By Morgan Winsor, CNN

New York (CNN) – A sick so-called game known as “knockout” — where teens appear to randomly sucker-punch strangers with the goal of knocking them unconscious with a single blow — is catching the attention of law enforcement throughout the nation.

The assaults can be fatal. In New Jersey, Ralph Santiago, 46, a homeless man, was walking alone in Hoboken on the night of September 10 when he was suddenly struck from behind, said Hoboken Detective Anthony Caruso.

The blow knocked out Santiago, who had a pre-existing brain injury. He suffered a seizure. The victim’s body struck a nearby fence, with part of the wrought iron fence piercing his body and killing him, Caruso said.

Surveillance video in the area showed three teens running from the scene. Two weeks later, police arrested the juveniles and charged them in connection with the killing. Caruso said the attack was unprovoked.

Read more

This video can also be viewed at this link.

DOUGLAS CO.—The continuation of the series involving a woman whose exploits and subsequent arrest have spanned the Heartland and leads all the way down into Egypt in deep southern Illinois continues this month with an examination into what Jennifer Inman has dragged a Douglas County man into with her apparent delusions.

Inman, 31, was arrested in August of this year after authorities allege that she attempted to hire a man to act as a hitman and kill her ex boyfriend, the father of her son, after her allegedly autistic daughter made accusations that she had been molested by the ex. Inman remains jailed in Douglas County lockup.

That “hitman” was James Hollenbeck. And his name, as it turned out, was not to have been released. Yet it was, to Disclosure, in Inman’s own handwriting, prompting Hollenbeck to contact the newspaper (since Disclosure was unable to reach him, as there is no cell phone directory and everyone seems to operate off cells exclusively these days) in order to set the record straight.

Unbeknownst to proud father and devoted husband James Hollenbeck, the decision not to end a man’s life that he wrestled with for nearly three sleepless days and nights in late July, 2013, was far more life-altering than he could have ever imagined at the time. Hollenbeck had faced a great moral dilemma involving an issue that nearly every person who knows him personally, realizes he feels complete, passionate, contempt for.

Loathes pedophiles

James Hollenbeck will tell anyone: he loathes pedophiles.

Hollenbeck’s life was upended by Jennifer Inman’s reappearance in it after more than a year since he last shared words with her. But when Inman confided in him the desperate reason for her impromptu visit, Hollenbeck could never have imagined that he might be the victim she actually had in mind. After all, Inman was offering him a total of $10,000 to kill a man she claimed had repeatedly sexually assaulted her daughter; pedophilia-driven molestation of children being the sole offense Inman had learned a year earlier that Hollenbeck believed was the only reason to justifiably end another man’s life: to stop future incidences of sexual abuse of children.

Hollenbeck’s introduction to Inman took place while they were both receiving inpatient treatment at the Provena Psychiatric Unit in Urbana in June of 2012. Hollenbeck, who lives with bipolar disorder, had been admitted around the same time that Inman had been hospitalized for her latest failed attempt to take her own life. The two shared the same lunch table from time to time, and also had group-therapy sessions together.

Hollenbeck tells Disclosure that if he could alter only one period of time in his life, it would be the days he spent unwittingly revealing himself in Inman’s company while being treated at Provena; totally unaware that Inman had an agenda in which he had become grossly and intricately involved, and caught horrifyingly unaware.

Learned of obsession

It was at Provena that Hollenbeck learned, as many others have recently, that Inman was literally, obsessively pursuing a self-styled, unsolicited “investigation” into a murder that, having resided in the area at the time it occurred, Hollenbeck was regrettably familiar with… along with many other citizens of Mahomet, Illinois.

Hollenbeck clearly recalls Inman’s unrelenting chatter about her pet topic: revealing the person responsible for the brutal slaying and post-mortem sexual assault of Holly Cassano in Mahomet in 2009; a task in which she intended to succeed where the FBI, ISP, and other investigative agencies had only failed.

When Inman first made mention of her interest in solving Cassano’s three-year-old cold case, Hollenbeck was as of yet unaware that this particular murder was her obsessive, even rabid, focus in life, and responded as if to a normal conversation. Quite normally, Hollenbeck told her that he was familiar with the case; he’d read about it. In fact, Hollenbeck told her that he and his family had once even lived near the scene of the crime and met Holly through another married couple they had been friends with.

With 20/20 hindsight, Hollenbeck can vividly reconstruct how things started to snowball with Inman after that first casual mention of his familiarity with the murder. Inman’s attentions devolved to the point where after nearly two days of being grilled by the obsessed woman who only seemed to seek more and more sordid details, which of course as someone not involved, Hollenbeck did not have, he was finally driven to demand of her that she leave him alone.

Taking advantage of his loathing of pedophiles

It was also during that time in Provena where, during group sessions or at table-talk, Inman learned of Hollenbeck’s openly passionate contempt for pedophiles; a mindset he shares with countless other men sickened by the travesties committed against innocent children.

This was a piece of information that Inman never forgot and Hollenbeck eventually regretted revealing, even with it being a relatively common mindset among men. At the time it certainly didn’t seem significant.

Over a year had passed (summer of 2013) since James Hollenbeck had last made Inman’s acquaintance at Provena, when to his utter amazement Inman showed up at his mother’s home in Tuscola. Hollenbeck was not present, but his mother offered to let Inman wait, as he was expected to arrive shortly to retrieve his children after work.

Hollenbeck was nothing short of bewildered to find this woman he barely knew waiting for him inside his mother’s home upon his arrival. At that time, and being a devoted father and husband, Hollenbeck was justifiably concerned as to how his young children would interpret this strange woman—a stripper whose debatable sanity he had only encountered while receiving psychiatric care himself—appearing unexpectedly at their grandmother’s.

A brief consideration of helping her

He walked Inman outside and demanded that she explain herself. When Inman delivered Hollenbeck the carefully-rehearsed and edited story about how her ex-fiancé had recently evaded prosecution in Champaign County for raping her daughter and giving the child herpes, Hollenbeck’s dismayed confusion caused by her mysterious arrival turned to sympathy for the child in her story. Inman knew that she had just jabbed one of his hot buttons.

Then, when she offered Hollenbeck two payments of $5,000 to kill the man, Hollenbeck openly admits, regretfully, to having briefly considered helping her. But the circumstances surrounding how and where they had initially met, not to mention her sudden and uninvited appearance to tell Hollenbeck, a man she only knew from Provena Psych unit, this shockingly graphic and personal story concluding with an attempt to solicit him to commit murder, produced red flags in Hollenbeck’s mind.

The two then parted ways shortly thereafter, having made no definitive plans to complete the murderous task; only instead exchanging phone numbers while agreeing to discuss the matter at a better time. Hollenbeck thought it was, at the very least, the easiest way to get rid of her. He recently told Disclosure that he privately hoped to never hear from or see her again.

Yet, in the days that passed, Inman’s story haunted Hollenbeck. In fact it troubled him to the point that he finally confided to his best friend what had transpired between him and the stripper. Hollenbeck credits his friend for providing a voice of reason that inevitably saved him from an unimaginable fate that he couldn’t fathom then, and only recently has started to recognize as a twisted, calculated plot devised by Inman.

Research showed something ‘not right’

Not only did this friend tell Hollenbeck that he absolutely should not consider taking part in Inman’s plan, but he demanded that James think about what torments his conscience would provide for him if despite his declination to take a direct role in this man’s death, Hollenbeck later heard that Inman had succeeded in finding somebody to do what James would not. Hollenbeck’s friend also reminded him that his responsibility did not, and would not, simply end when he refused to help Inman, because if and when her alleged target, being the father of her youngest child, was eventually murdered, Hollenbeck could very likely be charged in this crime as an” accessory to murder” for not divulging his knowledge of her murderous plans to authorities in time to save the man’s life.

Convinced that his friend had advised him wisely, and in order to protect his wife and the children whom they adore, James Hollenbeck kept his internal dilemma a secret from everyone close to him —aside from the friend who’d advised him so well. He did some at-home research on Inman’s proposed target from his computer; searching Champaign area news media websites for anything that might invalidate the twisted tale that the stripper had told him. Hollenbeck’s confusion was not alleviated when all he found online were scantily-detailed posts about the man’s arrest, and later revelations that Champaign County prosecutors didn’t believe the evidence against him supported the charges.

James Hollenbeck knew that something wasn’t right.

Absolute anonymity

Soon after that, he quickly gathered the nerve to make his move and go to the authorities, where he exposed Inman’s plot. Hollenbeck was almost taken aback by how seriously he was taken by investigators. It was almost as if they weren’t expecting to hear the story Hollenbeck told them, but they weren’t altogether surprised or even curious enough to ask why Hollenbeck thought Inman had approached him to carry out the murder-for-hire scheme in the first place.

The multi-agency investigation quickly kicked into gear, and Hollenbeck was stunned to discover that his life was about to get even more complicated as the result of both Inman’s devious plot and what the authorities expected of him in order to apprehend her.

Douglas County Sheriff’s Department and Zone 5 Illinois State Police Investigations Unit were suddenly assuring Hollenbeck that in exchange for his cooperation in a covert “sting” operation to arrest Inman, the authorities would offer James Hollenbeck absolute anonymity until his testimony might become necessary in court. They also promised to ensure the Hollenbeck family’s safety until after Inman’s trial concluded and she had been convicted of her crime.

Hollenbeck hesitantly agreed, yet admits regretting that that the authorities couldn’t go it alone based on his tip. However, after being plied with assurances that would later be proven worthless, and being assaulted with notions of “doing the right thing,” Hollenbeck realized that authorities seemed to believe that he was their only choice in order for the “sting” to work – and work quickly.

In the hands of authorities

His family’s safety and the integrity of his very name were now in the hands of the various authorities who had repeatedly assured him he was doing the right thing, and he’d be shielded and protected by them as a result. He trusted them and agreed to do his part.

