Courts Catered to Venkatesh Bhogireddy While He Escalated

His child custody position improved even as his violence increased.

Venkatesh Bhogireddy

From 2018 until the present, a man convicted of trying to hire his ex-wife’s uncle has continued to successfully use the family court system to continue to stay in his children’s lives.

Venkatesh Bhogireddy was charged in October 2019 with attempting to hire a hitman to kill his ex-wife’s uncle.

In one of the strangest Will County civil forfeiture cases in weeks, a 42-year Chicago man is accused of paying someone to knock off his estranged wife's uncle in New Jersey. The uncle was to be pushed in front of a subway train to make his death look like an accident, a forfeiture complaint filed this week at the Will County Courthouse states.

Instead, the plan was foiled, and Venkatesh Bhogireddy has landed in federal custody facing a six-count indictment accusing him of orchestrating a murder-for-hire scheme crossing state lines.

This week, the Will County State's Attorney Office of Jim Glasgow determined the brown 2008 Infinity FX35 belonging to Bhogireddy should be a forfeited police asset; the defendant used his car with the intention of committing murder, the forfeiture complaint reads.

He was convicted of this crime in federal court in May 2021, but that is only the beginning of his alleged criminal activity.

In 2018, he was arrested by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) for violating a protective order: that was one of four police reports filed against him in 2018. Below is part of one police report.

As I wrote earlier, the violation of a protective order charge quietly went away while the rest of the alleged crimes were never charged.

In July 2019, shortly after his violation of a protective order was dropped, he subsequently secured an order giving him more child custody time.

1. Venkatesh shall have parenting time effective upon entry of this Order, every Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. For the first two (2) weeks, the supervisor/nanny shall continue to be present at all times and to follow the directions provided in the Affidavit previously herein. Thereafter, said supervisor/nanny shall only need to be present at the transitions of the children between the parties.

2. Venkatesh shall be primarily responsible for the children's care during all of his parenting time.

3. Both- parties shall immediately engage in individual therapy as the therapist directs. Both therapists shall receive a copy of the evaluation prepared by Dr. Kerry Smith. Both parties shall execute releases allowing Lynn Wypych to speak with their therapist.

The order also required Usha Karri, his ex-wife, to send their children to a different school, one approximately five miles from where she lived but very close to where Venkatesh was living. Usha described the chain of events like this in an email.

On July 17, 2019, there was a Pre-trial conference with the Judge Debra Walker. Before the meeting was over, my attorney Janet Boyle asked me to go home and told me that she would give an update on the meeting next day. In my absence, my attorneys Janet, along with Venkatesh and his mother Leela, the GAL Lynn Wypych, Venkatesh's attorney Jami Buzinski and the Judge discussed and came up with a proposed fraudulent 'Agreed Order' to obstruct me from filing the 'Response' to the above motion. In that proposed Agreed Order, they included an item to change the Pre-K school of my 4 years old son to a private school (St. John EV Lutheran School) close to Venkatesh's home and 5.2 miles away from my apartment. My attorney's sent me the proposed order on July 18, 2019.

As I understood the fraud, I did not agree for the above proposed 'Agreed Order' and I insisted my attorneys to file my Response in the Court. For that, they threatened me that they would withdraw from my case. I did not stop them and they withdrew from my case.

On July 25, 2019, through an emergency court hearing (as I could not attend it), my attorneys, Venkatesh's attorney, GAL and Judge Walker converted the above proposed 'Agreed Order' into a 'Court Order' fraudulently. During that fraud and crime, Judge Debra Walker missed to sign the court order.

I reached out to Janet Boyle (Usha’s attorney at the time), Ms. Buzinski, and to the guardian ad litem, Lynn Wypych, but I received no response.

The judge, Debra Walker, entered an order against Usha in September 2019, when Usha failed to send her children to this new school.

“A rule is entered against Usha Karri and made returnable on 9/13/19 at 10AM for her to show cause if any she can why she should not be held in contempt of court to abide by this court’s order of July 25, 2019,” Judge Walker wrote in September 2019.

Usha noted in an email, “During the Court hearing, Judge Walker threatened me that she would send me to Jail if I did not follow the July 25, 2019, court order.”

I reached out to Mary Wisniewski, the Cook County Circuit Court’s communications director, for comment but received no response.

In October 2019, he was charged federally. He was soon released pending a series of conditions mandated by the federal judge.

Still, Venkatesh was able to continue to manipulate the child custody arrangement. In March 2020, an “allocation of judgment” was filed, another court document which attempted to get Venkatesh more child custody time.

By this point, details of his arrest had been released. Not only did Venkatesh try to hire a hitman to kill his ex-wife’s uncle but he had told an undercover agent that he would also like to have his ex-wife killed, when the time was right. Below is part of an affidavit filed to go along with the arrest. (Individual A is Usha)

The “allocation of judgment” paid little attention to the pending charges while ordering both parents to be a significant part of their children’s lives.

It is the intention of both parties that this Allocation Judgment set forth a workable arrangement for co-parenting which respects the jurisdictional boundaries of each parent and each parent’s respective household.

The parties agree and acknowledge that both parents should have an active and continuing influence in their children’s lives.

Usha told me she did not agree.

She {Wypych} asked me to sign it. Signing it means, I agree that there was no crime or abuse and Court does not have to conduct a Trial (evidentiary hearing) to find facts and verify evidence to allocate the parenting time. Once, I agree for it, Venkatesh can come back and fabricate allegations against me and take the children away from me.

