79
AP
In this undated booking photo released by Walworth County Sheriff's Office
ELKHORN, Wis. >> A former police officer suspected in the deaths of two women pleaded not guilty Thursday to trying to hide their bodies in suitcases dumped along a rural road, while the man’s attorney said he expected more charges to come first in a neighboring Wisconsin county.
The plea was entered for Steven Zelich, 52, during a brief hearing in Walworth County, where highway workers cutting grass found the suitcases on June 5. He appeared by video from the county Jail.
Zelich’s attorney, Travis Schwantes, has said the charges might not hold up because prosecutors need to show the former West Allis officer was trying to conceal a crime. Zelich claims he killed the two women accidentally during sexual encounters that involved bondage, a detective has testified.
Walworth County District Attorney Daniel Necci questioned Schwantes’ interpretation of the law on Thursday but did not go into details, saying “that’s an argument we can have down the road.”
Schwantes said later that it would be hard for Necci to prove Zelich meant to kill the women since Zelich was the only person alive who knew what happened in the hotel rooms in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, and Rochester, Minnesota. He also said Zelich had other bondage sessions with other women that did not end in death.
“I think it will become clear, without a doubt, that he interacted, dated, had relationships with more than just the two women in this case,” Schwantes said. He declined to go into detail but said Zelich had multiple relationships in person and online, some of which involved bondage and some of which didn’t.
Zelich told investigators he killed the women he met online by accident during bondage sex, packed their bodies in suitcases and hid them for months in his home and car until they began to smell, Walworth County Sheriff’s Detective Jeffrey Recknagel testified previously.
Both Schwantes and Necci have said they expect additional charges to be filed in the counties where Jenny Gamez, a 19-year-old college student from Cottage Grove, Oregon, and 37-year-old Laura Simonson, of Farmington, Minnesota, died.
Schwantes said he expects charges to come first in Kenosha County, where Zelich told investigators he killed Gamez in 2012. A prosecutor in that county did not respond Thursday to an inquiry from The Associated Press on the status of the case.
Zelich also has a public defender in Olmsted County, Minnesota, where Simonson died in November at a Rochester hotel.
Chief Deputy Olmsted County Attorney Jim Martinson said no charges were imminent as he was still waiting for police reports and would need time to examine the case file once he received it. Schwantes said Zelich asked for and was assigned a public defender there.
Zelich had resigned from the West Allis Police Department in August 2001 after an internal investigation determined he stalked women while on duty and had used his position to get personal information, including their home phone numbers. Records released by the department showed several women told investigators they feared for their safety or that of their children.
The resignation allowed Zelich to avoid charges being filed with the city’s Police and Fire Commission and later pass criminal background checks and obtain a private security license from the state. He was working as a security officer when he was arrested June 25.
Schwantes said Thursday he had just received those records along with others piled 3 feet high. He noted that the investigation was 13 years ago and no criminal charges, civil lawsuit or restraining orders were filed as a result.
“I don’t mean to minimize anything in those records,” he added, “other than to say there were glimpses of Mr. Zelich’s view in those records.”
___
Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