The covert operation was considered a success, as Disclosure readers who have been following this story already know. Inman was arrested on August 7, 2013, and neither the man whose murder she had solicited, nor the unsuspecting victim of her much darker plans, Hollenbeck, had been harmed. Inman was arrested and led away in cuffs, while the borrowed Hummer she’d been driving, belonging to the same 62-year-old Teutopolis dairy farmer from whom she had also deceptively manipulated the $5000 to pay her ‘hitman,’ was on its way to impound. Inman herself told Disclosure that she was so hysterically stunned and horrified by her unstable perceptions of how she “felt the tables had been turned on her,” that when she was booked into the Douglas County Jail she had to be isolated for days while being restrained in a suicide vest, and placed under an around-the-clock suicide-watch.

Inman remained in such shambles that she claims jailers were instructed by the jail psychiatrist not to provide Inmate Inman with anything more than a thin blanket. According to Inman, her erratic behavior kept her isolated for days, confined to a suicide vest, in a bare room, without hygienic supplies, supplied with only the thin blanket; which by her own account was smeared with feces, urine, and menstrual fluid after her second day in jail.

Assurances

Unaware of the serious near-future jeopardy under which Inman had attempted to place him, James Hollenbeck returned home and was intent on regaining some sense of normalcy for his family. To Hollenbeck, that task seemed entirely do-able, as Douglas County Sheriff’s and Illinois State Police continually assured him that his name would remain confidential and his family’s safety would be guaranteed until such a time when he may be required to testify against Inman in court.

James Hollenbeck felt he had done what was right, as he was most certainly entitled to feel. He trusted that the authorities would honor their end of the bargain, and it appeared as if no one would have to know what had come to pass, or where he had met the woman who had put him in such a predicament. Ideally, Inman’s case would never go to trial, but instead end in a plea agreement and he could put all of this behind him. However, he and his wife remained vigilant of developments in Inman’s case as it progressed through the court system, relying on official reports from Judici.com and whatever scraps the Douglas County and Zone 5 investigative authorities allowed to be reported by local mainstream media coverage.

Family learns of coverage

The Hollenbecks were completely unaware of the existence of Disclosure, which isn’t as well known in Central Illinois as it is in Southern Illinois; primarily as the result of being generally feared and despised by Zone 5 Illinois State Police and the law enforcement agencies they influence within their jurisdiction. In fact, until November 15, the Hollenbecks were blissfully unaware of Inman’s extensive correspondence with Disclosure. Inman’s story had been covered on numerous occasions since her August arrest via this organization’s printed publication, and the relentlessly aggressive and effective style of web-oriented, Southern Illinois-based NewMedia offered online to an ever-expanding readership.

On November 15, Hollenbeck’s wife fatefully stumbled upon an online article featured on Disclosure’s website revealing details of Inman’s handwritten confession in which she openly and falsely accuses Hollenbeck of being a longtime confidential informant (CI) for Douglas County Sheriff’s Department, while brazenly insisting that the plot she had hatched to kill her ex-fiancé was a complete fabrication that was being misinterpreted by investigators. Inman’s delusional elaboration continues extensively throughout hundreds of handwritten pages which details meticulously what she claims has been her one, true motivation since June of 2012: to expose James Hollenbeck to authorities as Holly Cassano’s murderer.

The Inman Manifesto

In her confession, dubiously referred to as The Inman Manifesto by Disclosure Staffers investigating this story, she had brazenly written that she didn’t particularly care whether Hollenbeck killed her ex-fiancé or her ex-fiancé killed Hollenbeck in self-defense; which she cites as the most likely outcome as her ex wields the skills of an advanced-degree black belt in taekwondo. Inman’s own words reveal that it would have been most ideal if the two men somehow managed to mutually cause one another’s demise as the result of her plan; an outcome she pines away over on multiple occasions throughout her manifesto while simultaneously giving personal testimony to what a good, pure, and chaste Christian woman she is. Her apparent desire to “play God” with these men’s lives, both of whom have long since been cleared of the horrific accusations Inman has publicly made about them, revealed no human compassion, nor concern of any kind for the lives and safety of anybody besides Inman herself.

However, The Inman Manifesto was penned from a Douglas County Jail cell in Tuscola, and the authorities who had repeatedly reassured Hollenbeck that his anonymity would remain secure until after Inman had faced justice in a court of law, had not only somehow allowed this woman’s obsessively-delusional, handwritten letters to reveal Hollenbeck’s identity as Douglas County’s “inside-man” responsible for her arrest, but those same authorities also applied postage and mailed those revealing documents to Disclosure offices themselves. Even more disturbing is that during Inman’s letter-writing campaign she also divulged her meticulously-fabricated, desperate and altogether-false accusations of Hollenbeck’s complicity in Holly Cassano’s brutal slaying and the subsequent acts of necrophilia visited upon her corpse in 2009.

Unfortunately the very same authorities who had made promises to Hollenbeck were also responsible for reviewing inmate mail entering and leaving Douglas County Jail. By their failure alone is how James Hollenbeck’s anonymity was shattered and his identify leaked — via inmate mail sent by Jennifer Inman, passed along through the system, and finally landing in the hands of the media. Disclosure sources have recently discovered that this organization was only one of the numerous media outlets throughout Illinois who received photocopies of The Inman Manifesto.

Inman’s credentials

The unvarnished truth is that Jennifer Inman indeed had some credentials to go about brilliantly and brazenly attempting to frame James Hollenbeck for the murder of Holly Cassano so there would no longer be a Cold Case under investigation.

Inman has progressed into her Senior year of college, much of which is online study while she had also been enrolled at Parkland College near Champaign. She studied heavily in the fields of psychology, criminal behavior, crime scene investigation, and forensics. One of her professors was Dr. Robert C. Shaler, a world-renowned forensic scientist. Dr. Shaler was called upon in 2001 to lead the grisly work of identifying human remains at Ground Zero of the World Trade Center. Dr. Shaler was responsible for identifying the dead from only bits of bone and human dust, even if all mixed together. In an on-line interview, Dr. Shaler admitted that there was a developing problem they were discovering in the field of forensic science, as some of their students took the forensics classes in order to more perfectly hone their ability to commit crimes and lessen their chances of being forensically identified as the perpetrator.

DNA evidence had cleared Hollenbeck of any association with Cassano’s murder beyond the shadow of a doubt. Hollenbeck informed Disclosure that a requirement of his 2007 felony conviction had been that he submit his DNA profile to authorities so that it could be filed in the national databank years prior to the tragic brutality of Cassano’s death.

Bizarre items

Hollenbeck himself admits confusion as to why, when he and Inman met up for the sting, she had handed over a backpack that contained not only the primary $5,000 cash payment (which The Inman Manifesto claims that she’d literally laundered in a washing machine and dried), a fee that they had agreed upon, but she also presented him with peculiar items like gel shoe sole inserts and glue that Inman insisted Hollenbeck affix to the bottoms of his shoes so there would be no traceable footprints at the scene. Inman also admits to feeling regret as she deposited her Bear Gryllis knife into the bag that she had possessed since her teens; donating the weapon she had carried in her purse towards her dramatic and diabolical cause. Oddly enough, she parted with her long-cherished knife even though she had previously advised Hollenbeck that he should use a gun to kill her martial-artist ex-fiancé. It causes one to wonder about the “history” of that particular knife. Inman also provided a box of blue latex gloves, a skull cap, and other peculiar items.

What Hollenbeck didn’t know was that Inman was fully aware that the suspect being sought in the Cassano murder case was believed to have entered Cassano’s home in their stocking feet as no footprints were ever discovered. She also knew that Cassano was blitz attacked while she slept under her covers by the elusive assailant who stabbed Cassano more than 60 times with a knife that authorities have never located. Inman claims that in her own investigation of the crime scene, she discovered a pair of bloody, blue latex gloves when she removed a panel of skirting from under the mobile home.

Attempt to frame failed

There is no doubt that Jennifer Inman attempted to frame James Hollenbeck for the brutal murder of 22-year-old Holly Cassano. It was never her intent to have Hollenbeck murder her ex-fiancé; the wealthy martial artist and black belt instructor in both Champaign and Tuscola. If Hollenbeck hadn’t gone to authorities as advised by his best friend, at the moment he agreed to this plan and took possession of the backpack that Inman had so meticulously prepared, she surely intended to inform authorities that she had just overheard that Hollenbeck was on his way to murder her ex-fiancé in Champaign. She was so entirely certain that upon Hollenbeck’s apprehension and the subsequent discovery of the peculiar items in his possession, that authorities would finally believe what ISP Zone 5 Investigators only recently revealed to Hollenbeck that Inman had been obsessively trying to convince them of for over a year prior to her arrest; that those items she had given to Hollenbeck, which authorities would have discovered in his possession — while he was en route to commit the murder or having been caught after committing murder —should prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that he was clearly responsible for the murder of Holly Cassano — due to the paralleling evidence Inman had so carefully amassed before handing the backpack over to him.

Inman’s equally-calculated manipulation of Hollenbeck’s deep loathing of pedophiles in order to secure the death of her ex-fiancé by Hollenbeck, who would now not only have handled Inman’s relationship problems by way of murder, but he would have also done so while in possession of a mysterious backpack full of items linking him to Holly Cassano’s murder; a crime for which Inman wanted nothing more than to see the wrong person convicted. These deeply disturbing facts about Inman’s sociopathic and calculated attempts to get away with murder should speak volumes about the dangerously wicked and evil nature of a woman who has been licensed and certified as an EMT after receiving extensive education in all fields of criminal science, forensics, and human psychology.

