A judge rejected a motion from the Will County state’s attorney to have an 82-year-old man charged with a 1988 murder move back to Michigan while awaiting trial.

On Thursday, Will County Judge Art Smigielski said he found no facts to support State’s Attorney James Glasgow’s motion to have Gilbert Bernal move farther away from him as he faces a charge of the 1988 first-degree murder of his wife, Joan Bernal, 34.

“I just don’t see a specific, articulable fact of a threat,” Smigielski said.

Smigielski said if he were to grant the motion, he wondered why he wouldn’t have to do so for other prosecutors on the Bernal case as well.

Smigielski said Glasgow has other prosecutors working for him who prosecute cases involving gang members and drug dealers.

After Thursday’s hearing, John Fotopoulos, one of Bernal’s attorneys, said it was a “ridiculous motion brought by a coward,” in reference to Glasgow.

Glasgow was not in court on Thursday to make his case as to why Bernal should move farther away from him while on pretrial release.

Instead, it was Peter Wilkes, Glasgow’s criminal division chief, who delivered the arguments.

For almost a decade, Glasgow has rarely been seen at the Will County Courthouse. He was not seen by Shaw Local during the 2025 murder trial of the late Joseph Czuba, 73, the most high-profile case in recent county history.

Bernal was charged with his wife’s murder in 1993, only for Glasgow to drop the case a year later because witnesses claimed to have seen her alive.

The case was indicted for a second time last December, just a few months after the airing of an episode about the case on a TV show called “Cold Justice.”

Smigielski had granted Bernal’s pretrial release on Feb. 10 over the objections of prosecutors. One of the issues raised by prosecutors was the difficulty in keeping tabs on Bernal if he were allowed to reside in Michigan.

But during Thursday’s hearing, Wilkes said it was recommended that Bernal return to Michigan because he is residing in a location where he could reach Glasgow’s residence in about five minutes.

Wilkes said the “concern for safety” is a “real fact” that has to be dealt with.

Wilkes said there was a family member of Bernal in Michigan who did not want him to be in the state. Wilkes argued there was a flaw in the SAFE-T Act, as it puts the wishes of Glasgow and that family member at odds.

One of Bernal’s attorneys, Dave Carlson, said he agreed with allowing his client to reside in Michigan, but he said Glasgow’s office did not provide a single fact proving Bernal posed a “perceived intimidation” or threat to Glasgow.

Carlson said he also “took offense” to Glasgow’s motion. He alluded to the dangers he’s faced when he was a judge sentencing dangerous criminals to lengthy prison sentences.

“I do take umbrage with this,” Carlson said.