rockford.
Mongan had previously been arrested and charged with misdemeanor offenses related to the
crash. Without a finding of probable cause the Ogle County State’s Attorney’s Office was legally
unable to pursue felony charges against Mongan. The misdemeanor charges were
subsequently set for trial on August 21.
During the course of preparation for the upcoming trial, the Ogle County State’s
Attorney’s office became aware of possible additional evidence related to the events of June 24,
- Since the State’s Attorney’s office did not have possession of this information at the time,
it was not previously presented to the Ogle County Grand Jury. As a result of this discovery,
State’s Attorney Morrow asked the Illinois State’s Attorney’s Appellate Prosecutor’s Office to
review this new information and assume the prosecution of the Defendant in this case.
In explaining the request for a special prosecutor Morrow said that the family of Megan Wells believed that his office had a conflict of interest in the prosecution of Mongan. This is something Morrow’s office has denied, and the Court had previously found no conflict exists. But, with the discovery of this new evidence, it is appropriate that a special prosecutor be appointed to guarantee that there is no doubt by the family of Megan Wells or the public in general that justice is being served in this case. Morrow added that it is not unusual, in a situation such as this, for a special prosecutor to be appointed to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.
This matter is set for a status hearing on September 6th at 2:00 p.m.