Authorities were aware of revelations

The revelations of Inman’s unwarranted, undeserved, and cold-blooded attempt to frame an innocent man for just one of the murders that she claimed haunted her so vividly that she attempted to take her own life on several occasions as the result of her inescapable nightmarish visions of women’s blood being mercilessly shed, are detailed thoroughly in her own handwriting throughout The Inman Manifesto. James Hollenbeck, who had been instrumental in Inman’s apprehension while authorities kept the his family in the dark about Inman’s truest motivations for soliciting him to commit murder, first discovered the precarious position that Douglas County Sheriff’s and Zone 5 ISP investigators led him into only after he received a copy of The Inman Manifesto, sent to him by Disclosure staff on Saturday, November 16; nearly three and a half months after Inman’s arrest.

Until that time, Hollenbeck was unaware of most, if not all, of Inman’s false accusations regarding his involvement in the Cassano murder. Hollenbeck was never made aware of the imminent danger authorities no doubt knew they had subjected Hollenbeck and his family to as the result of his chance association with Inman and her calculated plan to frame him for a crime he didn’t commit. In addition to keeping the Hollenbeck family ignorant of Inman’s web of deceit, Douglas County authorities failed to secure Hollenbeck’s anonymity as they had promised. It is stated on their website that outgoing inmate mail is read and screened, detailing exactly to who the inmate is able to correspond with. Inman’s false accusations of Hollenbeck had passed multiple times through the hands of jail staff who are required to review inmate mail in order to prevent inmates from jeopardizing the safety of sensitive case witnesses like Hollenbeck and consequently his young children and beloved wife.

Opinion: What the evidence shows, according to Disclosure’s examination of facts

In addition to these failures, Douglas County authorities and Illinois State Police investigators have failed to recognize, despite repeated attempts by Disclosure staff to inform them, that they might better serve the public welfare and the interests of the families of the victims of numerous cold-case murders that Inman has obsessed over throughout her life by demanding that Inman come clean with them about what exactly her involvement was in the brutal slaying of not just Holly Cassano in Mahomet in 2009, but also the death of Shana Marie Jaros of Nokomis who was murdered in exactly the same fashion on exactly the same date (November 1) as Cassano; the only difference being the 14 years separating these crimes and the sexual assault of Holly Cassano’s mutilated corpse. Inman herself told Disclosure that a serial killer only develops necrophilia after 10 -15 years of murderous exploits. Inman has continually exposed a gruesome, unbelievable truth that Douglas County authorities and ISP Zone 5 investigations unit have all-but-refused to consider… until Disclosure began unravelling this story publicly.

Disclosure would like to here go on the record to state our opinion of the matter: that Jennifer Inman is a serial killer.

The evidence, Disclosure believes, shows that she murders women in their sleep, and has become so prolific in her craft that in order to achieve whatever sick gratification she has become accustomed to receiving by committing these brutally heinous acts, that she actually had to sexually assault the corpse of Holly Cassano once she was dead; and from her confession it’s clear she had the means and tools with which to do so in such a way that a male perpetrator might have been suspected. There was indeed DNA evidence at the scene of Cassano’s murder, but to this date, it has gone unmatched. However, as a stripper at Gentlemen’s Clubs, giving lap dances for a fee, she could have very likely extracted a cast-away receptacle apparatus used by many men from a nearby waste basket; knowing that this DNA would provide false evidence and likely belong to someone not in the DNA data base… perhaps unlikely to ever appear listed. Her training and certifications as an EMT also gave her ample opportunity to collect blood samples with which to do the same.

In recent months another young woman’s remains were found near Mahomet, where Cassano was killed, who was never reported missing, but who was last recalled seen toward the end of October in 2012. A connection? Maybe. Worthy of law enforcement investigating? Indeed.

James Hollenbeck: Unsung Hero

Perhaps the only reason that November 1st, 2013 came to pass without hearing about yet another brutally slain young woman whose murder would have gone unsolved while authorities continued to search in vain for a teenaged male suspect who doesn’t exist, is because James Hollenbeck is an unsung hero who chose to protect life instead of taking it.

Authorities refuse to recognize that James Hollenbeck protected far more than just the life of one man when he decided to reveal his knowledge of Inman’s murderous plans. James Hollenbeck’s decision to help authorities apprehend Inman undoubtedly secured the future of an untold number of young women against a diabolically brilliant, female, professionally-educated, and seasoned serial killer.

All James Hollenbeck expected in return was that authorities would honor their end of the bargain by protecting his anonymity while not placing his family in harm’s way.

Douglas County Sheriff’s Department and the Illinois State Police have failed James Hollenbeck, his family, and numerous other families waiting for closure… quite miserably.

HARDIN CO.— Hardin County State’s Attorney Tara Wallace has lost yet another bid to convict a woman she has targeted since being elected to office, simply because the woman wrote something on her personal Facebook page that insulted Wallace.

This time in her relentless pursuit of Julie Hobbs and despite a judge’s ruling concerning a 12-yer-old boy being in emotional distress, Wallace has pushed her agenda anyway.

First failed attempt infuriates Terrible Tara

Wallace had told several individuals that she was going to “get her” (meaning Hobbs) for the Facebook comment.

Hobbs worked for the late attorney Jack Quarant, who died in July 2012.

Shortly after being sworn into office later that same year, Wallace presented an application for a search warrant to judge Paul Lamar.

Wallace told Judge Lamar that her personal investigator (and suspected romantic fling) Tom Maynor had written the application.

Disclosure sources indicate that Wallace was the one who wrote the application and had Maynor sign it, which would make her guilty of perjury, official misconduct, and malicious prosecution just to name a few, if anyone would decide to push it.

The case was ultimately thrown out by Lamar, who said there was no evidence for the charge ever being filed.

In a phone conversation with Disclosure publisher Jack Howser (who didn’t know about the falsifying of the application at the time) earlier this year, Wallace expressed that she was outraged over Lamar’s decision.

Emotionally distraught

Hobbs’ 12-year-old son was having a very difficult time over visitation with his biological father.

In January 2013 the boy, very upset after years of reportedly being stood up by his father for court-ordered visitation, didn’t want to go, and so Hobbs didn’t force the emotionally distraught boy.

Hobbs was later cited for Unlawful Child Visitation Interference.

The boy later went for a visit.

In February 2013 Hobbs filed a motion to suspend visitation.

Her ex-husband Jeff Dutton had been given what is considered the usual visitation schedule common in divorces involving children.

He had been granted no more than two consecutive weekends from 6 p.m. Friday to 6 p.m. on Sunday when home on leave from Bluegrass Marina.

Dutton was required to provide 36 hours notice to Hobbs before exercising visitation.

Adoption sought

On December 11, 2012, an adoption case was filed wherein Julie Hobbs’ current husband Gregg Hobbs was seeking to adopt the child.

Hobbs was asking the court to suspend all visitation until a ruling could be made in the adoption case because of the emotional damage the visitation was causing with the child.

Judge T. Scott Webb of White County, to whom the case was handed, said the undisputed testimony in the case revealed Dutton had exercised visitation with the child on only four occasions since 2008 which included three hours May 17, 2010, for six hours on January 8, 2011, six hours on January 15, 2011, and for a period of time on January 18, 2013 that lasted approximately 40 hours.

Webb said that prior to 2008, Dutton’s interest in seeing the child had been greater.

“However, the father (Dutton) testified that he ‘gave up’ on seeing his child after 2008,” Webb wrote in his decision.

After 2008 Dutton sent no birthday cards, one Christmas card and purchased no birthday or Christmas gifts for the child.

Dutton admitted that his interest in seeing the child has increasing since the filing of the adoption case.

Crushed over being stood up

Hobbs testified to several instances during which the child would get dressed in anticipation of his father coming to pick him up and he would not show, causing the child to go to his room and cry.

“This type of behavior subsided over time and the child no longer desires to visit his father,” Judge Webb wrote. “The child is currently in counseling at his request as he expressed a desire to speak with someone about being so hurt and upset regarding his father’s apparent lack of interest in his life. The child gets very upset and does not want to comply with the visitation order when he learns that his father is seeking visitation.”

Webb conducted an in-camera (private) interview with the child and said in his decision that he observed the child’s body language and vocal inflections during the interview.

Afraid mother would go to jail

“He appeared moderately nervous but no more than a normal 13-year-old child would be, given the circumstances,” Webb wrote. “He was poised and willing to converse with the court.”

Webb said the young boy expressed a strong desire to cut off all ties with his father and spoke of instances where the police came to his house to enforce visitation and he was concerned his mother would go to jail.

“He said the only reason he went in January 2013 was because he did not want his mother to get into trouble,” Webb wrote. “He indicated that he had no bed to sleep in when he spent the night with his father and there were no clothes for him to wear. He said he spent most of his visitation time watching television and that his father paid little attention to him.”

Suspended visitation in March 2013

Webb went on to take the unusual step of suspending Dutton’s visitation until there was a ruling on the pending adoption case.

“Not only is it apparent that the child wishes not to visit his father, but also that said visits are upsetting to the child. He is currently in counseling because of the strained relationship with his father and gets upset when the prospect of visiting his father arises. The fact that he only visits his father because he is afraid his mother will go to jail if he refuses, is an overwhelming burden that no child should have to shoulder,” Webb wrote in his final decision. “Moreover, for all practical purposes, the child and the father barely know each other. Sixty hours of visitation over a five-year period hardly qualifies as quality time. While the mother did not call a psychologist related to the current situation, it is apparent the child is experiencing mental and/or emotional problems related to the current situation.

“The court finds that requiring the child to adhere to the 2007 visitation schedule would seriously endanger his mental and emotional health.”

Wallace pursues charges against Hobbs anyway

Even after that very specific written decision by Judge Webb detailing the boy’s fear of his mother getting in trouble, Wallace continued her relentless prosecution of Hobbs, calling in a special prosecutor Tambra Cain, Johnson County State’s Attorney.

Hobbs was found innocent of the charge of Unlawful Child Visitation Interference in a Nov. 15, 2013 bench trial.

But she lives in fear that Wallace will make another attempt to convict her of anything she can because of a comment on her Facebook page that she claims she didn’t even write.

“What kind of a heartless bitch pursues something like this knowing she could cause more damage to an already troubled child? Does she not have children of her own?” asked one individual who has been following the case. “What the hell is she going to try next? Hobbs should sue her ass off.”

EDGAR CO.—The investigation into the death of an Edgar County pilot took a dramatic turn on the evening of Monday, November 18, 2013.

That was when two airplanes, owned by Bryan Phillips of Terre Haute, were bombed/set afire as well as vandalized while sitting at the tarmac at the Edgar County Airport in rural Paris, Illinois.

Bryan Phillips is the Terre Haute man who owned the aircraft pilot Rusty Bogue, of RSB Aviation, was flying for Phillips when the craft went down in a wooded area outside of the airport, shortly after takeoff, on August 27 of this year.

The fire and vandalism came on the heels of the publication of a detailed timeline leading up to the death of Bogue being published in Disclosure’s November edition (Nov. 6).

It also occurred three years after a war of wills was being waged within the Edgar County airport between the airport manager Jimmy Wells and his buddy, airport board member Chris Patrick, and the man who would later die in the plane crash, Rusty Bogue.

It was this war that the very revealing timeline—which points out that Patrick, who was on the board of Citizens Bank at the time, asked Bogue to conduct illegal activity as regards Phillips’ airplanes—was set to outline. The timeline noted not only the request Patrick made of Bogue as regards illegalities with Phillips’ planes, but noted that Phillips had fallen behind in his loan payments on them at the bank where Patrick was on the board.

The shocking act of what can only be termed terrorism at the airport has underscored the importance of the public learning exactly what kind of machinations are going on within Edgar County entities, and not only the excessive waste of taxpayers’ dollars, but the sheer criminality to which those in the business of wasting those dollars will stoop in order to maintain the status quo.

Observed by passerby

The fires were reported to authorities at about 10:10 p.m. the night of the 18th, by an individual passing by the airport at that time. The individual phoned 911 at that time.

There has been no estimate given as to what time the fires may have actually been started.

Responding fire and law enforcement officials were able to extinguish the fires but the planes were both a total loss.

After the blazes and smoke had cleared, responding officials noticed that on the side of each airplane, someone had written words with dayglo orange spray paint.

On one plane was written “This Is Our Airport.” On the other was “Fuck Rob.”

The second message was most likely directed toward Robert Bogue, Rusty’s father.

Rob Bogue immediately contacted the Illinois Department of Transportation Director of Aeronautics division, Susan Shay, and made a request that she shut down the airport until a thorough investigation into the matter could be conducted.

As of press time, the airport remained open.

Disclosure reached the communications director for Shay’s department, Paris Ervin, the day after the fire, but Ervin explained that Shay would likely not be commenting on whether or not such a thing as shutting down the airport would take place.

ATF, FBI and possible IP subpoenas

However, because of a discovery on one of the airplanes, an additional investigative agency came to Paris to enter their appearance into the matter in less than 24 hours.

An undetonated explosive device had been found on one of the airplanes. This brought in agents from the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to the scene.

And in less than 48 hours, two agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation Champaign office were present as well, because any tampering with an aircraft is considered a federal crime, and thus warrants the FBI’s presence.

The remains of the airplanes became part of a federal investigation, which was being methodically conducted as of press time.

As part of the investigation, some incriminating posts on the McClatchy-owned topix.com website, made the night before the fires, seemingly implying that someone knew something was going to happen, have also been pointed out to investigators.

One post listed a formula of sorts for an explosive device. Another described antics of someone driving from Kansas to Paris and made reference to “my boys.”

Another post, written by screen name “ashs to ashs,” stated “Ashs to ashs dust to dust have a merry Fnnn…Christmas ho ho.”

The sender’s IP address shows up on topix as Danville, which is an area where servers for many local cell phones in Edgar are sited.

Fortunately, one of the easiest things for federal agents to do is obtain a subpoena for a website such as topix, especially if the matter is one of a security nature.

Timeline takes up a year ago in November

In the wake of the explosion and fire, this month the timeline of events leading up to Rusty Bogue’s death continues, picking up with November-December 2012, when scrutiny was coming upon the airport and certain financial records.

The timeline this issue begins on November 30, 2012, when attempts to resolve a hangar lease termination airport manager Jimmy Wells handed Rusty Bogue fell through, after both Jayne Brown and Casey Bogue went, on separate occasions, to visit Chris Patrick, newly-elected to the Edgar County board, at his business, Zimmerly Concrete.

Upon Patrick taking the oath of office in early December 2012, it came to the attention of the Edgar County Watchdogs that the issue, according to Wells, was his perception that Bogue wasn’t paying workmen’s compensation insurance.

Upon publication by the Watchdogs that Bogue was indeed paying such insurance, during the months of November-December, Wells, in consultation with Mark Isaf, the Edgar County State’s Attorney, denies access to public records, financial records of the airport. When asked why, Isaf advised the Watchdogs that they “did not have the right to ‘audit’ all the financial records of the airport,” this despite the fact that Illinois’ Local Records Act and the Freedom of Information Act gives anyone the right to do so.

Restricted work space

Nevertheless, on December 22, 2012, Bogue asked Jayne Brown to “come to the airport to be a witness in case anything happened.”

Upon arrival she noticed Wells taping off the section of the hanger that he said Bogue was not renting. This section was the northeast corner of the main hanger. This meant that Bogue was limited to only working on small airplanes. Bogue explained to Wells that this was Wells’ area that he had his plane in (Wells had not been paying rent and believed this to be a perk of his position despite the fact it was not in his employee contract).

Wells got in Bogue’s face, and state that he wasn’t even paying his own (Bogue’s) rent, a statement Bogue questioned. Their rent had always been paid by debit card each month by Lisa Gill (Chris Patrick’s current girlfriend for whom he made a position at the airport as a secretary) charging the card. This was paid each month automatically. Bogue then went to Gill and asked her if the rent had been charged to his debit card. Gill tells him no. When questioned why, she said that Wells had told her not to do so. All of this was witnessed by Jayne Brown. At some point Wells asks Dale Barkley to listen to his and Bogue’s conversation. Shortly thereafter, Dale quietly excuses himself.

Attempts to block business

In December 2012, Wells tells Bogue to remove an airplane that was being worked on for a client in the main hanger, so that Wells can park a snowplow in the main hanger (this had never been done before in the three years he had been there). It is December and a snowstorm had been forecast, but Wells tells Bogue he needs the snowplow in hanger so he can ‘paint’ it. Bogue explains that this plane has to be done that day and delivered. It is soon noticed that the snowplow had been parked outside two main hanger doors blocking access and making delivery to Bogue’s client impossible. RSB Aviation’s lawyers, Sheriff Ed Motley, and one or two of the county board members are called by Bogue and informed of situation. The snowplow is eventually removed.

In the meanwhile, at the December 3, 2012 county board meeting, the board was being informed that Wells was storing his private airplane in the hangar without paying rent on the space…to which Patrick makes a feeble attempt at justifying.

Regardless of this, on December 8, it was reported that Wells removed his private plane from the hangar he hadn’t been paying rent on.

To date, there has been no rent paid for the hangar space.

The timeline takes up again with January information in the December 18, 2013 edition….and just maybe, with an arrest in the fire, explosion and vandalism of the airplanes at the Edgar County Airport.

HARDIN CO.— When Robert Trigg, 30, and his wife Deena Schuff, 26, were arrested in Rosiclare in July they had no idea the nightmare in the guise of state’s attorney Tara Wallace that was about to be unleashed on their lives.

Indiana court documents indicate that Trigg was wanted on an outstanding warrant for theft in that state.

Following a July 11 traffic stop in Rosiclare, both Trigg and his wife were taken into custody on charges of Unlawful Possession of a Stolen Vehicle when the plates on the 1991 Chevy Silverado they were driving came back stolen.

Both were booked into the county jail on that date and immediately Wallace began her little dance of betrayal.

Tried to get wife to testify against husband

Despite preliminary hearings (during which the threshold of evidence is very low as a rule), in which lawmen testified they had no proof that Schuff or Trigg knowingly had possession of a stolen vehicle, Wallace convinced Judge Paul Lamar the couple should be held for trial.

“We were co-defendants in the case,” Trigg told Disclosure. “Tara Wallace asked my wife to testify against me. She told my wife she would put me away for 14 years and dismiss all the charges against her.”

As with nearly every stunt Wallace has tried since being elected to office, this too backfired in her face…and she didn’t like it.

“My wife said she just laughed in the state’s attorney’s face and said, ‘I am not about to lie for you and put my husband in prison’,” Trigg said. “My wife said the state’s attorney’s face turned beet red and she said she would see the both of us in prison.”

Wife pleads, charges against husband dismissed…but…

On August 26, Schuff took a plea deal to one count of Aid/Abet/Possession of Stolen Vehicle and was sentenced to three years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Since Schuff took responsibility for the stolen vehicle, charges against Trigg were dismissed on August 26 as well.

It is unclear if Wallace actually filed formal charges against Trigg or not.

What is clear is that from August 26 until October 8, he sat behind bars with no charges whatsoever legally holding him there.

A Disclosure judicial source said Wallace could have filed a charge against Trigg of Fleeing From Justice because of an Indiana warrant on bad check charges, but that she violated his Constitutional Rights by just holding him in a jail cell for no reason.

Trigg said he got word to Wallace that he would not fight extradition to Indiana on the bad check charges.

“But that at least requires a hearing,” the judicial source said. “It’s not like Mr. Trigg could just sign papers and get on a bus or in a police cruiser. There must be a proper hearing and he be given the opportunity to fight said extradition.”

That didn’t happen.

Judge expresses alarm over situation

Trigg said that despite several attempts to get Wallace to either charge him in Hardin County or set up an extradition hearing, she refused.

“I made sure she knew that Indiana had a Governor’s Warrant for me and all I needed was that hearing,” Trigg said. “She refused.”

In a court hearing on October 8, Judge Lamar ordered Wallace and Trigg both brought into the courtroom.

