SALINE CO.—A search for a stolen vehicle landed lawmen in a scuffle with one of two suspects going to jail.

According to information filed in the case, on Tuesday, April 2 at 10:17 p.m. a telephone call came in to dispatch from Tyler Mayberry reporting his truck had been stolen in the past 15 minutes from in front of his home located at 1312 Lincoln St., Eldorado.

Eldorado officers Jack Johnson and Joel A. Stanley arrived on scene.

As Johnson began taking the initial report Stanley began searching the area for the vehicle.

Minutes later police chief Shannon Deuel reported he had found the truck and that it had been crashed into the front end of a parked pickup truck.

Officer James Williams was contacted to process the crash scene for fingerprints.

As Johnson began taking information from the second, Stanley began canvassing the area for witnesses to the crash.

As Stanley turned northbound on State Street he spotted Caleb L. Rinehart, 22, of Rural Rte. 1, Box 101, Cave-In-Rock, wearing a black hooded jacket carrying a black backpack and walking out from behind a residence.

As Stanley approached, Rinehart lowered his face and tossed the backpack on the ground away from him.

With the stolen vehicle recovered in the vicinity, Stanley decided to attempt to speak with Rinehart.

As Stanley got out of his cruiser, Rinehart immediately started yelling and cussing.

Stanley could smell alcohol.

He told Rinehart that he wasn’t in any trouble and that he was free to go and asked if could talk to him.

“Yeah! My name is Caleb Rinehart,” he said. “Go ahead and f^&king search me!”

Stanley told Rinehart he didn’t have to yell and that was when he started spelling his last name and yelling, “Go ahead and search my bag! There’s only clothes and a toothbrush in there!”

Rinehart was told again there was no need to be yelling.

When Stanley asked him if he had any identification on him Rinehart continued cussing and gave the officer his date of birth.

That was about the time officer Stanley noticed a female step out of the alley behind the residence where Rinehart had come from.

Rinehart took several steps toward Stanley and then turned and went back behind the house.

Chief Deuel arrived on scene and Stanley told him about the female so he went to talk to the female.

At that time Devin R. Durham, 17, showed up, approached officer Stanley and started cussing and yelling, “He didn’t do it, I did!”

When asked what he was talking about the teen said, “Whatever you think he did.”

Durham also smelled of alcohol.

Stanley told Durham that Rinehart was not in trouble and that he needed to stop yelling.

Durham kept yelling and cussing and both Stanley and Deuel told him he needed to stop yelling and to leave.

“No!” Durham said. “He ain’t done nothing wrong!”

After telling the teen several more times to stop yelling and with Durham refusing to do so, Deuel began walking toward Durham when Rinehart came from behind and grabbed Deuel and pulled him back.

And that’s about the time Deuel informed Mr. Rinehart he was under arrest and that’s when Rinehart pulled away and had to be physically restrained.

Durham, yelling and cussing, was trying to get at Deuel.

The teen had to be physically restrained on the ground.

With the assistance of state troopers Justin Mitchell and Brett Lane and Saline County Deputy Craig Williams, both Durham and Rinehart were placed in squad cars.

Durham was later turned over to his mother and Rinehart was booked on charges of Aggravated Battery and Resisting a Peace Officer.

There was no word on who stole Mr. Mayberry’s truck.

A $1,500 cash bond has been set in the case.

SALINE CO.—An alleged, daring, daylight armed robbery caught the attention of law enforcement and citizens all across several counties on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 3, when word of the incident was broadcast across scanner traffic.

That scanner traffic revealed that on April 3 at 2:52 p.m., Saline County dispatch received a call from Jermaine Lee, who advised that he had just been robbed at gunpoint at 4445 Muddy Rd., Apt. 2D.

Lee said that three black men, driving a black Pontiac passenger car with tinted windows, had fled and were headed in the direction of Harrisburg on Rte. 13.

Chief Deputy Ken Clore located the vehicle on old Rte. 13 at the Highway 34 bypass.

Sheriff Keith Brown, in a rare display of energy, happened to be in the area and attempted a vehicle stop but failed, only managing to initiate a high-speed chase, which reached speeds in excess of 100 mph.

That was about the time lawmen lost sight of the vehicle on old Rte. 13 near Carrier Mills Road and terminated the pursuit.

The Pontiac was spotted a short time later westbound on new Rte. 13 in Williamson County by a Secretary of State Police officer, who accomplished what the not-so-good sheriff Brown could not and that was a traffic stop on the east side of Marion, just west of the FS station on Ill. Rte 13.

Three black males were taken into custody and identified as Kashmere Ahmed Barners, Collin Joseph Crim and Paul Eugene Marshall Jr., each of them 19 years of age.

With sheriff Brown tucked safely back under whatever rock he spends most of his days, the trio was quickly transported back to Saline County.

When interviewed, Lee told officers that Barners, Crim and Marshall were at his apartment and that Marshall showed a handgun tucked in the waistband of the pants he was wearing.

Lee said Marshall pulled his gun and Crim pulled a gun out of his pocket and handed it to Marshall.

With a gun in each hand, Lee said Marshall pointed them at him, at the ground and back at him about three times while demanding money.

Lee said he gave $960 to Barners and the three left in the Pontiac.

Both Marshall and Crim admitted displaying handguns during the robbery.

Lee picked both men out of a photo line-up as the ones who robbed him.

It is unclear if there was a positive ID by Lee of Barners.

Collin Joseph Crim, of 323 East Washington St., Harrisburg, Kash Barners, of 811 South Main, St., Harrisburg and Paul Eugene Marshall, of 120 East Walnut St., Carrier Mills were all formally charged with Armed Robbery with a Firearm.

Marshall has an outstanding case wherein he was charged in 2010 with two counts of Forgery, one count of Obstruction of Justice, Driving Revoked, Unlawful Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, DUI Drugs, Unlawful Possession of Cannabis and Following too Close.

In February 2012 he was convicted of Burglary and sentenced to 30 months probation (which his latest arrest screws up) and ordered to pay $3,844.50 in fines, fees and restitution, of which he still owes $2,649.50

On his affidavit or assets and liabilities, the unemployed Kashmere Ahmed Barners put down “yea” for marital status and a 499 prefix phone number under number of dependents.

The unemployed Marshall also faces a single count of Unlawful Possession of Weapons by a Felon.

The equally-jobless Crim (no pun intended), along with his alleged partners in crime, are being held on $25,000 cash bond each.

One witness to the trio’s recent first reading of their charges in a courtroom said to a man they all looked like they were ready to pee their pants when the judge informed them they could spend up to 20+ years in prison for the alleged crime. Thus far, there’s not been an explanation put forth as to how—or even if—the trio knew Lee had such a sum of money on him; how they knew he would be at that location with the sum of money, or how they even conceived of the idea in the first place. Without a jury trial or short of that, a plea with stipulation, the public may never learn it.

SALINE CO.—An accused sex offender from Eldorado has had bond posted for him and he is free pending a next hearing.

And residents of Eldorado who are aware of James B. Roberts, now 70, and the charges against him are expressing concern for the situation, especially in light of where Roberts resides: not far from a church, in one direction, and school (both grade school and high school) in another.

The situation with Roberts emerged in Eldorado when a 7-year-old boy came to one of his parents on Sunday, March 17, stating he had “had enough” of the elderly man and what he was doing to him.

The boy, who was later termed the first victim, advised members of his family that Roberts, who was friendly to the parents and had always been like a grandfather to the kids, had been “doing things” to him and to his little sister, age 6, beginning back in October 2012 and continuing up to that very day.

Describes abuse to ISP investigator

The family called Illinois State Police immediately, and their response was to send special agent Rick White. In White’s report, he indicated the kind of abuse the little boy was alleging against Roberts:

“(The children, whose names are redacted in the report) disclosed that James Roberts had been touching their privates. (The children) were interviewed at the Guardian Center on March 18, 2013. (The boy) described James fondling his penis on several occasions, and (the girl) described James inserting a glow stick into her vagina and forcing her to masturbate him to ejaculation. James was interviewed at his residence and admitted to fondling (the boy’s) penis on three or four occasions. James also confessed to inserting a tampon applicator into (the girl’s) vagina.”

Roberts was then taken in on preliminary charges of Predatory Criminal Sexual Assault and Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse, two counts each.

Bail was set at $150,000 ($15,000 cash).

The ‘grandfatherly type’

Roberts sat jailed at the Saline County Detention Center until one Alice R. Roberts was able to post the ten percent and spring him on March 20.

By this time, the public was learning about the case and many were stepping forward to tell what they knew about Roberts: That he had for many years worked as a truck driver, and his job took him to several states across the country. He had contacts in those states, and family in one in particular: Georgia, where, in Warner Robbins, his daughter Tina, apparently not aware of Disclosure, was virulently hateful toward the truthful reports as they were outlined in court documents and according to what people who’d known Roberts for years were bringing out.

One of the things that prompted much concern on the part of locals was the elderly man’s recent behavior. Roberts, said many who knew him, portrayed himself as a “grandfatherly type who endeared himself to people and got close to their children.” One of the ways he did this was to attend their weekend events, such as a gymnastics group that traveled.

One Saline County resident told Disclosure that her family had observed Roberts in faraway Edwardsville, Illinois, at a gymnastics meet in early February and with a camera with a very long lens.

“We thought it was odd considering they allow no flash photography,” the source advised. When her husband asked Roberts what he was doing there, Roberts answered that he was “watching his grandchildren.”

“Knowing the circumstances now,” the source said, “it is scary since there were hundreds of children there ages 5 to 18.”

The source then advised that there was another gymnastics meet on March 2, in Pana, Ill., where Roberts was present, ostensibly “watching” another little girl, this according to the company he was keeping at that meet.

Second set of charges

Shortly after Roberts was bailed out on the first set of charges, however, the ongoing investigation brought about yet another set—and a third alleged victim.

