Cops Seek Judge Family Slay Clues

An investigative task force in Chicago will pursue a possible link between the apparent murders of a federal judge's husband and 89-year-old mother and a white supremacist who was convicted last year for trying to have the judge killed, Chicago officials said today.

U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow, who was once the target of a failed murder plot by the suspected supremacist, is under federal protection Tuesday as authorities investigate the shooting deaths of her husband and her mother. Lefkow's surviving family members are also under protection.

Lefkow found the bodies of Michael F. Lefkow, 65, and the judge's mother, Donna Humphrey, in a pool of blood in her basement between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Monday when she returned home from work, according to authorities and her friends.

The FBI and Chicago police tell CBS's WBBM-TV in Chicago that they are working around the clock investigating the deaths.

The task force is set to include investigators from the Chicago Police Department, FBI and U.S. Marshal's office, according to The Chicago Tribune. The team will be comprised of more than a dozen members.

Authorities gave no indication that the deaths were related to the case of white supremacist Matthew Hale, who was convicted in April 2004 of soliciting an undercover FBI informant to kill her.

"There's much speculation about this crime and the possible involvement of hate groups. This is but one facet of our investigation. We are looking at many," James J. Molloy, Chicago Police Chief of Detectives, said.

CBS's Drew Levinson reports that Lefkow had ruled against Hale in an earlier case.

Following that ruling, Hale was convicted of soliciting Judge Lefkow's murder. Hale talked about it to an undercover agent who was wearing a wire, reports Mike Parker of WBBM.

"If you're charged with attacking a Jew you want good representation, and I feel you should have it. In fact I feel you should be exonerated and you should serve no jail time," Hale said.

Hale, 33, is awaiting sentencing on one count of murder solicitation and three counts of obstruction of justice.

The Tribune reported that Hale's father, retired East Peoria policeman Russell Hale, offered condolences to Lefkow's family, but said his son could not have been involved in the deaths because he is under constant surveillance while awaiting sentencing.

Hale had become notorious in 1999 when a follower, Benjamin Smith, went on a deadly shooting rampage in Illinois and Indiana. Targeting minorities, Smith killed two people, including former Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong, and wounded nine others before killing himself as police closed in.

Tuesday, Chicago mayor Richard Daley offered his condolences to Lefkow and her family.

Monday's events at the Lefkow home on Chicago's North side are still hazy, but according to WBBN reports, a call was made to the house at 10:30 a.m. and the judge's mother answered the phone, police said.

Lefkow's daughter then reportedly came home at 4 p.m. to pick up her gym bag before leaving for the gym. It is not certain if the daughter was in the area of the house were the bodies were found. The daughter was gone when Lefkow returned home, Molloy said.

The bodies of the judge's husband and mother were in the basement of the home with gunshot wounds to the head, according to a federal source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

No weapon was recovered, but police found two .22-caliber casings, said another source close to the investigation. That source also said police found that a window had been broken at the house.

"It looks like a possible break-in," said the source.

Detectives were searching for clues in Lefkow's professional life, including her involvement in the Hale case and cases over which she has presided. Lefkow was questioned for hours by police and then returned to the home with detectives late Monday night to help with the investigation.

The judge and her family were placed under the protection of the U.S. Marshal's Service, said Charles P. Kocoras, the chief federal judge for the Northern District of Illinois.

"All of us are horrified by the murder of Judge Lefkow's husband and mother. Nothing can prepare us for such a stunning, tragic event," Kocoras said in a statement.

Lefkow received police protection after Hale was arrested in January 2003. Prosecutors alleged that Hale was angry because Lefkow, presiding over a copyright infringement suit, ruled that he could no longer use the name World Church of the Creator for his group since another organization had a copyright on that name.

The protection detail was discontinued after Hale's conviction last year, said Shannon Metzger, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Marshal's Service.

"We sat down and deemed the threat was no longer viable," said Metzger. The judge had taken part in the meeting, and Metzger stressed that protection would have been continued if she had wanted it.

An Internet search of white supremacist discussion forums Tuesday found links to photos of Lefkow's husband and daughters, as well as excerpts from Michael Lefkow's biography from the Web site for his law office. Some postings dated Tuesday had news articles about the killings with the comment "RAHOWA!" meaning "racial holy war." Others warned posters not to "say or do anything stupid" and speculated that the government was behind the killings.

Hale's reaction to Benjamin Smith's three-day shooting spree in 1999 — Hale laughed about it and imitated gunfire in secretly recorded tapes played for the jury — was part of the prosecution's case last year.

Lefkow, 61, served as a federal magistrate and a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge before President Clinton nominated her for the District Court bench in 2000.

Neighbors who lived on the same tree-lined street as the Lefkows described the Lefkows as a model family, active in their church.

They had four daughters plus a fifth from his previous marriage.

"This is someone who adored his daughters," Nan Sullivan said. "They were the kind of family everyone aspires to be, very close-knit, very supportive."

Judge Lefkow is a graduate of Wheaton College and Northwestern University law school who served as a federal magistrate judge and a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge before President Clinton nominated her for the District Court bench in May 2000.

Michael Lefkow was a private attorney, a graduate of North Central College in Naperville and earned a law degree from Northwestern University. The two married in 1975, and he ran unsuccessfully for Cook County judge in 2002, according the Chicago Tribune.

Friends said Michael Lefkow was an attorney who felt the need to help the underdog during his career.

A possible suspect, Hale, never testified during his two-week trial. His attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, called no witnesses, saying the prosecution's evidence was the weakest he had seen in a major case.

A key witness, Anthony Evola, testified he secretly taped Hale for the FBI while posing as a follower. Among the conversations were ones in which they discussed the judge.

"Are we gonna exterminate the rat?" Evola can be heard asking Hale, who responds a short time later: "I'm going to fight within the law and, but, ... if you wish to, ah, do anything, yourself, you can."

The defense argued that Hale never asked anyone to kill the judge and that the FBI used Evola to draw him into a murder plot.