Judge Lamar asked Wallace point-blank, “Why is this man still being held in my jail?”

While Wallace stood there like a very large stump, Trigg told the judge that Indiana had a Governor’s Warrant and that he had made Wallace aware of it on several occasions.

When Judge Lamar looked at Wallace, she said she didn’t know anything about the Governor’s Warrant or any attempt by Trigg to inform her of it.

Lamar wrote in the record sheet “Defendant in custody; Defendant has been in custody on Indiana Warrant; Defendant has been held since 8/27/13. No charges have been filed in H.C. (Hardin County); Defendant ordered released since no charges have been filed.”

When Disclosure contacted Wallace at both her office and home about the matter, she refused to even come to the phone.

Sources have told Disclosure that Judge Lamar voiced concern over Wallace’s stunt, saying, “We (the county) are responsible for this…”

It is not clear if Trigg intends to sue Wallace at this point over violations of Constitutionally-protected rights.

WILLIAMSON CO.—A happenstance overhear of an apparently unscheduled and therefore, un-agenda’d, meeting of Williamson County board members has raised questions over how many full board meetings are held without the public being advised of them.

Disclosure staffers were at the county’s administrative building in Marion on Thursday, November 14, 2013, following up on a tragic accident that took the life of a Harrisburg woman the day before (see website for details) as well as delivering Freedom of Information Act requests when staff overheard loud voices coming from what was marked as a “storage room” off to the side of the county board meeting room on the second floor of the building.

Room 226, clearly marked “Storage Room,” seemed an odd place for what seemed to be a serious meeting of what sounded, judging by the conversation, like public officials.

As Disclosure staff listened, a gruff voice opined about letting something “wait til December 31st,” and how that, in his vulgarity-filled opinion, was a bad idea.

The man, whose voice was deep and booming, analogized letting the matter (whatever it was) sit until that time to a “festering sore on your leg, and you’re gonna let it sit until December 31st? F^*k no; you’re gonna take care of it right now!”

Other voices joined in on the opining, but were not so booming and thus weren’t easy to understand through the closed double doors of the “storage closet.”

However, the first voice came back, telling the others “It’s time to rock n roll!” and that they had to “get on this.

“They’re gonna do what they’re told,” the man said, “or we’re gonna take em in front of the group!”

Scrambling

Less than a week later, Disclosure was able to obtain access to the scheduling book for the county board, as well as for the board room.

On that date in question (Nov. 14), there were no meetings scheduled. However, Disclosure confirmed that the county commissioners had been using the room at that time.

The room, it was explained, was actually a “lunch room” and was “mismarked,” by the contractor who put up the building, as a “storage room.”

On the day this discovery was being made (Thursday, Nov. 21), the plaque noting that Room 226 was a “storage room” was conspicuously absent, having been removed since Disclosure first brought the situation to the public’s attention a week prior (see photo).

Disclosure sources inquired of the situation of the county board’s receptionist, asking for the agenda for that particular meeting being held during the 3 p.m. hour on Thursday, Nov. 14, as well as for the minutes of the meeting (which public bodies are required by state law to keep).

The receptionist advised that the meeting in question “wasn’t an open meeting, therefore, there was no agenda and no minutes kept.”

This, according to the schedule book, was reflected accordingly: the only thing on the receptionist’s book for that date was “tax sale.”

And this poses a serious problem for the Williamson County board.

5 ILCS 120

According to Illinois law (5 ILCS 120, Illinois Open Meetings Act), all meetings of a public body must have an agenda made available to the public and media no less than 48 hours prior to the meeting.

Further, the Act is very strict as to what a quorum is: A quorum is a majority of the board.

Quorums may not meet and discuss business, even under casual circumstances (coffee, lunch, golf, etc).

On a three-member board (which Williamson County is), two of three members constitutes a quorum; therefore, even two county commissioners cannot meet and discuss county business.

In particular, they certainly cannot meet out of the public’s eye (in a storage room, regardless of the intent, or contents, of the room) and certainly not without an agenda having been produced and published at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting.

This doesn’t seem to dissuade Williamson County, however.

Union meeting

To make matters worse, Disclosure sources confirmed that on the NEXT day, Friday, Nov. 15, yet ANOTHER meeting was held in Room 226, this one noted on the schedule book as “Union.”

Commissioner Jim Marlo advised Disclosure’s source that all three commissioners were present for the “union” meeting with John Huffman, who represents the AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) union, on that date.

Marlo advised that “sometimes personal employee issues are discussed” at these meetings, and “therefore it’s not an ‘Open Meetings Act’ meeting.”

There was no one from the county’s state’s attorney’s office (the county’s legal counsel) present, Marlo said.

This might have been the drawback, as, if Wendy Cunningham (assistant state’s attorney) from prosecutor Chuck Garnati’s office had been present, she might have noted that to have an unannounced, unrecorded, full-quorum meeting behind closed doors for any reason was the height of illegality for the commissioners to engage in.

‘Thayut’s tha way 

we’ve allweez dunnit’

Disclosure is in the process of submitting, or having associates submit, FOIA requests to show whether this is an ongoing practice with the county board, as well as whether they have “always done it that way” for so long that they have lost sight of what Illinois Compiled Statutes present as guidelines about how public bodies are supposed to conduct business.

The FOIA process has become complicated in both Marion and Williamson County, as information is being uncovered that is showing startling irregularities in the operations of both entities, operations which could conceivably be very expensive to the taxpayer.

Of late, FOIAs submitted by Marion residents Lily Abbott and Ann Colborn about the operations of both entities have been unanswered, intentionally, and the attorney general’s office has opened a case on one of them.

In one case that the AG’s office has opened for the city of Marion regarding a complaint Abbott made only recently, the FOIA Abbott issued to the city of Marion dates back originally to September, when she was seeking copies of complete bank statements including all checks for four city bank accounts for the seven-year period from mid-2006 through mid-2013.

The city said they’d comply with the request, but told Abbott they wanted $3,750 for copies, and wanted extra time, claiming that the request was “burdensome.”

So as to avoid the egregious cost, and to reduce the burden, Abbott resubmitted the FOIA, stating that she would accept electronic copies instead of hard copies, thus creating ease for the city, as most checking accounts now submit little checks photocopies and placed on bank statements, and these were available electronically to the accountholder.

The second request was on October 2, 2013. The city responded that her request was “duplicative” (which many entities are using as an excuse these days to clarification requests, as the state allows the entity to claim “duplicative” if a FOIA request really IS; in this case, it was not, since a resubmission for material in a different form is not a duplication, but a resubmission) and as a result, on Nov. 5, they refused it.

The attorney general’s office received Abbott’s request for review and on Nov. 19, advised city attorney Alice Rix that they would be expecting an explanation (response) within five days.

The results of that response will be featured in upcoming editions of Disclosure, as will the results of the county’s FOIAs.

WILLIAMSON CO.—A Johnston City woman is awaiting extradition from Tennessee after authorities have alleged that she murdered another Johnston City woman in mid-November.

Tamera Williams, 30, is being officially charged with multiple counts of murder in Williamson County after the body of Barbara Beers, 66, was found south of Marion on Friday, Nov. 15, 2013.

The discovery was made by authorities after a call came in to Williamson County’s 911 dispatch at about 3:30 p.m. that day; the caller was a neighbor to the yard on McInturf Lane, located about six miles south of Marion just off Hudgens Road, where Mrs. Beers’ body was found. Hudgens Road is accessible to the north-south state highway 37, which is not far from Interstate 57.

Reports to Disclosure indicate that the initial discovery of Mrs. Beers’ body was believed by the person who saw it, as a passerby, to be discarded trash, giving the impression that the body had been hastily dumped with little regard to the location before whoever placed it there moved on.

Stabbed multiple times

Mrs. Beers had been stabbed multiple times; while that was not determined immediately to have been cause of death, a later autopsy showed it to be the case.

When Williamson County investigators identified the body as that of Mrs. Beers, they quickly learned that her vehicle had been taken. Developing leads possibly from cell phone pings (Jackson County sources had reported to Disclosure that there was interest in pings discovered to have come from south of Crab Orchard Lake in the hours immediately following the discovery of the body, but no further information was made available), investigators stated their belief that Williams had taken Mrs. Beers’ car and was already out of Illinois, and on her way to Georgia.

Williamson County investigators did not reveal what it was that prompted them to believe Williams could be on her way to Georgia, although the immediate inference might be to be with family. But that, as well as how authorities were able to “track” her (as stated in a Williamson County Sheriff’s Department press release), went unexplained.

TBI, highway patrol on it

What is known is that Tennessee Bureau of Investigations as well as Tennessee Highway Patrol (state police), were able to join the effort and took Williams into custody later on the 15th following a traffic stop. The apprehension of Williams occurred without incident, and in Lavergne, Tennessee, in Rutherford County.

Unfortunately for the Illinois situation, Rutherford County charged Williams with a count of Theft (possession of a stolen vehicle), a count of being a Fugitive from Justice, and a Driving on Revoked License citation. She is being held at the Rutherford County Jail pending determination of outcome on those charges.

Williamson County investigators traveled to Rutherford County and retrieved the vehicle in order to process it for evidence in the death investigation.

On Sunday, Nov. 17, Williamson County’s assistant state’s attorney’s office issued four counts of First Degree Murder against Williams for the Beers homicide.

Assistant State’s Attorney Lisa Irvin filed the charges, the first alleging that Williams stabbed Beers, thereby causing her death; the second, that Williams stabbed Beers multiple times about the head, throat and body, knowing that act would cause her death and thereby causing her death; the third, that Williams stabbed Beers about the head, neck and body with a knife knowing such act created a strong probability of death or bodily harm and thereby caused her death; and the fourth that while committing a forcible felony (Aggravated Vehicular Hijacking), Williams stabbed Beers, a person over 60, about the head, neck and body while in the process of taking Beers’ car, thereby causing her death.

Williams’ bond was set at a million dollars.

No court appearance has been set for Williams in Williamson County.

Family gives backstory

Family of Beers told Disclosure in the hours following the discovery of her body that it was believed Beers had been approached by Williams on the day in question, and possibly asked if she would provide some kind of assistance, possibly even giving a ride to her all the way to Georgia.

Beers, said her family members, was a very kind, quiet woman who had worked at the Blue Cross Insurance office and pretty much kept to herself.

They said that on the day in question, she was visiting her son, Jason Beers, who had moved in to the same housing project in Johnston City as Williams; Jason had reportedly been there about a month.

A family member told Disclosure that when Williams asked Beers for a ride, Jason Beers advised his mom not to do it. But because of Barbara Beers’ kind nature, she did indeed offer Williams a ride; where to, at this point, is unknown, but the results of it, unfortunately, are.

SALINE CO.— The public’s differing view of whether or not George Zimmerman, who brought more fame as well as shame on the Neighborhood Watch program than any single individual, did the right or wrong thing in his situation not withstanding, the case has spawned a plethora of unhinged, untrained, vigilante cop-wannabes determined to patrol their neighborhoods enforcing whatever laws they see fit, how they see fit.

Such appears to be the case with the arguably unstable twin brother of Harrisburg Detective Curt Hustedde.

Curt’s much larger brother Carl Boyd Hustedde, 45, resides in Carrier Mills and has been busy recently attempting to start his own gun-toting patrol in the Mills with a promise to spread out to “bigger things.”

Hustedde’s efforts were brought to Disclosure’s attention after more than a few concerned citizens began reading his Facebook page wherein he promoted “recruitment meetings.”

***

The comments began in early-to-mid October, and proceeded through early November.

Amongst the first, Carl Hustedde posted:

“Neighborhood Watch Recruitment meeting tonight at the Carrier Mills Municipal building at 7 pm.

“This will not be long at all. Just need your name, addy, phone #, social security #, drivers Lic #, and times you can volunteer to patrol. Then you can go home now how easy is that : )

“We will be having meetings in the future and will have Police coming in to give us direction/maybe some training on what we can do to help them and legal issues and all kinds of stuff.”

***

It wasn’t the content of his Facebook posts, but the information Hustedde seemed to be asking volunteers for that had many wondering exactly what he was up to.

“Maybe that’s the way that kind of thing is done, but it didn’t feel right him asking for social security numbers and all the information we are always told to keep safe,” said one concerned citizen.

Terrorism training and Homeland Security

As time went by, Hustedde’s posts became a bit more bizarre, talking about being trained by the federal government because “them having more power now.”

***

Carl Hustedde posted:

“The Justice Department and National Sheriffs Association has expanded the role of NW (Neighborhood Watch) and has changed the name after 9/11 to ‘USA on Watch’ to give a lil more power and additional training on terrorism, homeland security, natural disasters, and training to be a first responder. It will be up to you as to how far you wanna go in this organization.”

***

Hustedde went on to give a peek at just how far he wanted to take his “organization.”

“I would like to just focus on our Village at first then set Harrisburg up with one before we tackle the big stuff,” he posted.

It is not clear exactly how far Hustedde intended to go once he was “set up” in Harrisburg or what he was referring to by ‘the big stuff.’

‘WE OWN THIS HOOD’!

It is unclear if Hustedde was in need of the medication he was rumored to have needed in the past or what, but several days after the “big stuff” post he actually posted threats to anyone who bothered anybody at the apartment complex he was living in.

***

Carl Hustedde posted:

“OK EVERYONE NEEDS TO LISTEN UP IF YOU LIVE IN CARRIER MILLS !!!! I have had 1 idiot Violating Private Property, Disturbing The Peace, and Mob Action at the apartment I live in and all the neighbors in the complex got cussed out by the assailant in the same night, I know thats why I said idiot. One of my best friends who is also a neighbor had 2 idiots outside her living room window. SO, FROM NOW ON THESE ARE THE RULES. If you are not a tenant or have friends or family visiting tenants at Pankey Road Apartments In Carrier Mills then you are VIOLATING THE LAW BY TRESPASSING. As administrator and founder of the Neighborhood Watch Program YOU WILL BE MET WITH SUCH ACTION AS TAZERING, STUN GUN, or PEPPER SPRAY and whatever means necessary to protect the home and address of The Neighborhood Watch Program and afterwards the Police will be here to escort you to jail and we will file charges against anyone who knowingly breaks the law and thinks that they are gonna start trouble here. WE the tenants OWN THIS HOOD SO I WOULD THINK TWICE BEFORE YOU COME OVER AND HAVE A MANIC OR BI POLAR EPISODE.”

***

What is disturbing is the diminishment of the police’s role in this situation; all the “actions” the “idiots” would be “met with” are served up by the Neighborhood Watch members, then the police would “escort you to jail” and “we” (presumably the Neighborhood Watch people) would “file charges” (something that is not their job; that is the job of the county’s prosecutor.)

It seems clear that Hustedde was going to handle whatever situation he felt he had on his hands any way he saw fit and maybe call authorities later.

There is also an absence of anything resembling understanding that there are citizens who suffer from mental illness and maybe shouldn’t be treated like a common, violent thug….something those close to Hustedde says he should understand fully.

“Rules hold us back”

Sources indicate that when Hustedde started having his authority questioned and asked about the legitimacy of what he was attempting to create, he became angry and started checking with the National Neighborhood Watch Institute to confirm his vision.

It turns out the “Justice Department and National Sheriffs Association and the NW” all informed Hustedde he would actually be committing crimes and violating the law if continued on his current course of action.

And that’s when it appears Hustedde crossed the line, which many believed he never acknowledged in the first place, from concerned citizen to one of the plethora of unhinged, untrained, vigilante cop-wannabes determined to patrol their neighborhoods enforcing whatever laws they see fit, how they see fit.

***

Carl Hustedde posted:

“Wrestling about what to do about NW after calling The National Institute I did not realize the rules on us members that hold us back from doing our job and that we are to only watch and call 911 if anything is going down. Well thats plain dumb cuz theres never a cop when you need one and that is not protecting ourselves and the community. Now everyone has a right to protect themselves but NW has not changed their rules with today’s criminals so sometimes you have more personal freedom then you would if you were a member of NW.”

***

Looks at “terrorist training and combat training”

Hustedde goes on to say he has begun looking at other organizations that would give his the “power” he seems to be seeking.

***

Carl Hustedde posted:

“I’m looking at maybe going with the organization called Guardian Angels. They are more of a militant organization taking down drug dealers, terrorist groups, burglars and are really bad ass compared to NW and takes advantage of protection laws to protect our freedom to enforce the law as a citizen. Police that may try to interfere with your role as protecting your community, They send the law packets and everything showing how to exercise your rights freely and what to do if the Police interfere with your protections and rights and how to fight em in court. They also send training DVD’s on terrorist training, combat training and much more. ANYWAY just throwing it out there, I’d really like some feedback on this plzzzzzz because its your village and we are only trying to get it back to normal.”

***

That last post brought the comments out but not the ones Hustedde was looking for.

“Going off the deep end”

***

Carl Hustedde posted:

Well, The Guardian Angels are Similar to the structure of the neighborhood watch, only it’s an establishment that’s based in the inner-city population. I rode the train in New York many times with them on board. They can’t do any more than the NW patrols. I think you’re thinking of the Black Panther party when you mean militant, LOL!

Commenter 1

Because power-tripping, untrained vigilantism is *always* a good idea. Holy cow man, use your head. Are you trying to get on a domestic terrorist list? You don’t post this kind of stuff publicly! Furthermore, Guardian Angels educate not act, not sure where you got your info from… but you might want to do some more research.

Commenter 2

Watch being the key word people doing what they want is how children with skittles in their hands get killed. Working with the police was a great idea watching reporting testifying that sort of thing makes a difference

Commenter 3

Wow, Carl, I think you’re going off the deep end. Seriously. Yeah, like (name deleted) said, don’t know where you got your info about the Guardian Angels, but they are in no way an ACTIVE vigilante organization.

Another option you could try is to move out

***

Police officers chime in

During the same course of conversation Carl Hustedde suggested that Carrier Mills needed some kind of organization, even if it were militant, because there was never a cop either on duty, or on duty when you needed one.

That comment brought several officers into the conversation including Carl’s twin brother Detective Curt Hustedde.

***

Hardin County Deputy/Carrier Mills Officer Shawn Turner:

Ok, I am starting to take offense on there are no cops in the Mills…….it’s kind of funny after my 40 in Hardin I put in 29 hrs in the Mills, Duncan puts in 40 and Rubright puts in 40, Stover is back and puts in as much as I do……….so therefore for there to be no cops in the Mills I find that statement to be a farce.

I would say my wife , son and step daughter would argue with the time I’m gone weekly , there are cops in Carrier Mills.

Harrisburg Detective/Carl’s brother Curt Hustedde:

I guess I’m out. This notion about going militant is crazy. Carrier Mills is a nice community with crime well below the national average. It has problems like any other small town but crime in not running rampant in Carrier Mills. Carrier Mills has more that adequate police coverage. I’ve not heard anyone else complain about such a thing.

Deputy/Officer Turner:

Carl, I’m sure there is a want to be a cop in there somewhere but here’s the “new rules” that I personally have observed in my time being a law enforcement officer, within the last 15 years there seems to be a turning point where the cops now have to “play by the rules” and the bad guys don’t……… now, every I has to be dotted and every T crossed, not that that’s a bad thing, just steps up the game a little bit. And bringing in a “militant” group I can assure you would be met with very strong resistance. I am sure they wouldn’t even consider a chapter there. Carrier Mills is mild compared to the other towns in the county, If it were me I’d be glad to live there and just do the watch deal, being a cop isn’t about “cracking heads” , it’s supposed to be about helping people, upholding the laws of the municipality, State of Illinois and the United States. I dunno where you’re getting this vigilante image but it is not the “real world”. And once again I am not trying to be negative to your concerns, but I am being realistic, this is not the New World Order bub.

Carl backs down

As the number of people increased voicing concern over Carl Hustedde’s quick advance from an out-of-control neighborhood watch program to getting terrorist training, he seemed to back down and everybody started apologizing if they were “taken the wrong way.”

Commenter 4:

Carl I think everyone is right man. You need to seriously reconsider things. You form a militant group and people are going to push back when you start throwing weight around you don’t have the ass to back up.

Carl Hustedde:

Hell all this mess over petty things is gonna make me start drinking again

Deputy/Officer Turner:

now I think you are taking what I stated the wrong way lol ….it’s ok, I’ve been told I’m a little harsh at times.

the mention of a militia group in Carrier Mills is a little bit more than “petty” my friend lol

Carl Hustedde:

thats kewl and I do take things out of context I admit i make a mistake or 2 and I do like you to Shawn I think your a great addition to CMPD and a lot of what i gripe about is how stuff was before you got here so plz don’t take offense.

Commenter 3

Carl, the question is, why don’t you just become a cop like your brother?

Carl Hustedde:

A lot of my “kiddy fits” i throw is over the short term lack of Police we had in the village when Stover and Billy was gone and before Shawn was here and even I was scared. These people were breaking the law, thugs drug dealing and people just didn’t feel safe. NOW the whole gang is back which is good and will eventually lead to the end of the Carrier Mills Neighborhood Watch Program or someone else taking it over.

Hustedde drunk with 12-year-old son

Carl Hustedde’s stability could very well be measured by an event in 2009 when he threatened to cave in a woman’s head.

According to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, on December 29, 2009, at approximately 6:16 p.m. Carrier Mills officer Billy Duncan was dispatched to 106 Deborah Ann Drive to investigate a report of someone trying to take a child without permission.

The reporting party, later identified as Carl Hustedde, told telecommunicator Janice Edwards that two females were at his apartment, trying to take his child.

When officer Duncan arrived at the 106 Deborah Ann Drive he noted it was not an apartment but a single-family dwelling and contacted dispatch and advised they must have been given a wrong address.

Telecommunicator Edwards advised that Hustedde had just called back and was now saying the two females that had been trying to take his child had left.

Hustedde advised he didn’t need police after all.

Threatened murder THEN called police 

At 6:27 p.m. officer Curt Hustedde contacted officer Duncan and asked him if he would meet him at Carl Hustedde’s apartment, located at 106 Pankey Rd., #2, Carrier Mills.

Duncan met Curt Hustedde at the apartment and was told by Curt that Carl had been drinking and was “totally irrational.”

“Carl has his 12-year-old son inside his apartment,” Curt Hustedde told Duncan.

Curt Hustedde told officer Duncan that Carl did not have any rights to his son and that the boy’s maternal grandmother was his legal guardian.

Curt was talking to Carl by phone.

Carl refused to answer the door or to speak to his brother or Duncan in person.

At approximately 6:35 p.m. deputy Wes Bebout arrived to assist.

Whitney Hustedde told officers she and her sister had been at Carl’s apartment earlier to drop off the boy to spend the night but when they realized Carl had been drinking and was not rational, she decided to turn around and go home with the boy.

She said at that point Carl became agitated and started yelling.

“Carl pushed Whitney away from the boy then pushed her down,” Duncan wrote in his report. “He then threatened to bash her skull in.”

Whitney said that’s when she called officer Curt Hustedde.

And that’s the time Carl called dispatch to report two women trying to take his son.

Sprays officers with pepper-spray

At approximately 6:35, officer Hustedde called David Diefenbach, in order to obtain a key to drunk Carl’s apartment.

The boy inside had been texting his mother telling her he was scared and that Carl was yelling at him.

“We were concerned for the safety of the child and decided to make entry,” Duncan said. “I spoke briefly with Carl and told him we would have to talk face to face with the boy to determine if he was safe or not.”

Duncan said that based on information he had obtained from Whitney Hustedde, he had decided he would arrest Carl for domestic battery.

At approximately 6:48 p.m. Diefenbach arrived on scene and used his master key.

“We announced our entry by shouting ‘POLICE!’,” Duncan said. “Carl was attempting to hold the door shut. He then stood back and as deputy Bebout, officer Hustedde and I moved forward, Carl Hustedde sprayed us with O.C. pepper-spray.”

Had to be TASERed

Duncan pursued Carl into the bedroom at the rear of the apartment.

Carl still had the pepper-spray in his hand and was ordered to drop it or he would be TASERed.

“Carl refused to comply with my order,” Duncan said

And because Carl had actually sprayed all the officers, including his own brother, Duncan deployed his TASER, placed the laser dot-sight on Carl and pulled the trigger.

One lead struck Carl in the right tricep with the other probe striking Carl’s right thigh.

Carl went to the floor but retained his grip on the pepper-spray.

As soon as the TASER finished its five-second cycle, Duncan immediately climbed on top of the rather large man, grabbed his hands and placed him in handcuffs.

Not on his meds

“I spoke with Carl and he told me that he hadn’t taken his prescription medication at all today,” Duncan wrote. “As Carl spoke, I noted a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath. He seemed disoriented and was slurring his words. Carl asked if I could bring his medications to the jail with him.”

Officer Curt Hustedde went back to the apartment to collect Carl’s medications and key-ring.

Carl Hustedde was turned over to Saline County Detention Center officers at approximately 7:18 p.m.

He was booked on formal charges of two counts of Aggravated Battery of a Police Officer and one count of Domestic Battery.

On November 9, 2011 Carl Hustedde pleaded guilty to an amended charge of Battery and was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay $2,500 in fines and fees.

Maybe it was only a matter of a few days, but the math shows that Hustedde was still on probation when he began posting pictures of himself in a uniform, with a badge, a radio on a utility belt, holding what is purported to be a 9mm handgun.

“And he put a yellow light bar on top of his truck and these goofy magnetic signs with ‘Security’ stuck to the sides and tailgate,” said one bemused Carrier Mills resident. “That idiot is going to kill or get somebody killed if somebody doesn’t stop this crap.”

In the past Carl Hustedde has been charged with Disturbing the Peace, and Driving Under the Influence.

His financial difficulties has lead to judgments against him on behalf of First National Bank of Harrisburg in the amount of $601.16 with another $59 in court cost and $866 on behalf of Saline Valley Diagnostics Radiology with $137 in court costs.

Disclosure publisher blocked

In covering the story, Disclosure Publisher Jack Howser traveled to Pankey Apartments, drove into the parking lot, and had finished taking approximately four pictures of Hustedde’s truck with the lights and security magnets on it, when he was accosted.

Howser was walking back to his car when an older man and a young man walked up, stepped in front of him and asked him if he needed help.

“No, I am done here,” Howser replied stepping around the old man and walking to his car.

“Can I help you with something,” the older man asked stepping in front of Howser again.

“No, thanks. I am fine,” Howser said, stepped around the older man and continued walking.

“What’s your name?” the older man asked.

“I don’t have to answer your questions,” Howser responded.

“I own this place!” the older man said as he stepped in Howser’s path again and demanded his name.

Howser paused, locked eyes with the old man and said, “I am done here and am leaving.”

“Get his license plate number!” yelled the older man to a 20-something kid standing behind him.

Both the older man and kid walked behind Howser’s car.

“I wouldn’t block my exit,” Howser said. “That is a good way to get your dumb asses run over.”

He finally got it!

“I got it! I got it!” screeched the older man.

“That’s fine, go right on ahead,” Howser said, opened the door to his car and was getting in when the 20-something started across the parking lot.

“I am going to kick your ass motherf*&ker!” he shouted.

That’s when Howser stopped getting in the car.

Howser’s wife Angela, who was aiming and cuing up a video app on her cell phone, could be heard saying, “Shit. Get in the car.”

Howser smiled, winked at his wife, stood back up, turned back around, locked eyes with the 20-something and said, “Then walk your lanky ass over here and give it your best shot… bitch!” all of it caught on about 13 seconds of video.

Howser took one step away from the car and that’s when the 20-something averted his eyes, started walking backward and, after he had passed the older man, actually stepped behind him.

“That’s what I thought,” Howser said, got in his car and left.

When asked jokingly, in passing, by authorities later if he had been in Carrier Mills Howser said yes, “and somebody should train these idiots to know something about the people they block or corner. Threatening the wrong person with some serious military training could prove traumatic.”

Unclear of status

It is unclear if Carl Hustedde is through trying to create some group so he and his ilk can start taking care of “stuff” before “moving on to bigger things.”

If the confrontation with Howser is any indication, there still exists an antagonistic element in Carrier Mills who see themselves as some kind of modern day crusaders.

Disclosure will be checking to see if the Carrier Mills Neighborhood Watch actually gets off the ground or if Carl Hustedde has given up since his disappointment over not being able to pepper-spray and TASER people.

Here’s Lyndi with your Nightly NewsCap for the evening of Tuesday, November 26, 2013, after a busy day of deliveries of the BRAND NEW December SPECIAL EDITION (there will be another paper in December, on the 18th, so be sure you subscribe if you get the print version, as this is a bonus for you!) Your NewsCap is being brought to you by Bottle Junction in Newton!

Topics covered: Man arrested for exposing himself in Mt. Carmel store; a fifth death is reported in the tragic crash on Anderson School Road in Hamilton County; same-sex marriage coming early (on an “emergency basis”) for a couple in Illinois, one of whom is terminal.

HARDIN CO., Ill.—A traffic accident at the intersection of a heavily-trafficked Hardin County roadway has brought out large response in the deep southern Illinois County.

While details are scant, we’ve heard that it was a motorcycle versus semi crash, that occurred around 9:30 p.m. at the intersection of Highway 146 and Highway 34.

Hardin County Ambulance was on a transport, so Pope County Ambulance had been called to respond.