This time, the allegations were that between June 1, 2012 and March 17, 2013, Roberts had fondled and squeezed the buttocks of a 10-year-old female for the purpose of sexual arousal, as well as showed her a magazine the “depicted nudity and which taken as a whole was harmful to minors.”

Roberts was charged with two Class 2 felony counts of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse of a victim under the age of 13, and a Class A misdemeanor county of Distributing Explicit Material to a Minor, this filed on March 27.

He was arrested that same day and the bail recommendation by Assistant State’s Attorney Eva Walker was now a half-million, or $25,000 bond.

However, when Alice Roberts showed up to bond him out on March 28, the bonding sheet shows he was released on $2,500 cash.

A next court hearing was set in the case for April 15 and Roberts went on his way.

Nervous neighbors

The developments are what have those in the vicinity of his Indiana Street home in Eldorado nervous and aggravated.

Despite having explicit terms of his release spelled out as that he’s to have no contact, via any form, with any of the victims or their families, those who know him wonder just how many victims there may end up being, and how many will come forward.

Under guarantee of anonymity, many of Roberts’ family members—who live in the area but who won’t have anything to do with him, thus aiding him in his “poor, elderly grandfather figure” persona—spoke with Disclosure about how “weird” they’d known Roberts to be, throughout their entire lives.

One woman advised that one of Roberts’ ex-wives had a son (by a previous marriage) who himself had spent time in DOC for the same thing. Danny Wilson, now 50, had been charged with multiple child sex offenses in 1994 and had gone to prison for it.

Another family member advised that Roberts had been “touchy-feely” with his own daughter-in-law when his own son had begun dating her in high school, and that she reported he’d “been like that around everyone…and he was weird around children.” The source didn’t elaborate any further on that.

It remained unclear as of press time what kind of motion was set for the April 15 hearing (also on press deadline); check the online version of Disclosure for any developments in the case as it proceeds at www.disclosurenewsonline.com

Ray Vaughn, above, mayor-
elect of Olney, was but
one of the candidates that defeated incumbent mayors in southeastern Illinois.

SO. ILL.—The regional voter turnout had a wide range depending upon the number of offices up for grabs, this for the April 9, 2013 consolidated election.

Municipal and township races, as well as a handful of ballot questions, were the biggest draw for this go-round, but sadly, not big enough: an overall average of Disclosure’s main counties of coverage had a deplorable voter turnout. In the 13 downstate/south counties Disclosure regularly covers, most of it in the Second Judicial Circuit, the average among the 13 was 30.21 percent turnout. This featured a high of 47.95 percent in Gallatin County (where turnout is typically high) to what’s being called a “historic low” in Wabash County of 6.8 percent (where turnout is typically one of the lowest in the region)…meaning the nation’s apathy toward doing something about the political climate, one that begins with the reluctance to serve/run for office, might be fairly said to end at the ballot box when “there’s no one to vote for.”

Here now are the unofficial outcomes of the main counties in Disclosure’s coverage area for the Consolidated Election 2013; the totals in this, obtained on deadline, are not final and may change pending counting of absentee and provisional ballots.

Clay County

Clay County saw few contested races, most of what they did have contested falling into the realm of the townships’ trustee races.

However, there was a four-candidate race for three spots as Clay City village trustee. Mike Delonshaw came away from that with the top votes at 109; Rod Franklin next at 104 and Dan Patridge seated with 81 votes.

And the village of Xenia had a village trustee race, this one with three of five. Selected were Suzie Hosick, 48 votes, Thomas J. Henson, 43 and Bill Bradley, 39.

Also in the village of Xenia was a two-woman contest for village clerk; Dawn Cazadd prevails over Jenny Gould by one vote, 35-34.

A three-way race for highway commissioner in Xenia Township saw D. Allen Bonham emerging winner over Mike Burdine and Cody Gould, 47-33-31, respectively.

In Oskaloosa Township, that same position went to Rick Payne over Jason Guinn, 80-24.

Four trustees in Larkinsburg Township were selected from amongst eight: Wesley Horath, 85 votes, Louise Beccue, 76, Lloyd Weidner, 56 and Dale Wayne McKinney, 50. Four competed for the position of highway commissioner in Larkinsburg Township, and Ernest Elledge took the least at 66 votes, almost twice his next-nearest opponent, Dean McKinney with 26, while Eric Yingst and Glenn D. Yingst each received 18 votes. And a Larkinsburg Township supervisor was chosen: Claye Warren, who defeated Eric I. Bailey, 74-58.

Blair Township also saw a race for trustees, with Jon Vandyke, 120 votes, Dwaine Worthy, 116, Kenny Hilderbrand, 85 and Stewart Smith, 72, attaining those seats. Blair Township’s highway commissioner will be Ronald L. Kincaid, who defeated Alan Slagley and David McPeak, 89-50-23.

Louisville Township had one challenged office: Highway commissioner, which is now Matt Byers, defeating Tommy Ballard 230-140.

Harter Township has four trustees selected from six competing: Ted Whitehead, 600, Raymond J. Muhs, 526, Amy Sailer Leonard, 522 and Joe Gilliland, 492. Harter Township also had a race for highway commissioner, in which James S. Tackitt prevails over challengers Johnny R. Williams and Bob Meares, 472-259-223.

In Bible Grove Township, four of five were chosen for township trustee: Neil Gould, 82 votes, Reggie Birch, 71, Aaron L. Hardin, 69, and Darren Birch, 48. Also in that township, Cory Wendling defeated Andy Wood 54-49 for highway commissioner.

In Clay City Township, Darrell Britton defeated Kevin Henry for highway commissioner, 140-104. That county also had four trustees selected: Terry Woodrow, 138 votes, Rod Franklin, 133, Steve Spitzner, 122 and Bill Staser, 121.

On the Clay City Community Unit School Dist. (hereinafter all referred to as “CUSD”) 10 school board, Kelly Hance, Amy Dulaney and Darren Lewis will be seated. There were 43 write-in votes.

For Flora CUSD 35, Curtis Leib, Rick Porter and Justin Cook will be seated.

And the North Clay Unit 25 School Board will seat Darrell McKnelly, Ryan Ballard, Cecil Cochran and David Simmons; there were 23 write-in votes for that board.

Five people were elected to serve on the Xenia Fire Protection District Board of Trustees, this after a mass walkout last year of firefighters over real irresponsibility with department money courtesy of Daniel Edgington, who is now out: Shand Kanitz, Randy Hockman, Burl DeWayne Wesner, Joyce M. O’Donnell and William P. Moorman will serve where only three were serving last year, and will be elected instead of appointed by the county board. This was accomplished by a ballot question placed by citizens petitioning their government last year to rectify the situation, and they were successful in their endeavor.

Crawford County

Crawford saw a turnout of 33.39, prompted by mayoral/village president races in their various towns/villages.

Robinson saw the retention of their incumbent mayor Roger E. Pethtel over challenger Lon M. Smith, 923-375.

Flat Rock chose Larry Keeler over Brandi Weber for mayor, 77-32.

Palestine also kept their incumbent mayor, Pat Schofiel, over Candy Carter and Earnie Mendenhall II, 281-62-60.

Races on councils/boards came from Ward 2 in Robinson, where Karen Bowman bested Nikki Aldrich 117-79. In Palestine, three were selected for village trustee: Harry Gene Purcell, Ricky Stork and Lloyd Dunlap, 307-247-243.

In townships, Honey Creek had a race for supervisor: Greg Wampler defeated Daniel Gower, 279-220. They also had a selection for township clerk, with Lynn McCleave defeating Beverly Hemrich, 275-223. And for highway commissioner, Chris Bonnell defeated Ralph Weger, 341-167.

Hutsonville Township had competitors for township trustees; four of six prevailed: Guy Rumler, 199 votes, Mike Kraemer, 192, Ryan Love, 176 and Todd Seaney, 168, with Seaney narrowly defeating Rob Lowrance, 167, and Tim Terry, 164, for the final seat, the outcome of which could change upon official tally, it being so close.

Martin Township selected four trustees from a field of five: Bill Midgett and John Russell received 87 votes, Danny Mundhenk, 84, and Madeline Harris and Dewayne Mundhenk received 75 each, tying for fourth; no word as of press time was available on how that matter was going to be settled.

In Montgomery Township, a race for highway commissioner was decisively settled for Ed Carpenter over Michael Eakins, 200-49.

Oblong Township also had a highway commissioner race, and Jerry Ping took it over Jerry D. Lewis, 569-139.

In Prairie Township, a highway commissioner race saw Gerald Hill prevail over William Gamblin, 140-63. And in that same township, four trustees were elected: Lyle Crane, 146 votes, Chris Weck, 131, Charles Guyer, 127 and Derek Staley, 125.

In Robinson Township, a highway commissioner’s race had David Lachenmayr trouncing former Crawford County deputy Troy Love, 1,364 to 497. A township supervisor was chosen: Larry McCoy, 1313, over Debra Dix, 567. And four trustees were selected: Patrick J. Richards, with 1,097 votes, Lori Ann Hodge, 1,018, Shirley A. Berry, 1,003, and Gregory C. Wolfe, 942.

The Palestine Public Library had selected for them three trustees, Rhonda Kaye Eller, Terrie L. McDaniel and Robert F. Taylor.

Crawford County’s voters in the Hutsonville CUSD 1 chose Chad Guyer, Mike Knecht and Tina Callaway for their school board picks; in Red Hill No. 10’s District, Jim Legg outpaced Bob Christy and the third and fourth picks were Roger Kissen and Dixie Purcell; for Palestine’s school board, Crawford’s picks were Shari L. Eckert, Matt McCoy and Susan J. Hawkins; and Oblong School District No. 4 selected Todd Musgrave, Chad Pusey, and Michael Higgins.