As I understood the fraud, via an email to GAL, I refused to sign it.

That order continues.

USHA and VENKATESH shall share parenting responsibilities for their children subject to the specific terms, conditions, interpretations and definitions set forth in this Allocation Judgment and Parenting Plan.

B. Responsibility for Routine Daily Decisions – USHA and VENKATESH agree that each parent shall have principal authority and responsibility for daily and ordinary supervision and care when the children are with that parent.

…

Our Family Wizard shall be the exclusive method of communication between the parties as it relates solely to the children, except in the case of an emergency. Each parent shall maintain their Our Family Wizard account until further Order of Court or emancipation of the children, whichever occurs first. The parties shall grant professional access to VENKATESH’S probation/parole officer so that he/she may monitor all communications between the parties. In addition, each party shall give the other party one (1) telephone number (preferably a cellular number) at which he or she can be reached, and/or at which number a message or text can be left;

When Usha failed to sign that order, Buzinski, Venkatesh’s attorney, filed an emergency motion, demanding more child custody time.

NOW COMES the Petitioner, VENKATESH BOGHIREDDY (hereinafter referred to as “VENKATESH”), by and through his attorney, JAMI M. BUZINSKI of DAVIS FRIEDMAN, LLP, and pursuant to Sections 602, 603.5 and 603.10 of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (750 ILCS 5/602 and 5/602 (West 2018)), respectfully requests this Honorable Court to immediately allocate parenting time and set a temporary parenting schedule in accordance with the prior recommendations of this Court, and in support thereof,

That emergency motion turned into an order and Venkatesh’s custody time increased, though it remained supervised.

Lasy year, I did a story about Liz Weinstein. She had been kicked out of her home, left with little money, and barred from seeing her children. Her story is from Westchester County, New York and it recently had an update picked up by the local media.

That story was titled, “Investigators release new details, accuse mom of violating restraining order by saying ‘I love you’ to kids.”

My interview with Liz’s ex-husband is below.

Sandra “Sam” Grazzini-Rucki has not seen any of her five children since 2013, even though her ex-husband, David Rucki, had a long rap sheet and was accused by his son of pointing a gun at his head when his son was eight years old.

Meanwhile, Wayne Dolcefino recently took on a Maryland case in which Jeff Reichert, an attorney, has not seen his son since January 2022.

“I don’t know where he is,” Jeff Reichert said in the video, “I don’t know if he’s safe. I don’t know how scared he is.”

In the video, Wayne noted, “Jeff Reichert is being given the same rights as a convicted murderer in Maryland.”

In fact, right now, Reichert has less rights than did Venkatesh in 2020, after Venkatesh was charged in the murder for hire plot.

These four cases are just a microcosm of how all so often there is no rhyme or reason to any of these decisions.

Reichert, Grazzini-Rucki, and Weinstein had no criminal record (Liz does now) when their divorces started. No one argued, when their divorces started, that they were unfit.

Yet, each of them has less parental time than did Venkatesh after he was charged with murder for hire.

Even more shockingly, the court has continued to cater to Venkatesh even after he was convicted and faces a lengthy prison sentence.

As I released earlier, the guardian ad litem- earlier in 2022- has suggested that she would be in favor of regular custody time, virtually and with a supervisor, for Venkatesh while he’s in prison. Here is part of an email Wypych sent earlier this year.

I also reached out to Dr. Stephanie Bonza, who will be doing this evaluation, but she did not respond to my email.

The lobbying for Venkatesh in family court continues into the present. Here is part of a motion from July 2022.

NOW COMES the Guardian ad Litem, Lynn Wypych, and in support of her Motion to Set Trial Dates, respectfully states as follows:

1. That Petitioner, VENKATESH BHOGIREDDY, (“VENKATESH”), filed a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage on or about August 8, 2018, which presently remains pending and undetermined.

2. That on or about August 30, 2018, Respondent, USHA S. KARRI, (“USHA”) filed her Appearance and on August 31, 2018, USHA, filed her Response to Petition for Dissolution of Marriage.

3. That on or about March 3, 2022, this matter was assigned to the Honorable Judge Diana Rosario for Trial. However, no Order was entered with assigned Trial dates and the parties have been unable to settle this matter.

4. That this Honorable Court should set Trial dates in order to resolve this matter.

Ms. Wypych seems to think that the parties will hold a trial to determine custody even though Venkatesh is in federal prison, awaiting sentencing.

The motion is even more head scratching.

I have recently received the sentencing recommendations from the prosecutors and from Venkatesh’s attorneys.

The prosecution will ask for 210 months while the defense will ask for 90 months.

That means even if the court takes to low end, Venkatesh will spend a total of seven and a half years in prison; he’s been in prison since his conviction in May 2021.

What sort of custody arrangement does the court think there should be when one of the two parties is in federal prison?

Venkatesh has tried to have his wife’s uncle killed and expressed a desire to his ex-wife; wouldn’t that be enough evidence to limit his custody time to zero?

The court cut off all custody time for Jeff Reichert, Liz Weinstein and Sandra Grazzini-Rucki- almost on a whim- and they’ve done nothing wrong, while Venkatesh Bhogireddy is sitting in federal prison convicted of trying to kill his ex-wife’s uncle and the court will hold a trial to determine custody.

Post Script:

Please check out the new fundraiser for more Cook County stories here.

The previous article in the series is here.