Jury trial for Homan pushed back to March

QUINCY — The jury trial of a Quincy man, charged with aggravated battery after an incident at the nightclub he owned, has been pushed back two months.

Steven Homan, who pled not guilty to the charge on May 12, appeared Tuesday morning in Adams County Circuit Court. When he last appeared in court on Sept. 7, his case had been set for the Jan. 10 jury docket. The case was continued on Tuesday to the March 7 jury docket, with a status hearing set for Feb. 15 and a pre-trial hearing set for Feb. 25.

Homan was charged April 14 after a Quincy Police Department investigation of an April 4 incident at the Barn nightclub, 711 S. Front. Jazzpher Evans, a former Quincy University student from Shorewood, Ill., alleges she was attacked by Homan.

A charging document filed in Adams County Circuit Court alleges Homan “knowingly made physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature” with Evans, and that Homan placed his arm around Evans’ neck and “drug her for 20 seconds.”

Homan turned himself into police on April 15. His bail was set at $25,000. He was released after posting $2,500. He has relinquished the license for the nightclub, which re-opened in July under the name “The Well”.

The Well’s license is in the name of Backroads Vending, which is owned by Homan’s sister, Carla Shank.

Evans, who was 19 at the time of the incident, told a Chicago television station she believes Homan attacked her because she is Black. She left Quincy University shortly after the incident and now is on the women’s basketball team at the University of Alaska-Anchorage.