Edwards County

In Edwards, the voter turnout was centered in Albion, where big ward races were going on and a “wet/dry” vote would enable those within city limits to buy and sell alcohol in a retail setting as opposed to just the clubs. Voter turnout, therefore, was a respectable 38.3 percent.

No mayoral race was on tap, as former mayor Ryan Hallam ceased to be an incumbent candidate in early February, which was predicated, it’s since been learned, on the possibility that he fraudulently signed a contract for construction of the new Albion fire station (see related story). As such, the only one on the ballot was former mayor Steve McMahel, who nevertheless received a symbolic 556 votes, displaying a showing of support for the town’s new mayor.

On the city council it was firefighter supporters versus supporters of the public’s right to have their tax dollars spent wisely, and it went fifty-fifty.

Ward 1 saw the peoples’ candidate, incumbent Aarol Stewart, prevail over former alderman Kevin Savage and firefighter supporter Rochelle Thomason, 151-107-73.

Ward 2 had two seats up for election, and saw firefighter candidate/former sheriff/former firefighter Scott Meserole take the seat over contender/peoples’ candidate Randy Speir, 101-72. While Meserole was ostensibly put up as a candidate by the firefighters, however, he indicated to Disclosure the day after the election his disgust with the fireman walkout, and how the churlish behavior was one of the things he saw during his tenure as sheriff…and was a big factor in his April 2008 resignation, as he “couldn’t get anything done” because of childish public officials in Edwards County.

Former firefighter Dana Mosson barely defeated the peoples’ candidate in Ward 2, David Works, 66-64. Since this is an unofficial total, it remains hopeful that there may be absentee/provisional ballots that could change this outcome over the next 30 days.

Edwards County doesn’t have townships, but instead has road districts. There were a couple of contests as such: In Road District 1, Mark Beehn prevailed over Tony Keortge, 83-44, and for clerk in that road, the ill-tempered Jackie Knackmus was finally ousted by the more gentle Robert E. Keortge, 69-59. In Road District 2, the only other contest, a write-in made a better showing than a ballot contender but both were still defeated when Robert Headley prevailed with 35 votes; on the ballot was Nancy Cowling who garnered 22 votes, but edging ahead of her was write-in Mike Greathouse with 29 votes. Tying with Cowling was another write-in, Robert Hayes, in that district.

Completely overlooked in all the mayhem was the fact that the village of West Salem has a convicted felon on the board. Only two board positions were open, and Don Cornelius and Logan Yates took those. Yates, however, is a convicted felon from a 2001 Burglary in Clay County. Disclosure checked with Clay County and the felony has not been expunged, as was what was reported to have been the case when Mike Ristvedt held a board position in West Salem after a federal weapons (explosives) conviction more than 20 years ago. However, when Disclosure checked with Ken Menzel at the Chicago office of the Illinois State Board of Elections, it was discovered that expungement doesn’t matter: in the state of Illinois, according to Illinois Municipal Code, a convicted felon of any length of time (one year ago or 50) cannot hold a city or village elected office. Disclosure is in the process of making a report to the Illinois Attorney General on the matter, as far too much of this kind of thing is going on in the state, and it’s being totally ignored by uninformed people and media alike.

Also in West Salem, two were selected from among a field of three for the coveted position of library trustee: Mary Jane McKinney and Kelsey Adam Schilt beat Elmer Ellsworth Lytle, 153-92-41.

And of course, the “wet/dry” vote went well for those who were looking to overturn the decades-long prohibition of alcohol sales in a place other than a club (or illegally out of the back door of certain residences) in Albion: voters elected to remove it 333-323, meaning the city can now reap the benefits of having a potential liquor store, or even a nice restaurant that sells wine, beer and mixed beverages with a meal, on their sales and other taxes. Amusingly, because of the backwards-sounding wording on the ballot question, Indiana television stations reported for hours on April 9 and 10 that the prohibition had been upheld and the town was still “dry.”

Gallatin County

The little southern county of Gallatin once again lead the pack in the Consolidated Election with voter turnout: 47.95, still low, but number 1 in the coverage area. Several contested offices in villages and townships, as well as a ballot question about the ubiquitous public safety tax, prompted the run to the polls.

In the village of Equality, Brittany Johnson took the office of village clerk with 135 votes, over Patricia Barnes, 58, and April Bilski, 25. A write-in on the village trustee ticket, Bruce Gowan, actually came in the third of three with 123 votes; Garrett Wargel and Billy C. Moore were the to two vote recipients with 173 and 131, respectively.

In the village of Junction, a write-in also lead the night, and landed the office of village president over incumbent Melinda K. Robbins, 23 to 18.

In the village of New Haven, a trustee race was on, with Zella Medlin, Amy Lashley and Brigitte Browning, 130-86-73. They are joined by Jackie Wicker, who was the only one running for a two-year unexpired term.

In the village of old Shawneetown, a trustee race found Kenny Oldham, James Back Jr. and Nell A. Moore-Rosser prevailing, 51-47-37.

In the village of Ridgway, Anthony Drone (204), Mike Kitchens (183) and Ardon Smith (160) took the lead in the trustee race.

In the city of Shawneetown, David Barker, who ran unsuccessfully for circuit clerk last year, prevailed in the mayor’s race, besting Robert Boon and Terry Williams 184-174-75.

Township races were heated in Gallatin, particularly in beleaguered Equality, where the Bayer-Glover combine has held sway for years and to the detriment of that area. While many of their supporters were retained as trustees, other offices were overthrown. In particular, that of highway commissioner in Equality Township was a big deal, and former Equality mayor Lee Parker handed Jimmy Bayer his butt on a platter with a vote tally of 195 to 154. For township supervisor, it was David Casey over Doggie Poshard narrowly, 165-156, that vote likely muddied by the presence of third candidate Bill Springer, who took 27 decisive votes away from the main two. And for township trustee, Cletus Wargel took top votes at 268, followed by the nasty-tempered Pat Frohock, 223, then Terry G. Wood, 172 and Don Collins, 169.

Ridgway township had a supervisor’s race: Robert McGuire prevailed against Barbara Stricklin Rodgers, 188-153.

New Haven Township had a highway commissioner race, where David Chamberlain received 93 votes to Jim Fromm’s 89.

Shawnee Township also had a highway commissioner race: Jay Barton won against Sherman E. Rider, Jr., 67-35. There also was a township trustee race, and Kimberly Bryson and Sandy Willis each received 52 votes, followed by Rhonda Twitchell (34) and Misty Hazel (30).

Members of the Gallatin County CUSD 7 board were selected: Rob M. Wood (954 votes), Gary Clayton (863) and Richard Case (819).

Gallatin voters also gave in to another public safety tax, passing it 1210-633.

Hardin County

A bit of confusion ensued at one polling location in Hardin County, marking a weird election there, where there was only a 33.5 percent turnout, very very low for one of the southeasternmost counties in the coverage area.

While county prosecutor Tara Wallace investigated and released press information the day after the issue, that didn’t seem to soothe those voters who received a ballot containing incorporated candidates for those voting in unincorporated areas.

It didn’t help that Wallace’s numbers for the outcome of votes in Rosiclare didn’t match the unofficial final tabulation Disclosure obtained from the county clerk’s office.

Wallace’s press release stated that the six ballots that were given to voters in unincorporated Rosiclare incorrectly wouldn’t have made a difference to the emerging candidates from the particular race of city commissioner, even if all those voters had selected candidates on that ballot—something they weren’t supposed to do, being that they lived outside Rosiclare city limits. However, they were handed ballots meant for those within city limits.

Wallace’s numbers had Bryan Keith Stone receiving 216 votes; Roger D. Brazell, 168; Final tabulation on the unofficial results released at 8:15 p.m. that night read Stone, 261; Brazell, 204; Oxford, 187; Williams, 173; Winchester, 172; Atkinson, 170; Stoker, 158; Lane, 165; and Hayden, 69.

In Rosiclare, the mayoral race wouldn’t have been affected by just six votes: Roy W. Tolbert prevailed over Rusty Warren, 250-172, although many news outlets were reporting the reverse on that night for some reason.

In the village of Cave-in-Rock, incumbent mayor Marty Kaylor kept his office against the challenge of Perry Foster, 57-34.

In Elizabethtown, the citizenry, remembering what Heck Rose did to them a couple of years ago, gave him a resounding “NO” for his bid (again) for the office of mayor—from which he’d “retired” (read: resigned) in 2011—and voted to keep incumbent Bertis Cook, 84-58.

They didn’t have much of a choice when it came to village trustee, as all three running were elected, but a message was sent to Heck’s sister, Sandra “Sandbags” Conkle: only her close friends and family were interested in having her back as a village trustee, all 27 of them. The other two running, Rebecca Barnard and Bruce Hemphill, had much better showings by comparison: 105 and 78, respectively.

Sandbags, regular readers will recall, had the distinction of enduring a slow-speed comeapart during the 2011 flood, wherein her true colors showed during the emergency of residents not having drinkable water, and Sandbags stubbornly refusing to distribute water hoarded at the village fire department, where her husband, the then-alive Ed Conkle, was fire chief.

A Hardin County school board race saw former HC Schools principal Jimmy Stunson, who also “retired” last year after numerous reports of kids on the school bus waving to him as he sat on a village barstool in the afternoons, exchange the barstool for a seat on the board. Top vote recipient for the school board race was Jerry D. Fricker with 839; followed by Ricky D. Williams, 702; Natalie Vaughn, 572; and Stunson’s 550.

And Hardin, too, passed a public safety tax like Gallatin did, displaying the power of the Democrats in both counties, who believe it’s okay to tax the citizens beyond their limit, then tax them some more. The PST, which will not preclude raising of property taxes if the county fathers believe it’s necessary, at least didn’t have a landslide victory like Gallatin: 561 to 472.

