Charges may be dropped in Melissa Lech hit-and-run case

JOLIET – Prosecutors are expected Thursday to drop charges against a man who at one time confessed to the hit-and-run incident that killed Melissa Lech, according to the mother of the victim.

David H. McCarthy, 30, was scheduled to stand trial later this month on charges of failing to report an accident in Lech's 2008 death. But prosecutors on Wednesday filed a motion for an earlier hearing date, according to court records. McCarthy is now scheduled to appear in court Thursday.

Will County State's Attorney spokesman Charles Pelkie declined to confirm prosecutors told Melissa's mother on Wednesday they were dropping the charges. Maria Lech said she was told the case "cannot be proved beyond a reasonable doubt."

"I'm devastated," Maria Lech said.

The case went unsolved for nearly four years before McCarthy made what now may be labeled a "false confession."

Records show a psychiatric report by Dr. Randi Zoot was submitted to the court on Monday. Zoot regularly evaluates whether someone is fit to stand trial.

Although the contents of psychiatric reports are sealed, three independent sources with knowledge of the case said Zoot agrees with the defense psychiatrist that McCarthy gave a false confession to the crime.

"I was told whatever the private psychiatrist wrote [for the defense], the court psychiatrist agreed with," Maria Lech said.

Melissa Lech, 20, was found bleeding on the road in front of the Illinois Youth Center Correctional Facility in the early morning hours of Aug. 7, 2008.

On Feb. 26, 2012, McCarthy reportedly knocked on the door of Michelle Lech, Melissa’s older sister, to tell her that he thought about what happened every time the case was mentioned in the news. Michelle Lech gave McCarthy’s license plate number to Joliet police and he was arrested later that day.

Lech, a graduate of Plainfield South High School, was about to return for her junior year at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she was studying political science. She had worked at the Abercrombie & Fitch and Coach stores in Oakbrook Terrace, and was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority.