JOLIET (IL)
The Herald News
By Joe Hosey
staff writer
JOLIET — Bishop Joseph Imesch appeared before a grand jury Wednesday, taking a back stairway up to the secret session in a third-floor courtroom, a law enforcement source said.
Imesch, the top man for the Diocese of Joliet, also took an alternate route into the courthouse, sources said.
The bishop entered through a basement sally port instead of using the public entrance.
Asked why the bishop was afforded special treatment on his trip to the courthouse, Pat Barry, spokesman for the sheriff's department, said late Wednesday that he had not been notified of Imesch's afternoon appearance.
Imesch followed a local Catholic priest, the Rev. Richard Smith, into the grand jury. Two other priests waited in the hallway outside the grand jury room.