Hardin County Sheriff JT Fricker called for assistance from ISP to handle traffic in the area; it’s been reported that three troopers responded.

More when we get it.

Williamson County, IL - The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office is currently investigating a Traffic Crash that occurred at about 1:07 AM on Tuesday, November 26, 2013.

The accident occurred when Abigail Moore, 19, of Johnston City was heading Eastbound on Herrin Road approaching the Interstate 57 overpass. Moore was behind the wheel of a 2004 Nissan Convertible, which left the roadway, veered to the north, and overturned the vehicle several times.

Moore was not wearing a seat belt, and was ejected from the vehicle when it overturned.

No indication has been made as to what might have caused Moore’s vehicle to leave the roadway.

Moore received major injuries, and was flown by helicopter to a St. Louis-area hospital. Her condition at this point is unknown.

**

MT. CARMEL – On November 26, 2013, the Mt. Carmel Police went to 1515 W. 3rd Street (Town & Country Motel) to serve a warrant on Andrew J. Kocher. Kocher, age 44, was wanted on a failure to appear warrant. When police arrived at the location, they noticed items used in the manufacturing of methamphetamine.

Mt. Carmel Police Department arrested four individuals at the location on numerous charges. Kocher was arrested along with Amy L. Wheeler, age 37, of Mt. Carmel, Dennis M. Doan, age 46, and Emily C Wolfenbarger, age 22, of Kentucky. Wolfenbarger was wanted on a warrant out of Kentucky. All subjects were charged with aggravated participation in meth manufacturing and possession of methamphetamine.

At the time of this report, and according to the press-release, other charges are being investigated.

All four subjects are being held at Wabash County Jail pending a bond hearing.

**

Mt. Carmel – On November 24th, Mt. Carmel Police responded to a call from Wabash General Hospital. Mt. Carmel Police were made aware of a battery that occurred in the 300 block of East 2nd Street in Mt. Carmel.

Upon their arrival at WGH, the victim told responding officers that Ronald Darrett punched her in the nose. The victim also told officers that Darrett was planning on leaving Mt. Carmel to go to Evansville, Indiana. The victim advised that Darrett would be driving a 1989 Dodge truck.

Mt. Carmel Police in the vicinity of the 300 block of East 2nd Street passed Darrett, who was driving the 1989 Dodge, and initiated a traffic stop. During the traffic stop, Mt. Carmel Police discovered Darrett to be intoxicated behind the wheel of his vehicle. Darrett submitted to and failed field sobriety tests.

Darrett was arrested at that time for suspicion of DUI, driving while suspended, and domestic battery.

**

Sara Morrison

TheWire.com

Yahoo!News

Edgar Jimenez Lugo, or “El Ponchis,” is an admitted member of Mexico’s Beltran Leyva drug cartel and a four-time murderer. And, as of early this morning, he’s a free man. Although he’s not really a man; at 17, he’s still a year shy of adulthood. And after serving three years in a juvenile detention center for his crimes, he’s heading back to America, where he’s a citizen.

Lugo was arrested December 2010. Then just 14, he’d already killed four people. He told authorities he did so while under the influence of drugs and under threat of death. His victims’ headless bodies were founded hanging from a bridge. He said he committed his first murder at age 11.

By then, he hadn’t gone to school in years — he dropped out in third grade, after his grandmother and legal guardian died. She had taken Lugo and his five siblings from their parents in San Diego to Mexico.

After Lugo’s arrest, his father admitted to the Los Angeles Times that he “neglected him a little.”

Lugo was sentenced to three years in jail in July 2011 — the maximum penalty that can be given to a minor under Mexican law. He’s served that, and now he’s headed to either San Antonio (as the LA Times is reporting) or El Paso (according to the New York Daily News), where he has family and will stay in a “support center,” according to the LA Times.

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

**

Joseph J. Kolb

FoxNews.com

November 27, 2013

EL PASO, TEXAS – Lawyers for a Mexican cartel enforcer suspected of killing thousands of people in Juarez and now facing trial here for the murder of Americans hope to free him with claims police south of the border tortured him before handing him over to U.S. authorities.

A federal judge has already ruled that Juarez gang leader Arturo Gallegos Castrellon’s confession that he killed a U.S. Consulate employee, her husband, who was an El Paso County law enforcement officer in 2010, and another man whose wife worked for the U.S. Consulate cannot be suppressed. But that won’t stop his attorneys from challenging it before a jury, with claims the admission came only after Mexican police shocked his testicles and raped his wife.

“Americans are aware that suspects are tortured in Mexico, but I don’t think they really know to what extent,” said defense attorney Randolph Ortega.

Castrellon, 32, who authorities say heads the Barrio Azteca gang, enforcers for drug cartels, has been charged in the 2010 murders of four people connected to the U.S. Consulate in Juarez. U.S. citizen and consulate employee Lesley Enriquez and her husband were gunned down along with El Paso County Sheriff’s Detention officer Arthur Haycock Redelfs after they left a children’s party. The motive is unclear, though authorities believe they may have been mistaken for rival gang members.

“Americans are aware that suspects are tortured in Mexico, but I don’t think they really know to what extent.”

- Randolph Ortega, attorney for drug cartel killer

Castrellon was arrested and interrogated by Mexican police Nov. 26, 2010, then handed over to FBI agents in Mexico City. Ortega says Castrellon only confessed to the murders after the Mexican cops softened him up with torture. There is no indication the FBI took part in the alleged torture, but Ortega claims the confession his client made to FBI Special Agent Lorenzo Perez was “the product of torture at the hands of Mexican officials and improper psychological pressure by the FBI agents.”

While the U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone denied the suppression of Gallegos Castrellon’s confession Nov. 13, Ortega hopes an American jury will refuse to convict a suspect if it believes a confession was coerced via torture. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Cooley said even if a jury discounts the confession, there’s plenty of evidence to convict Castrellon.

“We are not simply relying on a confession in this case,” Cooley said.

Fred Burton, a specialist in Mexican organized crime for Stratfor, a Texas-based private intelligence firm, and a former counterterrorism agent with the U.S. State Department, said even if Gallegos Castrellon’s allegations are true, the confession would still be admissible in a U.S. court.

“It really doesn’t matter what happened while he was in foreign custody, as long as no torture was conducted by U.S. agents,” Burton said. “Ultimately, how the confession was obtained is not an issue in a foreign country.”

The arrest of Castrellon and others allegedly involved in the shootings has coincided with a sharp decline in Juarez’s murder rate. Some 10,836 homicides occurred there between 2008-2012, as the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels fought over control of the lucrative drug smuggling route into the U.S. The El Paso Times reported that Castrellon, also known as “El Farmero” and “El Benny,” admitted to ordering, carrying out or otherwise being involved with 80 percent of the murders in Juarez, which would account for 8,669 over the same time period.

Since the arrest of Castrellon, the murder rate in the violent city plummeted from 3,622 in 2010 to 2,086 in 2011, then 751 in 2012.

Gallegos Castrellon’s trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 3 in El Paso Federal Court.

To see the entire article, CLICK HERE.

**

Elliott C. McLaughlin

CNN.com

November 27, 2013

TUSCON, ARIZONA – Two girls claiming they’d been held captive for several months or more in “filthy living conditions” told police they ran to a neighbor’s house to escape their knife-wielding stepfather, according to a Tucson, Arizona, police report.

Just after 4 a.m. Tuesday, when police responded to a report of a domestic incident involving a knife, they found a third sister, a 17-year-old, locked in a bedroom, the report says.

When officers opened the 17-year-old’s bedroom door, they were met with loud music that they couldn’t hear from the hallway because the room’s duct work had been sealed and towels had been shoved under the door, Police Chief Roberto Villasenor said during a Wednesday news conference.

All three girls reported being subjected to a “constant barrage” of music or static, the chief said.

“What we’re being told by the girls is the music never stopped,” Villasenor said.

Neighbors told CNN affiliates KTVK and KOLD that they didn’t realize children lived at the residence.

“Upon arrival, officers contacted two juvenile females, ages 12 and 13, who had (run) to the neighbor’s house alleging that their stepfather had attempted to break into their bedroom while brandishing a knife,” the incident report said.

“During the course of the investigation, it was alleged by the girls that they had been imprisoned in their bedrooms for at least the last several months and possibly up to two years.”

The girls were “extremely dirty” and told police they hadn’t bathed in at least four months, the report said.

“They were kept in filthy living conditions and allegedly only being fed once a day,” it added.

A reporter during the Wednesday news conference told Villasenor that the girls’ grandmother accused the three of exaggerating their plight, saying the girls were home schooled and not allowed outside because their parents didn’t like the neighborhood.

Several pieces of evidence suggest otherwise, the chief said, citing specifically a journal found in the 17-year-old’s satchel, documenting the last 18 months. There were also alarms on interior doors and constant video surveillance of the girls’ bedroom, he said.

When the sisters were reunited, Villasenor said, “to the detectives it appeared that they had not seen each other for quite some time.”

The neighbors to whose house the girls ran asked not to be identified and told KTVK that they had lived there since August and never seen children.

One of the neighbors said the girls “were distraught and visibly shaken. … They didn’t have any shoes on, and they looked like they had just gotten out of bed.”

A woman who has lived in the neighborhood for five years told KOLD she wasn’t aware anyone lived in the house and hadn’t seen any activity there.

Another neighbor told KOLD, “If there were kids, they never came out and played. We have kids all over this neighborhood, and they had to try extra hard to keep themselves secluded because obviously somebody would have said, noticed something.”

The stepfather, Fernando Richter, 34, and the mother, Sophia Richter, 32, were arrested and booked into the Pima County Jail.

Sophia Richter faces three counts of kidnapping, three counts of child abuse/emotional abuse and three counts of child abuse/physical abuse. The stepfather faces the same charges, plus an additional count of sexual abuse with a person younger than 15, according to the report.

TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE, CLICK HERE.