Hamilton County

A mayoral contest in McLeansboro and a few challenged seats on townships, as well as McLeansboro’s own wet/dry vote, were big enough draws to bring Hamilton County’s overall voter turnout to 38.13, on the higher end of the southeastern part of the state.

Long-time McLeansboro mayor Dick Deitz was a landslide over challenger Matt Bilderbeck, whom Disclosure learned has had numerous run-ins with the law and has a somewhat shady past, and only ran because he “wanted to prove he could.” Unlike Logan Yates, however, he doesn’t have a felony conviction, and therefore could run legitimately. Yet, he was stomped: 668-177, proving Deitz’ popularity and capability as the city’s mayor keeps the voters coming back to him term after successful term.

One contest was had in the city’s wards: Ward 1, where Dennis Crain defeated Billy Glenn, but not by much: 218-197.

The village of Dahlgren also had a mayoral race, with Steve Wilkerson easily sliding past David Wicks Jr., 99-26.

Township trustee races were held in Crouch Township, where Denise Hopfinger (67 votes), Brian Lueke (62), Richard Hatfield (55) and Ron Webb (54) edged in over Dwayne Smith (53 votes) for the four seats; and McLeansboro Township, where Dennis Johnson (645 votes), Kyle Ingram (642), Becky Cross (639) and Bill Ingram (585) prevailed.

A race for highway commissioner in Twigg Township had Jeffrey “Tinker” Wheeler squeaking past Randall Price, 115-113.

The vote for Hamilton County Board of Education had Tom Maulding with 1,335 votes, Randal Kirsch, 1,207, Larry Launius, 1,233 and Danny Anselment, 1,141.

And the wet/dry was decisively in favor of going wet, with 534 votes for “not prohibiting the sale of alcohol in the city,” 341 for continuing the prohibition.

Jasper County

Jasper County, in the Heartland area of Disclosure’s coverage, saw a voter turnout of 24.19 percent of registered voters, about mid-range amongst the counties and likely because there were no big challenges there. Mayors or village presidents ran unopposed in the municipalities: Mark Bolander in Newton; Jason Kirby in Hidalgo; Jack Thompson in Ste. Marie; Robert Flowers in Wheeler and Sanford Andrews in Yale.

A few village trustee races were on tap: in Wheeler, Charles Emmerich and Edward Schmidt each received seven votes, and Gerald Short received five, to attain the trustee seats there. And in Yale, Jerry Middleton (10 votes), Jamie Smith (9), Jerald B. Andrew (9) and Phillip Wagner and Nicholas Huddleston (both receiving 6 votes) vied for the positions; county clerk personnel said it was up to the village to determine who would fill the fourth slot between Wagner and Huddleston.

In townships, Crooked Creek had trustees selected: Christopher Parr (89 votes), Robert Young (74), Jeff Carr (68) and James Houser (66) prevailed there. Hunt City Township saw a tie vote for first place, Jerry Tharp and Tarry Birch (34 votes), Lafe Graham (31) and James Miller (28) win trustee seats. And Smallwood Township selected four: Paul C. Will (114 votes), Daniel A. Stark (109), Nicholas Milliman (90) and David Kistner (89) selected from six.

Fox Township had a road commissioner race, in which David Pilman defeated Robert Smithenry, 76-65.

In school board races, Jasper CUSD 1 had Gordon Millsap (921 votes), Holly Farley (863) and Mandy Rieman (792) emerge the top three; Casey-Westfield CUSD C-4 had a little input out of Jasper, with Robert L. Dougherty, Alan Hutton (whose name was spelled “Hurron” on some ballots) and Terri Cox being selected as their picks among voters for that district.

Lawrence County

A couple of major mayoral races highlighted ballots in Lawrence County, but voter turnout was still dismal there: 26.85 percent, amongst the mid-range for the coverage area.

The big story was the unseating of two-term Lawrenceville mayor Brian Straub, who’d fallen considerably out of favor over the past couple of years due to two debacles, one involving the water department, and one involving his own use of city credit cards.

Emerging victorious in light of this was the city’s clerk, Don Wagner, who’d signaled is intent to run as mayor after the credit card flap last summer.

Challenging both the incumbent and the city clerk was Ed Brumley, who in the early stages seemed to be an odds-on favorite but couldn’t quite muster the support either Wagner or Straub had.

As a result, Wagner pulled ahead in the final stages of the race (and it was somewhat tense at first, as he was lagging at the outset, and the count took several hours), and defeated the other two, 458 to Straub’s 338 and Brumley’s 208.

Lawrenceville had one ward race: Ward 3, where former county board member David Courtney stomped incumbent Don Goff, 333-158.

The other big race in Lawrenceville generated plentiful jokes about payment of water bills, and with good reason: Janice Laslie, running for the office Wagner was vacating in seeking the mayoral seat, was challenged for city clerk and was soundly defeated by Rodney Nolan: Nolan 729, Laslie 241. Laslie might have been the beginning of the nails in Straub’s political coffin in late 2010 when it was revealed that she and her husband Bruce were receiving special dispensation for a water bill they owed that exceeded $3,000. It was later shown to be that Straub himself owed a back bill dating over 90 days late, but he had never been charged the same late fees others would be were they late on their bills. In some cases, voters have long memories; the Nolan-Laslie matchup was one such case.

In Ward 1, Wendell Stevens; Ward 2, John Waldrop; and Ward 4, Janice S. Holcomb, all ran unopposed.

In other municipal races, the next big news was Bridgeport, where the new mayor received symbolic votes of support as he too ran unopposed. Brad Purcell received 241 votes, not challenged by outgoing Max Schauf or any other candidate. Of 1,205 registered voters in Bridgeport, approximately 300 in the incorporated area voted, meaning Purcell received an 80.3 percent turnout unopposed—a startling number, given that Schauf’s in 2009 was something like 16 percent—and that shows that Bridgeport voters do indeed have sense…when they have a decent candidate.

A ward race was up in Bridgeport as well: former alderman Robin Wirth was up against James Hamilton and David Hammel, but Wirth prevailed: her vote tally was 15, by comparison to Hammel’s 8 and Hamilton’s 5. Ldora “Button” Laughlin in Ward 2 and Tyler Griffin in Ward 3 each ran unopposed.

A mayoral race in St. Francisville saw the unseating of incumbent mayor Stan Williams, who lost to Donald Ravellette: Ravellette 117, Williams 105.

In township trustee races, Denison picked John R. Clark, 175; Rita Sue Tillotson, 157; Dora Glenn, 148 and Alfred Mushrush, 126; Lawrence Township selected Bruce Morey, 824; Don R. Myers, 744; Jenny Schick Chapman, 649 and Roger Orr, 610; and Russell voted in Amber O’Dell, 81; Sue C. Gerhart, 77; Joe Weber, 68 and Alan Thompson, 64.

Bond Township selected a clerk, Billie Taylor, over Cynthia A. Hays-Morris, 61-45; Bridgeport Township picked a road commissioner, Stevan J. Moore over Woody R. Rousey Jr., 224-133 and a township clerk, Lisa Lemeron, over Thomas Daniel Stanescu, 243-104; Christy had a race for township clerk, Jenny Roark v. former county board member Bonnie Hann, resulting in Roark 107, Hann, 93; Lawrence selected a township supervisor in Kimberly Yost Winningham, 763 over Becky Piper, 609, and a road commissioner, Bill Shick, who ran and won against David Mefford, 956-439; and Russell chose a township highway commissioner from amongst three: Gabe Foreman took ethe lead over Richard Churchwell and Keith Fisher, 58-44-34.

Red Hill CUSD 1 saw Bob Christy take the most votes for school board, 621, followed by Dixie Purcell, 619, Ashley Ryan, 517, and Jim Legg, 449.

Richland County

It was a mixed bag in Richland, with the good and the bad featured in a voter turnout of 28.78 percent: roughly twice the turnout of the 2009 race.

At that time, the city of Olney’s mayoral race was a face-off between the highly-detested and very detestable Tommie Fehrenbacher and challenger Mark Lambird. Lambird prevailed, bringing an end to the corruption that surrounded Fehrenbacher for eight years, which included sweetheart deals between the city and the county, and alleged under-the-table bids for state facilities being sited on property Fehrenbacher owned…for which he was briefly investigated by state agencies in his second term.

However, Lambird didn’t fare as well this go-round because the Fehrenbacher crowd was in force…this time backing an attorney, Ray Vaughn, to run as challenger against Lambird. Vaughn was Fehernbacher’s pick because he’s a likeable enough guy and has nothing shady in his history. The only problem is, he’s a mere figurehead so that Fehrenbacher can operate through him, behind-the-scenes, this according to many who keep an eye on Fehrenbacher and his doings in the city. The Fehrenbacher crowd was able to drum up enough support to thwart Lambird’s retention: 927-788. Sadly, with the minimal turnout, it’s apparent that voters could have turned this election around with just a little effort, had it come to light sooner that Vaughn was Fehrenbacher’s front-man, but it came a little late in the game, and the damage was already mostly done. Now Olney is back to under-the-table and backdoor doings, and, worse, is being run by attorneys: Vaughn, and city manager, city attorney Larry Taylor, the real brains of the operation as Olney does not have a “strong mayor” form of government.

A no-show at the returns this year was bi-annual pest Brian James O’Neill II, whose stench precedes him when he walks into the courthouse…but not this election. O’Neill ran for mayor against Vaughn and Lambird, delivering a massive diatribe to the Olney paper as his candidate profile which, as usual, made about as little sense as the five-minute speeches to which he’s now limited at public meetings. While many believe O’Neill is mentally challenged, the only real problem the man has is that he’s stupid and simply doesn’t know it, and uses his obliviousness to target certain people in the community and make them as miserable as possible. For whatever reason, O’Neill has a handful of jokers that vote for him in his district, and this year, besides himself and the woman he lives with, there were eight casting a vote for his mayoral challenge, meaning he’s lost someone in the district (four years ago he received 11 votes)…but whether by death, moving out of the area or gaining a modicum of common sense, is not known at this time.

