Federal judge finds husband, mother dead in basement

CHICAGO -- A federal judge who was once the target of a failed murder plot by a white supremacist was under marshals' protection Tuesday after the shooting deaths of her husband and 89-year-old mother, and investigators were looking into possible connections to hate groups, among other leads.\nU.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow found the bodies of Michael F. Lefkow, 65, and her mother, Donna Humphrey, when she returned home from work Monday evening, according to authorities and friends.\nWhite supremacist Matthew Hale, 33, who was convicted in April 2004 of soliciting an undercover FBI informant to kill Judge Lefkow, is awaiting sentencing on charges of murder solicitation and obstruction of justice.\nAuthorities acknowledged the possibility that hate groups could be involved in the killings but cautioned against early conclusions.\n"There is much speculation about possible links between this crime and the possible involvement of hate groups. This is but one facet of our investigation," James Molloy, Chicago's chief of detectives, said at a news conference.\n"We are looking in every direction and will follow the evidence wherever it takes us," he said.\nDetectives also were searching for clues in other cases over which Lefkow has presided.\nHale gained notoriety in 1999 when a follower, Benjamin Smith, went on a shooting rampage in Illinois and Indiana. Targeting minorities, Smith, a former IU student, killed two people and wounded nine others before killing himself as police closed in.\nAmong the dead was IU student Won-Joon Yoon, who was shot and killed July 4, 1999 in front of the Korean United Methodist Church.\nThe bodies of the judge's husband and mother were in the basement of the home in a prosperous North Side neighborhood with gunshot wounds to the head, according to a federal source who spoke on condition of anonymity.\nNo weapon was recovered, but police found two .22-caliber casings, said another source close to the investigation. That source also said police found a broken window at the house.\nLefkow, 61, and her surviving family were placed under the protection of the U.S. Marshals Service, said Charles P. Kocoras, the chief federal judge for the Northern District of Illinois.\n"All of us are horrified by the murder of Judge Lefkow's husband and mother. Nothing can prepare us for such a stunning, tragic event," Kocoras said in a statement.\nLefkow received police protection after Hale was arrested in January 2003. Prosecutors alleged that Hale was angry because Lefkow, presiding over a copyright infringement suit, ruled he could no longer use the name World Church of the Creator for his group because another organization held a copyright on that name.\nThe protection detail was discontinued after Hale's conviction, said Shannon Metzger, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Marshals Service. That protection would have been continued if Lefkow had wanted it, Metzger stressed.\nNo other judges in the district were placed under special protection after Monday's killings, Metzger said.\nHale's father, retired East Peoria policeman Russell Hale, offered condolences to Lefkow's family, but he said his son could not have been involved in the deaths because he is under constant surveillance in jail. \n"There would be no way he could order anything. It's ridiculous," Russell Hale told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. \nHe maintains that his son was wrongfully convicted.\nLefkow served as a federal magistrate and a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge before President Clinton nominated her for the District Court bench in 2000.\nFriends described the Lefkows as a model family. They had four daughters plus a fifth from his previous marriage. \n"This is someone who adored his daughters," Nan Sullivan said. "They were the kind of family everyone aspires to be, very close-knit, very supportive."\nLong-time friends Thomas and Phyllis Robb said neither of the Lefkows ever expressed any concern about their safety, even after Hale's arrest.\n"They were in our home many times before we realized we had the FBI outside," said Thomas Robb. "They are just not people who let their fears contain them." \nBut he said the victims were "very vulnerable" because the mother needed two canes to walk, and the husband had used crutches since surgery last week to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon.