LAWRENCE CO.—The possibility of a DCFS employee tipping off family members to “clean up their act,” their homes, their kids and themselves is a good one in the case of one Lawrence County woman who has until recently been able to evade charges for her alleged dope activities.
The situation revolves around Richland and Lawrence counties Child Protection Specialist Holly Kocher, long-time DCFS employee, and the mother of some of her nieces/nephews, Melisa Laslie.
And the emergence of this case brings to light a long-term issue Disclosure has covered for a decade now:
Whether DCFS employees are protecting their own relatives when concerned citizens turn those relatives in for child abuse or neglect.
Who is Missy Laslie?
Ask anybody currently being detained in Lawrence County Jail who Melisa “Missy” Laslie is and most, if not all, of the inmates will say they have had at least some (and sometimes intimate) knowledge of her.
Boundless rumors slip from whispered voices about Missy’s ability to remain just out of the grasp of authorities… even though both of her babydaddies are currently doing extended stints on methamphetamine charges.
The most rampant rumor receiving tweeks from dopers and inmates alike is the “give three, go free” policy that is believed to have been employed by Laslie, enabling her long-term evasion of legal trouble throughout the trials and sentences of both her children’s fathers, as well as a well-known love affair with the drug that landed them there. The rumor alludes to an unproven arrangement with authorities that Missy’s affairs and freedom will be secured, just as long as she delivers three large players in the dope game within a given frame of time.
So after Missy’s recent tangle with Lawrence County authorities, which landed her behind bars on meth charges for the very first time, the question is being begged by dopers and inmates alike…Who was unlucky number 3?
Ryker
Was it Randy Ryker? Ryker, a longtime associate and rumored ‘favor-trader’ of Laslie’s, was busted in March for Aggravated Manufacture of Methamphetamine, Possession of Methamphetamine, and Possession of Meth Manufacture Materials at his Billett home. Laslie’s apprehension came less than two months later.
Jerry Tice was certainly screaming foul of Missy Laslie from behind bars in Lawrence County after his arrest with girlfriend Paula Tarpy in August. The happy couple was arrested and detained on possession of meth and meth precursor charges. Tice and Tarpy are said to have been convinced of Laslie’s involvement in the dope-crossed lover’s arrests, but Tice’s voice has now gone silent now from behind DOC walls. Laslie’s arrest happened only half-a-year after Tice’s and Tarpy’s tangle with authorities.
Holly, of the (Pinkstaff) Kocher variation
The more important question is not who Laslie may or may not have betrayed in order to secure a little less authority interference in her doper’s lifestlye, instead, how (and with whose help) has Missy been able to keep both of her children out of the crosshairs of DCFS officials after not one, but both of her children’s fathers have landed behind bars for meth-related infractions.
A suspicious glance needs to be cast in the direction of Holly Kocher, the Lawrence County DCFS representative, and sister of Laslie’s first baby-daddy, Clifton V. Pinkstaff. Pinkstaff is currently doing time in the Marion Illinois Federal Penitentiary for Methamphetamine Conspiracy and is scheduled for release next year. Has Kocher been protecting Laslie in order to keep the state from removing the children from her St. Francisville dope house, in the misguided hopes that her brother, Clifton, will be released from Federal Prison, a changed man, in time to rescue at least one (who carries the Pinkstaff moniker) of the children next year?
Current legal entanglements
Laslie’s current legal entanglements prove what both dopers and cops far and wide have known for at least a decade… that Missy has a long-standing drug problem, and her drug problem has existed well within reach of her children.
Family members closest to Laslie and her children, especially the likes of DCFS representative Holly Kocher, have known about the problem for just as long as they have known why the younger Pinkstaff brother is doing time in federal prison… and they have refused to do anything about it.
Currently, Laslie is receiving treatment for her meth-problem at Vantage Point in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Her next status hearing is July 31at 9 a.m.
The last time she received any kind of rehabilitation for her addiction… she was pregnant.