Two incumbents were seeking another four years on the council—Bob Ferguson and Gary Foster—and apparently, Foster’s grumbling personality got him booted this year. Ferguson, propped up by the same Fehrenbacher crowd who put Vaughn in place, received the most votes of the four competing: 913. This was followed by John McLaughlin, who will replace Foster, with 843 votes; then Foster with 706, and challenger Jeremiah Brown, 570. What it will take to get Ferguson booted like Foster just was remains unknown but is a challenge for 2017.

Across the county, there weren’t many matchups. Two other mayoral races came from Noble, where incumbent Richard Clark took his fourth term over challenger John C. Mason by two votes: 70-68; and Parkersburg, where Tom Hanna defeated challenger Darlene Clark, 53-37. Also in Parkersburg was a race for village clerk, where Sandra Reich prevailed over Kelly Hanna, 63-26.

Otherwise, in Claremont, the legal status of their mayor (this year, by 13 symbolic votes, as no one ran against him and the voter turnout for the village was a dismal 14.1 percent) remains unanswered: John Joyce was found a few years ago to still have an illegal immigrant status when he announced that he couldn’t hold a liquor license for the village’s only convenience store because he was in the country illegally. The Illinois State Board of Elections also advised Disclosure that it is highly illegal for an illegal to hold an elected position in the state, so Disclosure is taking that matter up with the Attorney General’s office at the same time as the issue of felons holding public office following this election.

Township trustee races otherwise dominated the landscape in Richland: in Madison, Dave Bricker (129 votes); Austin Ridgely (128); Shawn Rose (122) and Franklin Dorney (102), the entire slate of Republicans, prevailed as trustees; in Noble Township, Gerg Amerman (228); Steve Hemrich (222); Mike Shan (196); and Brian VanBlaricum (186) were selected; in Olney Township, trustees selected were Jeff Fleming (1,230); Carmen Kowa (1,163); Heather Cecil (1,075) and Donald Barnett (863); in Preston Township, Dennis R. Graves (207); Wade Wilson (196); John R. Snider (176) and Kyle Henton (147) were chosen.

Township offices had matchups, these coming from Bonpas, where there was a highway commissioner race between Don Gayer (winner with 71) and James. M. McDowell (68); German where James Schneider prevailed with 76 votes over James L. Jones’ 10; Noble, where township highway commissioner went to Pat Morgan with 203 votes to Kenneth Wilson’s 183; Olney Township, where an assessor’s race was won by Kimberly J. Houchin 1,322, over Mary Kay Stoltz, 593; Preston Township, which had three offices up for grabs: township clerk, going to Kim Kuhl with 180 versus Donna Whitaker-Mitchell, 105; township assessor going to Michelle Kuenstler, 147, against Cathy Bromm’s 140; and highway commissioner, going to Phil Kuenstler over Chad Stanley, 186-106.

The only contested school board race was at East Richland CUSD 1, where Pete Seals and Alex Cline prevailed over incumbent Micah Grimes, 1,655-1,253-918.

The ballot question regarding raising Richland County’s sales tax another .25 percent appeared yet again and was defeated, despite county engineer Dan Colwell’s implorings in a mass mailing showing how high many of the county sales tax rates were all around Richland. Voters weren’t swayed, likely thinking “too bad for them!” and opted against any more raising of the tax, which is at 6.75 percent already. Colwell tried to convince voters that the money would be put to good use and used only for county road purposes. The reality is that all it would do is free up money in the larger funds, and county spenders would then have more to play with in their particular departments. So the voters sent a message to the county: Be more responsible with the money you have, and stop asking to get it from US.

Saline County

The feature of Saline County’s ballots this year was that there were so few offices being challenged, resulting in a dismal voter turnout of 26.63 for one of the more highly-populated counties downstate.

A single mayoral race came from Raleigh, where James W. Agin defeated Charles Maloney, 56-36. In that village was also a selection of three trustees; those were Jean Ellis, 53 votes, Ron Maloney, 51, and Athel Wiseman, 46.

A village trustee race was held in Galatia, where David L. Grant took top votes with 127, followed by Rickey Cates, 103, and Larry Kukla, 99.

Township trustee races occurred in Galatia, with Mike Triplett taking top votes at 174, followed by Larry Darnell with 155, Gerald W. Heflin with 150 and Merlina Pritchett with 139; Harrisburg Township, where Roger Angelly received 1,054 votes, Roger Craig, 1,051, Steve Horn 854 and Lovie Stunson, 699; and Raleigh Township, with Ron Bradley receiving 180 votes, Willard Prather, 156, Jack Whitlock, 146 and Sarah Davis, 137.

Township offices that were challenged were East Eldorado road commissioner, which went to Greg McKinney over Kevin Boulds, 744-331; Raleigh Township road commissioner went to Pervis Ellis, 173 over Dean Hutcheson’s 74; and the big race, that of Harrisburg Township road commissioner, wherein Bob Holmes defeated Harrisburg police chief Bob Smith, 973-880.

A selection of three for Carrier Mills-Stonefort CUSD 2 landed Stephen Scott Figg 186 votes, followed by Jeff Parks, 179, and Sammy J. Dudley 177…just edging out Georgia Cowger with 173 votes; however, Cowger, a long-time school board member, was saved from being booted off the board with votes from other CM-SCUSD districts, in particular, in Williamson County.

And a ballot question failed. Voters were asked if the sale of bonds should be made to build a new high school; the district was told NO 1,239 times, to a yes vote of 1,075. Reports were that a student at the polling place in the old high school accessed the public address system on election night and was asking people to vote for the bonds in question; he was shut down, but whether anything will be done about him remained unknown as of press time. The general consensus was that he should be given a stern talking to and it be done with…but electioneering is electioneering, and some believe the kid should be punished in accordance by existing state laws.

Wabash County

The reports of having an abysmally-low voter turnout in Wabash County—6.5 percent—repeatedly offended a large group of people…apparently, the populace of the county themselves. However, they were the only ones who could change that, by first putting up their own candidates and then getting the vote out…neither of which was done this election cycle.

While low contests were blamed, that should never be the excuse for not going to the polls, if for no reason other than to show everyone it can and should be done. But with only one mayoral race county-wide—in Bellmont, where it certainly did matter—that was a hard package to sell.

There, the office of mayor was finally appropriately filled, after pissy—and now, charged—Colby Rigg resigned in a snit in the summer of 2011. Rigg was appointed mayor in 2007 with the resignation of then-mayor Ed Bowman, and was then duly elected in 2009, but couldn’t stick it out. Bowman—father of convicted serial killer Greg Bowman, who is on death row in Missouri—decided to take a stab at it again this election cycle and ran against Larry Sloss for the office. Apparently Bellmont thought the wiser of putting Bowman back in charge—after all, he could potentially appoint Rigg back in, as Rigg isn’t convicted yet and can still hold public office—and voted in Sloss, 28-25.

The only other contests in Wabash came from road districts, specifically district 2, where Joe Hall defeated contenders Danny Deisher and Alan Marx, 70-36-22. District 3’s contest was between Derek Guisewite and Timothy Glick, 66-37.

There was a write-in win for school board in Wabash CUSD 348, where Teresa Hocking succeeded in that with 124 votes. On the ballot were Kyle Peach, 351, Jared Alka, 310 and Timothy Schuler, 303.

And for Allendale CUSD 17, Tia Speth Morgan received 72 votes, Beth Etzkorn 68, Richard D. Gochenour 63, and Mike Wilson, 36 as a write-in.

Wayne County

The big story in Wayne is the loss for incumbent mayor to a challenger, and that had Wayne’s larger precinct turning out in droves, resulting in a decent (for Wayne, anyway) turnout of 32.44 percent.

Mayor Mickey Borah lost to contender Chuck Griswold, and what a loss: Griswold 1,125 to Borah’s 429. Where all of Borah’s throngs of supporters were from 2001, 2004 and 2009, at which time he was supported by Fairfield’s paper and a host of RINOs (Republicans in name only) is unknown, but the choice of whether they stayed home, lost interest or defected could be any and all. Whatever the case, it was a stunner in a way, and yet again in a way, not: The Griswold family is well-known in Fairfield for being upstanding, decent citizens, and Chuck is very well-liked, as stated in last month’s issue. So the upset is certainly one to take note, as public sentiment can be fickle and sway with the wind.

Ward races were seen in Ward 1, where Ralph Barbre defeated incumbent Tom Tucker, 205-179; in Ward 2, where Jim Griffith defeated Clifford Reever, 176-130; Ward 3, Steve Robinson defeating Ron Rush 183-174 and Ward 4, David Fletcher defeating Phillip E. Williams, 273-174.

In village races, Sims had three trustees selected: Stephanie Harris with 32 votes, Billie Moyer, 31 and Donny Robertson, 27; Wayne City, where LaDonna McKinney received 190 votes; Benny Garner, 180, and Diana Wood, 142, and James G. Smith received 135 votes for an unexpired 2-year term over Shawntell Desch, 100.

For township trustees, in Elm River, Austin Lambrich took top votes at 42, followed by Frankie Molt and Rob Neikirk both with 38 and John Harrington with 36; Indian Prairie, Lawrence Pennington received 167 votes, followed by Randy Hilliard, 150, Jeff Barnard, 132, and Justin E. Smith, 117; Mt. Erie saw Jerald Hubble get 89 votes followed by Dennis Taylor’s 73, Randy Hedrick with 72 and Clayton Massie with 67; Orchard Township went to Donald Sharp, 93, Richard Greenwalt, 79, Inez O. Copelin, 76 and William Copelin, 74; and Zif township, where the Hosseltons hold sway: Larry Leon Hosselton came in with 36 votes, followed by Warren Scott Hosselton, 34, Claren Lee Hosselton, 33 and Lee Garrett Hosselton, 30.

Other township office races were found in Barnhill for highway commissioner, where Shular Smothers defeated Jerry Webb, 137-53; Big Mound’s highway commissioner went to John K. Jones Jr. over Jack Monroe, 275-192; Indian Prairie highway commissioner went to Mark A. Talbert versus Lyle Lee Allen, 57-50; a three-way race in Jasper Township for highway commissioner with Brent Opell taking the most votes, 325, over Matt Kinney’s 187, and Ray Webb’s 66; a highly amusing three-way race in Lamard Township, where incumbent Richard (Grant) Hoskins badly defeated his challengers, Craig Donoho (96) and convicted arsonist/operator (along with the vile and somewhat dangerous Rich Tuttle) of the ridiculous Wayne’s World website, Roy Finley, who managed to get 42 of his friends and family—most of them the west Wayne yellowhammers—to vote for him; Mt. Erie Township’s highway commissioner race went to Chris Massie over Steve Bass, 80-27; Orchard Township highway commissioner went to Kevin Greenwalt, 94 votes over Jesse Kidder Jr.’s 52; and Zif Township highway commissioner went to Loren Lee Kauble by one vote over Randall Gill, 26-25.

Geff CCSD 14 school board will be composed of Ken Taylor with 131 votes, Kim Belangee, 115 and Shannon Lambert, 90. Jasper CSD 17 will be Kimberly Liston with 241 votes, Anita Pond, 235, Connie Mitchell, 202, Christopher Otey, 180; Wayne CUSD 100 will be Denise M. Barbee with 503 votes, Andrea Lewis, 453, Karen D. Haile, 355 and Bruce Johnson, 299; Fairfield CSD 112 will be Heidi Hodges, with 1,104 votes, Andrew Miller, 91, Dan Coomer, 871, and Joe DiMaggio, 866.

White County

Another upset occurred in the city of Carmi, where a big mayoral race found the incumbent ousted; the contest assisted a 30.99 percent voter turnout county-wide.

Carmi’s mayor David Port was defeated by challenger, alderman Jeff Pollard, 774-758. Many have wondered if the vote weren’t split by the presence of another contender, Bill Mears, who garnered 466 votes. Nevertheless, Pollard, still espousing bringing a hospital to Carmi (after the previous one folded in 2006, unable to keep up with the illegal immigrant population in White and nearby counties flooding the emergency room as if it were a clinic so they could get free healthcare), appealed to the greater number, and he emerged victorious.

The Carmi city clerk position went to Brian Allen, 887 votes, over Dee Blazier, 787. And a couple of ward races were on the Carmi ballot: Ward 3 re-elected Steve Winkleman, 187 to challenger Doug Redman’s 116; and Keith Davis took 396 votes in Ward 4 to defeat Leon Groves, 307.

In Crossville, Konnie Harrington, apparently having dumped Tony Wolf (father of child sex offender Tyler Wolf from five years ago), was the top vote recipient with 142, followed by Jeff Spencer, 140 and Stephanie Martin, 89, to be seated as village trustees.

Township trustee races were in Carmi Township, where Jeff Bohleber received 1,083 votes, Anthony Huffer, 1,064, David Hall, 971 and Roger Heckler, 847; Emma Township has Terry Frashier with 76 votes, David Delong, 75, Tom Scates was almost thrown out this time with a reduced 61 votes and Anna Baumgart, 59; Enfield Township has Bill Williams at 69 votes, Karen McKinney, 66, Scot Weiss, 61 and Chris Mitchell, 52; and Phillips Township has Cindy Hodgson with 226 votes, Ruth Ridenour, 181, Nicholas Combs, 155 and Terry Oeth, 152.

Other township offices that were contested included Burnt Prairie highway commissioner, which is Alan Williams over Charlie Kempton, 84-52; and Phillips highway commissioner, Denny Coston, 195 to Thomas Murk, 155.

In Grayville, school board votes went to Vanessa Fullop, 128, Charles Turner, 100, and Robert Armstrong, 99.

SALINE COUNTY—“That wicked man!” as 35-year-old Ricky Turner, II, was described by assistant state’s attorney Eva Walker during closing arguments Friday, March 22, now faces natural life behind bars in the Illinois Department of Corrections after being found guilty in the 2009 First Degree Murder of 4-year-old Jessika James.

“I believe justice was done in this case,” said State’s Attorney Mike Henshaw after the jury returned the guilty verdict. “But no matter how you look at it we still have a dead 4-year-old little girl. Nothing is going to change that.”

Witnesses told of torture

Turner was painted out by prosecution witnesses during testimony as being vicious, controlling and manipulative.

What the judge in the case (Walden Morris) wouldn’t allow in was that he was also a drug dealer who kept the mother of the child supplied in all the dope she could handle.

The happy little girl, who came to live with her mother about a month before her death (Jessika had spent most of her short life with her great-grandmother, who had died in the weeks prior to Jessika’s death) was said to have undergone nothing short of torture at the hands of Turner for the few weeks she was alive and in his presence.

One witness said he saw Turner snatch the toddler off the couch in the living room by the hair on the top of her head after she had urinated on herself.

The witness said that while yelling, Turner then held her by the hair on her head, ripped off her clothes, put her on the floor and dragged her into the bathroom.

One of the more gripping parts of the story was that the witness said he looked into the little girl’s face and saw terror and even tears, but she did not make a sound as she was dragged into the bathroom by Turner, who then locked the door and spent 45 minutes in there with the child.

Turner was said to have spent an unusual amount of time in the locked bathroom of the house with the child.

On June 29, 2009, after the mother, Brandi James, had put her daughter to bed, Turner had sent her to the store to get him a soda and then called her ordering her home because something had happened to Jessika.

He said he found the tot lying on her bedroom floor having a seizure.

When the mother arrived and took one look at her daughter she called 911.

Witnesses said Turner never went into the hospital or asked about the toddler’s condition.

He did ask the EMT how long he thought it would be before he could go home.

Jessika was transferred to St. Louis Children’s Hospital where she later died of her injuries.

A world-renowned expert in forensics, Dr. Mary Case, said the only time she had ever seen such severe injuries, if accidental, was in a car crash at more than 60 mph or a fall from at least a two-story building.

She said such a severe injury would have caused immediate unconsciousness and that whoever delivered the injuries to the child would have known it would have caused serious injury or death.

Just stories about a scary monster

The defense, lead by Granite City attorney Morgan Scroggins, spent most of its time trying to discredit the prosecution witnesses in part because medical care providers did not all write down, or notice, or describe the exact same things in the exact same way as they wrote their reports on their efforts to save the little girl’s life.

Scroggins alluded that Jessika may have been suffering from some undiagnosed medical condition which caused seizures.

Scroggins paraded a number of witnesses to the stand to testify about what a good and caring father Turner was.

Information about how he was accused of molesting one of his own family members was not allowed.

Information about numerous pending sex offenses against underage victims, including one whose age was in the single digits when Turner was in his 20s, was not allowed.

What was allowed was that the would-be father of the year was, in addition to being a drug dealer, convicted of Arson twice, Unlawful Possession of a Weapon by a Felon once and had one conviction for Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine.

Despite all of the could-be diagnosis and parade of witnesses saying they had never seen Turner raise his voice much less his hand to anyone, Scroggins could not explain, if his client didn’t do it, how a 4-year-old goes to bed with no injuries whatsoever and then is found by Turner with injuries so severe they are only seen in traffic accidents that happen at high rates of speed or from a two-story fall.

Scroggins told jurors they had heard stories about a “scary monster” and that that was all it was… stories.

“This is a story about a sad little girl who didn’t have much of a chance in life,” Scroggins said.

But Henshaw reminded the jurors of the medical expert testimony and how the story Turner told just didn’t match with factual medical evidence.

“You would have to disbelieve everybody else except Ricky,” Henshaw said during closing arguments.

He reminded jurors again that Jessika was put to bed not suffering from any such serious injuries or unconsciousness prior to her mother going to the store.

And by the time Brandi James returned, in her own words, “I could tell she was already gone.”

Juror refuses to deliberate?

The jury was given the case at approximately 2:23 p.m. on Friday, March 22 and was out a little under eight hours, but there was trouble reported within the jury room during deliberations.

“We had this one juror who said not guilty right off the bat and refused to deliberate,” said another of the jurors who spoke with Disclosure on condition of anonymity because of the volatile nature of Turner supporters.

Several other jurors said that juror Heather Hyatt, 24, of Eldorado, refused within the first five minutes of deliberations to even discuss the case.

That’s not in keeping with the oath the jurors as a group took nor the answer she gave during jury selection as an individual when asked if she could “deliberate with the other jurors” and that “if the state proved its case beyond reasonable doubt that she could vote guilty.”

It wasn’t the “not voting guilty” aspect of what she did behind those closed doors that could have earned her a contempt charge, but it was (as other jurors said) that she refused to deliberate.

One indication early in the process that something was amiss was that a mere two hours into deliberations by the rest of the jurors, a note was forwarded to judge Walden Morris saying they were “hung.”

Jude Morris sent word back to the jury room that jurors were to continue their deliberations.

Nearly three hours later the jury sent another note out saying they were “deadlocked.”

At approximately 7:40 p.m. Scroggins told the judge he believed the jury was hopelessly deadlocked and made an oral motion for judge Morris to declare a mis-trial.

Henshaw told the judge that if this had been a two-day burglary case it would be one thing.

“But this has been a two week murder trial and there have been voluminous amounts of evidence presented,” Henshaw said. “I don’t believe the jury has had ample time to consider all the evidence in the short amount of time they have been deliberating to have declared themselves deadlocked. If it were midnight I might feel different, your honor.”

Scroggins’ motion was denied and the judge again sent word back to the jury room that deliberations should continue.

At approximately 8:19 p.m. the jury again sent out a note that said they were “still deadlocked.”

