Attorney for Stillman Valley man accused of killing ex-wife seeks more detail from prosecution expert

OREGON – An Ogle County judge will decide in June whether to grant a Stillman Valley man’s motion asking for more detail on what a state witness has to say about phone records that could be used at his trial.

Duane Meyer, 42, charged with killing his ex-wife in 2016, appeared in court May 2 as his attorney Christopher DeRango, of Rockford, told Judge John “Ben” Roe that an expert witness expected to testify against his client needs to provide more information to the defense before taking the stand.

Meyer is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated arson and one count of concealment of a homicidal death in connection with the Oct. 19, 2016, Byron house fire in which Margaret “Maggie” (Rosko) Meyer, 31, was found dead. The couple’s son, 3-year-old Amos Meyer, also was home at the time of the fire and later died. Charges against Duane Meyer were filed in October 2019.

DeRango filed a motion on April 16 seeking additional disclosure, including a written summary of testimony that he believes said prosecutors intend to use from FBI analyst Joseph Raschke, who analyzed cellphone data before the fire.

He told Roe that slides in PowerPoint presentations given to the defense are too general and need to be more specific. He argued that Raschke had not provided a written report on his findings.

“There are thousands of pages of discovery,” DeRango argued. “Some of the information is the same and some is different. It is impossible to know what the state’s expert is going to say about these slides. Because we don’t have a report we don’t know data the expert used. How am I to decipher how he reached these conclusions?”

Ogle County Assistant State’s Attorney Matthew Leisten argued that Raschke’s slides should be sufficient for the defense.

“Agent Raschke’s slides are his report,” said Leisten. “He is not required to provide some type of narrative for the defense.”

Leisten said Raschke will be testifying about Meyer’s cellphone data and how it relates to cell towers in the area. He said case law only mandates that prosecutors provide a “gist” of what an expert will testify to at trial.

“This is something he (Raschke) can be cross examined about,” said Leisten.

DeRango suggested original data that may have been used by Raschke could have been “altered or removed”.

“All I am asking is the court to tell us what materials this expert relied on,” said DeRango adding that he needed to know how Rashke reached his conclusions to make sure the data was interpreted correctly.

Leisten said no data was altered or removed. “There is no substantial showing that any evidence has been tampered with in any way,” countered Leisten.

DeRango said he was not suggesting that the state was hiding anything.

“All we have here is a PowerPoint slide, nothing here says what the terms mean,” DeRango said, likening some of the data being presented as “hieroglyphics” leaving the defense to “figure it out”.

DeRango said he just wants to know what Raschke used to reach his decision so the defense’s expert could evaluate the same data.

Roe said he would study case law and each side’s arguments and render his decision at 9 a.m. June 18.

In a September 2022 hearing, Leisten said Raschke was a member of the FBI’s cellular analyst support team and had “plotted the estimated locations” of Meyer’s cellphone using methods he had employed in hundreds of cases.

Such analytical evidence has been allowed in state and federal courts for well over a decade, and Raschke has testified multiple times as an expert in cell-site analysis, despite defense objections, Leisten told Roe at that hearing.

It would be “preposterous” for a court in Ogle County to disallow evidence and expert testimony that’s been ruled admissible over and over again in state and federal courts, Leisten said.

In September 2023, DeRango petitioned prosecutors for any data obtained by electronic service providers, internet service providers, mobile phone carriers and digital investigation platforms.

After receiving that information, DeRango requested and received a continuance, telling Roe that he needed more time for his expert to review the reports and data provided by prosecutors.

Leisten said the state had provided the defense with “major forensic copies,” including phone records and text messages.

In January 2023, DeRango entered 21 motions in limine and asked that they be sealed before debate in open court.

The purpose of a motion in limine, Latin for “on the threshold,” is to determine whether certain evidence may be presented to the jury.

Motions in limine commonly are entered and argued before a trial begins, allowing evidentiary questions to be decided by the judge. The motions are made by attorneys when seeking to exclude certain evidence from being presented to a jury.

Some of the motions pertain to crime scene photos, autopsy photos, internet searches, cellphone photos, text messages between Meyer and others, surveillance videos of vehicles and comments made to police officers during the investigation.

Some motions filed in the case have been ordered to be sealed and cannot be viewed by the public.

Prosecutors have argued that the evidence is relevant and, based on case law, should be allowed, adding that “the jury can weigh the evidence.”

At a hearing in December 2023, DeRango argued that because of the “cyberdata age,” there were hundreds of “antiquated file formats” that the defense team was trying to review.

Maggie Meyer was a teacher at the Chana Education Center at the time of her death. She filed for divorce in 2014, and court records show that the divorce was finalized in September 2016.

Murder charges were filed against Duane Meyer in October 2019. In November 2022, Roe ruled that Duane Meyer’s cellphone records would be allowed as evidence at the trial.

Duane Meyer remains at the Ogle County Correctional Center on a $10 million bond. A trial date has not yet been set.