Crime & Safety

Cop's Domestic Battery Trial Starts With Testimony From Mokena Girlfriend's Pals

Two friends of a Mokena woman allegedly beaten by her Frankfort cop boyfriend testified on the first day of his trial.

Either Donald Walsh viciously beat his girlfriend in front of her young daughter when she wouldn't let him see her text messages or he merely defended himself from a violent woman with a "history of uncontrolled and jealous rages."

Those were the alternate scenarios presented by prosecutor Dave Neal and defense attorney Steven Haney during the start of Walsh's trial Monday afternoon.

Walsh, 30, faced domestic battery, aggravated battery and residential burglary charges in connection with the 3 a.m. July 25 incident at his girlfriend's Mokena home, but Neal dropped the burglary just before the trial started.

In his opening statement, Neal said Walsh showed up at the bedside of his girlfriend, Jillian Fredericks, after he had been out drinking. Fredericks woke to Walsh holding her cell phone and demanding the pass code, Neal said, and when she refused to give it up he threatened her, then butted her with his head, punched her in the face and in the back of the head, and choked her.

When Fredericks' 9-year-old daughter looked in the bedroom and pleaded with Walsh to stop beating her mother, Walsh shouted, "Get that kid out of the room," Neal said.

Walsh then pulled his gun, as he was "armed all the time, even when drinking," Neal said, threatened Fredericks and claimed he was going to kill himself.

But Haney said Walsh was actually the victim. After Walsh climbed into bed with Fredericks, she began questioning him about another woman, he said. She then clawed his face and started "uncontrollably screaming at him."

Walsh's mug shot from the Will County jail shows he has a scratch on his face.

Walsh was straddling Fredericks in an effort to "stop her onslaught" when the daughter walked in the room, Haney said, and the 9-year-old called 911 "unbeknownst to Ms. Fredericks."

"It's that 911 call that created ... a horrible situation for her. Because now with police involvement, she's now risking" losing custody of her two children, Haney said.

"Ms. Fredericks was in the middle of a heated, contested divorce battle," Haney explained. He said the divorce focused on two points of contention: "Money, and lots of it," and Fredericks' children.

Haney said a court order was entered in the divorce case forbidding Fredericks from letting Walsh around her son and daughter.

"Ms. Fredericks allowed Don to come to her home even though the children were present and even though it was in direct violation of a court order," Haney said.

Then, with the police on the way and Walsh in her home with the children around, Haney said, Fredericks "has only one way out," and that was to accuse Walsh of slipping in and attacking her.

Frederick's next-door neighbor, Amelia Miller, and a friend, Megan Young, testified on the trial's first day. Both told of observing injuries on Fredericks' head. Young said Fredericks' had a black eye and swollen cheeks.

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