This time judge Morris brought the jury back into the courtroom and they were given formal instructions, reminding them of their oaths and sending them back to the jury room for further deliberations.

Hyatt appeared upset, walking with her arms crossed over her chest and her head down.

The verdict and reaction to it

At approximately 9:26 p.m. the jury sent out another note, this one declaring they had reached a verdict.

As the jurors were walking into the courtroom Hyatt appeared to have puffy red eyes and looked to still be crying.

The verdict of Guilty of First Degree Murder and a finding that Turner “had reached the age of 18 years and his victim was under 12 years of age” was reached.

The finding on the ages was key in order for the prosecution (since the state no longer has a death penalty) to ask for a sentence of natural life in prison.

When the jury was polled, each of the 12, including Hyatt, were asked individually “was this (the guilty verdict) then and is now your verdict?”

All 12, including Hyatt, responded in the affirmative.

Moments later the jurors were released and Hyatt, hiding from the media, covered her face and ran crying through the lobby of the courthouse.

She stomped down the stairs and slammed through the doors leading outside and once there could be heard wailing across the parking lot.

Seconds later, Turner family members, friends and supporters left the courtroom and waited in the lobby for Turner to be brought out.

An elderly woman, believed to be Turner’s grandmother, ranted at Disclosure publisher Jack Howser.

“She was pressured that’s what she was!” the elderly woman yelled, referring to Hyatt. “You need to put that in your paper! This county is just crooked.” (and then getting close enough Howser could feel her breath on the side of his neck) “When are you going to write both sides of the story? Huh? When are you going to do that?”

“Leave him alone grandma!” yelled another Turner supporter. “He will just twist everything you say! You will just make it worse!”

“I am 60 years old!” screamed the elderly woman. “And I’ll say what I want!”

Confrontation in the lobby

Shortly thereafter Turner was lead by handcuffs, under heavy guard, from the courtroom.

He appeared visibly shaken at the verdict at first but managed a big smile for family members as he walked into a waiting elevator.

Turner had spent much of his time during the trial grinning at family members and coaching them to have a straight face when jurors walked past them.

At one point, Scroggins had to tell him to stop.

As he was walked back to the elevator, on his way back to a cell, his eyes appeared watery.

Shortly thereafter a rather large blonde woman began shaking her finger at and threatening the murdered toddler’s mother, Brandi James.

“There’s gonna be a day!” the blonde spat. “The time’s gonna come!”

The blonde just got worse when one of James’ family members stepped in and told her to back off.

“Naw! There’s gonna be a f*ckin day and you are gonna get yours!” she said.

And as the blonde continued to advance, shaking her finger, court security stepped in and kept the confrontation from escalating to physical blows.

Turner’s family eventually left the courthouse as Brandi James and family stayed behind for a few minutes thanking Henshaw and Walker for making sure nobody forgot her little girl.

When asked what she thought of the verdict, James little Jessika’s mother, only said through tears, “Nothing can bring back my little girl.”

Turner is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, May 16, at 10 a.m.

One source told Disclosure that Turner, by all rights, should die in the electric chair.

Since Illinois has no death penalty, the prosecution is asking for the next best thing: that he serve the rest of his life behind bars.

UPDATE  WEDNESDAY 04.17.13

The  truck driver was extricated from the truck late last night; we’ve not been told exactly how long it took, but it was longer than a half hour of work. Numerous unofficial sources (former family members, friends, etc) have confirmed the identity of the driver: Scott Goss. He’s currently in St. Mary’s Hospital in Evansville in very serious condition. Our sources say your prayers will be greatly appreciated.

Here’s the original post:

POPE/SALINE Cos.—Details are sketchy but we’re learning of a single-vehicle crash on the Pope/Saline County line that happened at about 9:30.

The vehicle is an overturned semi; our sources are saying that a helicopter called to remove the driver from the scene had to cancel due to bad weather, so multiple first responders are on the scene, including Pope County Ambulance and extrication equipment.

Apparently as of about 10 p.m., the driver was still trapped. There’s been no word on his condition. Likely we won’t have anything until morning, depending on which ISP District (19 or 22) works it…if any of you are listening to scanner traffic, feel free to update.

Bob Smith. Being investigated? That’s what we hear.

HARRISBURG—We received news this afternoon that there is something huge brewing in Saline County.

The way our official sources understand it, the issue that arose with the city’s police pension fund following the big audit that was completed a few months back. Apparently, there is money missing from this particular pension fund; it is not an “error” and it cannot be “explained” like the water fund or the EMA/Tornado Disaster fund (although the latter of those has been rather inexplicable, as well). It is literally missing, and an investigation has been underway the past couple of months since the audit was turned over as to exactly how it got to be missing.

DK Brown

And the news we’ve received is that there are only two people who have access to that pension fund in the way that would cause money to be missing: one of them is Harrisburg chief of police Bob Smith (who is improperly appointed to the office anyway), and the other is sheriff D. Keith Brown.

We will keep you updated as this develops…keep checking back.

POPE/SALINE COs.—We’ve received formal notice that Scott Goss, the driver of the truck that overturned last night on Highway 34 at the Pope/Saline County line, has died of his injuries.

Our sources advised that the wait he had to undergo to be removed from the wreckage of his truck was a long one, and while rescue crews were working frantically to free him, it was too long of a wait: he suffered severed brain damage due to lack of oxygen from the way he was trapped.

Our thoughts are with his family and friends, who have kept us posted since last night.

Steve Vinyard, being escorted around the halls of the Gallatin County Schools in February 2010 when he was let go.

HARRISBURG—The Harrisburg school board, a couple of nights ago, approved a hire that they’d gotten rid of a couple of years ago and that Gallatin County Schools only just got rid of in 2010.

Hired as a track coach at Harrisburg earlier this week is Steve Vinyard, who was let go from Gallatin County Schools in February 2010 because of allegations of inappropriate behavior toward young (7th-8th grade girls) students.

He was let go from Harrisburg a couple of years prior because of the same allegations.

However, he’s apparently a darling amongst the sports types there at Harrisburg High School, the kind of folks who put up with Jay Thompson’s business last year, which caused its own scandal at the school.

And speaking of scandal, plenty of it surrounds Vinyard, who’s been alleged—by people who know him, as well as people who know his sisters—that he has some seriously unhealthy appetites when it comes to more carnal things. We’ll stop right there, as these people don’t wish to be identified and if we say anymore, it’s possible they will be. There are some in Harrisburg who believe secrets can be kept; so we’ll let them keep believing it. But we know. And it’s only a matter of time before everyone else does, too…especially if Steve keeps getting teat jobs despite the public sentiment against such a thing.

We’ve heard that school superintendent Dennis Smith was very much against the hire of Vinyard as track coach; however, we’ve not been able to reach Smith for comment since we learned of this yesterday.

More as we get it; keep checking back.

HARRISBURG—We’re learning of a stabbing/slashing that occurred last night in Harrisburg involving a teen allegedly wielding the knife, and a local man getting his face slashed to the bone.

From what we understand from sources who were present, a kid by the name of Ian Hamilton, 19, got into a fight with Kyle Day, 21, at a location we’re still trying to ascertain.

As far as we understand from multiple witnesses, Day’s face was slashed to the bone and his teeth were showing through the wound. He was taken to an Evansville hospital for treatment and his condition is considered pretty serious, as he was also allegedly stabbed.

When we learn more, we’ll bring it.

Matthew Connors

SALINE CO.—A man accused of an attack on a Saline County woman last year is in St. Louis this morning undergoing serious surgery.

Authorities have confirmed with Disclosure that multiple reports coming in, notifying us that Matthew Connor, 42, originally of Carbondale, has been “set free without bond”  as of yesterday, April 23, 2013, are rather disingenuous.

Callers to the tipline made it sound as though authorities had just up and decided to let Connors go while he’s under charges of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Assault with a Weapon, Aggravated Criminal Sexual Assault involving Bodily Harm, Aggravated Criminal Sexual Assault while Threatening the victim’s life, Carrying or Possessing a Knife with Intent to do harm, Domestic Battery, Knowingly Damaging Property.

That’s not exactly the case.

Connors was released on a recognizance bond in order to undergo surgery at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis today, where it’s expected that most of one side of his face will be removed due to melanoma, this according to officials in Saline who spoke with Disclosure about the matter.

It was related to Disclosure that officials “weren’t happy” about the release, considering the very serious charges Connors is facing. As well, adding to the problem is the post-op care, for which the Saline County Detention Center isn’t equipped. It’s unclear how long Connors has under the circumstances; the prognosis is grim, as the cancer is characterized as “terminal.”

The alleged victim in this case has been assured extra police protection; however, it doesn’t look like Connors is going to be in any condition to approach her, let alone harass her, while he’s recovering.

Disclosure has been told that the surgery may cost in the area of $470,000. If Connors is in custody, the county has to pay for it. As it stands, Connors is reportedly on a medical card, so the state (all of us) is going to pay for it anyway.

We’ll keep you posted on what the outcome is.

ELDORADO—Just a little post to alert those of you in Eldorado of what your “police chief” is promoting on his Facebook page.

Now we know that not everything you read on Facebook is indicative of reality. However, when a person promotes something that A—the majority of people don’t adhere to and B—that’s a direct New World Order slogan/logo…you might be in for some problems.

As many know, Eldorado’s police chief, Freeman Shannon Todd Deuel (STD) has been questionable from the start. His personal life has been anything but “above reproach” (as public servants should strive to provide an example to the folks who are paying their paycheck), and his professional life leaves much to be desired (we’re getting information that he’s not properly certified in police administration or something to that effect; we’re in the process of checking it out.

Into the midst of this checking out, we see this on his Facebook page:

Screencap of STD’s page

Which is disturbing enough on the surface of it, but then you get to looking a little closer at what “Craft” is:

Chaos. Great, STD. Just great.

In case STD forgot, this is southern Illinois, not Chicago or New York or Boston. You have to have “chaos” to have “order out of chaos”…hence the VIOLENCE reference, right? So what kind of “violence” are you suggesting, STD?

You all watch your backs out there…because we can pretty much promise you, STD isn’t in it “to serve and protect“…not YOU, anyway…but there might be someone(s) he IS in the business of “serving and protecting”…we’re looking into it. And if it breaks, you know we’ll be right there to report it to you.

Freeman STD and his badge bunny wife…really, dude; half your age? You BOTH look ridiculous.

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Gregg

HARRISBURG—Harrisburg Mayor Eric Gregg has been appointed by governor Pat Quinn to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, and Gregg’s constituents are now wondering if their mayor—one of the only decent ones they’ve had in decades—is going to give up his office for the job.

After months of fielding calls from frantic Harrisburg residents who were worried about losing their mayor, we at Disclosure still don’t know what to tell you: Gregg has declined official comment on the matter pending approval of the appointment by the Senate, except to say that he’s very honored by the appointment and he’s still on the job working for the city of Harrisburg and is “not planning on stepping down for awhile.”

How that shakes out is apparently going to be seen over time.

Illinois governor Pat Quinn announced late yesterday that Gregg has been appointed to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board (parole board), an $86,000-a-year job in which he would remain until 2019, this according to the Springfield Journal-Register.

How Gregg came to the governor’s attention as a possible candidate for the position will be explored in the upcoming print version of Disclosure, on stands in just two weeks…until then, be watching for updates.

Jacob Austin from his MySpace page

SALINE CO.—The Saline County State’s Attorney’s office has issued a press release following a jury verdict yesterday, 04.26.13.

Jacob E. Austin, 23, of Carrier Mills, was convicted Friday on charges of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse of a 13-year-old girl after a three-day trial.

The jury once reported being deadlocked, then returned a guilty verdict after deliberating about ten hours.

Austin was found guilty of two of the three counts charged.

Judge Walden Morris scheduled sentencing for June 20, 2013.

The case was investigated by ISP agents Bryan Harms and Rick White. State’s Attorney Mike Henshaw and Assistant SA Eva Walker prosecuted the case.

Matthew Connors

SALINE CO.—Remember the post we put up earlier this week about Matthew Connors, the Carbondale man who was released on a recog bond out of Saline County to have surgery on his face for a melanoma?

We’ve just learned that he didn’t have the surgery. He “couldn’t get a ride” to Barnes Hospital, according to sources who’ve just gotten in touch with Disclosure.

We’ve also learned through these same sources that he hasn’t reported back to the Saline County Detention Center; instead, he’s back at his mother’s house in Carbondale. Bear in mind we haven’t seen the terms of his release on the recog bond as it was effective at the end of March and as we reported this past week. It’s very possible he didn’t have to report back to SCDC. However, it was confirmed to us earlier this week that his alleged victims in the sex assault case in which he’s charged in Saline have been given extra police protection, and this under the circumstance of having half his face taken off in an effort to get to the melanoma. Since the surgery didn’t take place, he’s not as disabled as he otherwise would have been….which is likely causing concern for the alleged victim.

To further exacerbate the matter, our sources are telling us that Connors (or someone on his behalf) has set up something online through which donations for his support are being requested. Our sources are telling us it’s an email (at the very least) called cominghometodie@aol.com; whether it’s more than this (such as a website or blog) taking direct donations remains unclear; we’re still looking into it.

We’ll let you know what we find; keep checking back.

SALINE CO.—Illinois State Police worked a collision at 12:54 this afternoon (Wednesday, May 1) in Saline County that involved a vehicle and a bicycle, and was fatal for the cyclist.

ISP advises that Scott W. Patrick, 55, of Galatia, was on a black Trek Bicycle eastbound on Hamburg Road approximately a quarter-mile east of Payne Road when the driver of a 2006 GMC Sierra pickup truck, Lee Roy McKinnies, 58 of Broughton and also eastbound on Hamburg Road, rear-ended the bicycle.

As a result of this traffic crash, Patrick suffered life-threatening injuries and was pronounced deceased at the crash scene by the Saline County Coroner’s Office.

ISP was assisted in the crash by the Saline County Sheriff’s department and the Galatia Fire Department.

David Sparks

SALINE CO.—Saline County’s Assistant State’s Attorney Eva Walker has done it again.

The state’s attorney’s office announced today that David G. Sparks, 46, of Eldorado, was sentenced yesterday (Thursday, May 2, 2013) by Judge Walden Morris to 35 years in DOC.

Sparks was convicted by a Saline County jury in February on charges of Predatory Criminal Sexual Assault of a Child and Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse. The offenses as charged were committed between May 1, 2011 and March 15, 2012 upon a child who was 6 to 7 years of age at the time.

The case was investigated by ISP Special Agent Gwen Basinger, and was prosecuted by Walker.

Maurice Gardner

SALINE CO.—An alleged crime that occurred in Evansville in early April has taken a local turn as of today.

A suspect in a possible drug deal that went bad and devolved into a robbery and shooting has been located near Harrisburg and has been taken into custody by U.S. Marshals.

Maurice Gardner, age unavailable, had allegedly been involved in an incident with two others, Kevin Antonio Washington and Rahim Abdulla Washington (relationship unknown) that stemmed from what authorities believe was a drug deal gone bad at 1014 Jefferson Avenue in Evansville. A Matthew Green ended up being shot one time in the leg after allegedly being robbed they the Washingtons and Gardner at the scene.

Green gave statements, and officials were able to determine that Gardner and his cohorts were the ones to look for. Kevin Antonio turned himself in to authorities shortly after the incident; Rahim Abdulla’s status is currently unknown but we’re researching that. A warrant was issued for Gardner’s arrest, and authorities went looking. Gardner was considered armed and dangerous while on the run.

It’s unclear where exactly “near Harrisburg” the suspect was located, as well as what authority, or who, if an individual, located him. We’ll get that hopefully for the print version; be sure to get your renews in if you’re a subscriber, or sign up for our e-Edition so you can read the entire print version right here on the comfort of your own computer. And as always, you can pick up a copy of the print version at these vendors.

SALINE CO.—The Saline County State’s Attorney’s office has been busy getting convictions in several cases recently, and this week has been no exception.

Adam Robert Evans

Yesterday (May 8, 2013), Adam Robert Evans, 27, of Centralia, was sentenced by Judge Walden Morris to 11 years DOC followed by two years parole. He pled guilty to the offense of Residential Burglary (a Class 1 felony) in an incident dating back to July 25, 2011.

The investigation was led by the Saline County Sheriff’s Department. On July 22, 2011 deputies responded to an assist call from the Illinois State Police regarding a suspect traveling from Hamilton County south of Rte. 142 in a red Ford Ranger. Deputies located the vehicle at 10 Francis Road, Eldorado. Upon approaching the vehicle, Evans ran from the home, leaving several items behind in a pillowcase. Deputies apprehended Evans and learned he had entered the home at 10 Francis Road and was in the process of burglarizing the place.

Jason Dee Pinkston, 30, of Harrisburg, was also sentenced yesterday, to 8 years in DOC on a guilty plea to Unlawful Possession of a Meth Precursor (Class 2 felony.) This dates back to last summer—August 24, 2012.

Class 2 felonies are usually punishable by a term of incarceration from 3 to 7 years in DOC and a $25,000 fine; however, due to Pinkston’s previous criminal history, he was eligible for an extended term sentence of 7 to 14 years.

Pinkston was arrested on Aug. 23 on an outstanding warrant for failure to appear. During a subsequent search of the vehicle, several items used in the manufacture of meth were located including psuedoephedrine pills.

Abby Robinson…looking rough

And lastly, Abby Robinson, 24, of Harrisburg, was sentenced yesterday as well.

Robinson received 8 years DOC/two years parole on a guilty plea of Unlawful Possession of Meth Manufacturing Material, a Class 2 felony. She too was eligible for extended term over the usual 3 to 7 years.

Harrisburg police conducted the investigation, which amounted to a dispatch, on November 17, 2012, to 600 S. Granger in Harrisburg, where officers were granted consent to search the house. During the search, officers located lithium batteries, ammonium nitrate, liquid fire, salt, Coleman fuel, lye, coffee filters and several generator bottles; each of these are consistent with the manufacturing of meth.

Each of the cases was handled by Saline County Assistant State’s Attorney Jason Olson.

HARRISBURG—Reports are coming in this evening of some overt vandalism occurring in the late night/overnight hours last night, May 8 through this morning, May 9, 2013.

Our sources are indicating that it appears that windows were shot out with a high-powered BB gun at several locations in the ‘burg, including Suzie’s Laundry at 701 North Main, the Dollar General Store at 1107 North Main, the side of a house in the vicinity of the two businesses on North Main and a truck that was parked in front of the house, and other vehicles parked on that street.

Best estimates have it that the shoot-up began at some point in time between 9-10 p.m., and possibly continued into the early morning hours.

Business owners were busy cleaning up the glass this morning upon opening (which at Suzie’s was 7 a.m.), so apparently this went unnoticed by authorities throughout the night.

The man whose truck windows were shot out told sources that he had to go to work at midnight last night, and when he got up to go to work, the windows were busted.

Customers at Suzie’s said that this morning, when the new owner and employees were cleaning up the glass, they saw what looked like “little pings in the glass that hadn’t shattered” as well as “lots of broken glass.” No customers were aware that there were any BBs being swept up, but it’s not clear whether anyone thought to ask at the time, as the employees were fairly busy dealing with the mess. The police reportedly told those at Suzie’s that whoever did this “shot up this end of town.”

The homeowner advised sources that he believed it was a BB gun because at the locations where the house was hit, nothing went through and into the house.

More as we get it; keep checking back.

Location of Suzie’s Laundry…and the damage went north from there.