Gaege Bethune, Jackson County mug
JACKSON CO., Ill. - Perhaps mainstream media in the area is just tired of reporting certain cases; or perhaps their bias is showing.
Pravin Varughese
Whatever the case, the headlines this week regarding the latest to transpire in the case of Gaege Bethune, 24 and most recently of Raleigh in Saline County, the man who was found guilty this summer of murdering Southern Illinois University-Carbondale student Pravin Varughese, 19, in February 2014, are appearing extremely slanted. Witness:
Murder Charges Dismissed In 2014 Death Of Morton Grove Student
Special Prosecutor files motion to dismiss Bethune murder case
Prosecutors drop charges against Gaege Bethune in 2014 death of Pravin Varughese
The headlines are extremely misleading. They make it appear as though it's all over for Bethune, he can go home now and work on putting all that murder of Pravin stuff behind him.
But that's not the case.
The conviction, as we reported in recent months, was overturned on appeal on a technicality, the very thing that got Julie Rea Kirkpatrick Harper released from prison in 2004, two years after a jury found her guilty of killing her own son, Joel Kirkpatrick, in 1997.
The thing that MSM is missing in their headlines (they mention it in the text of the article; but almost begrudgingly in some cases) is what we put in ours: The prosecution is going to seek to refile the murder charges. In fact, the prosecution, as provided by the appellate prosecutor's office in Springfield, has already advised that they intend to re-investigate the case (which they're allowed to do), so as to refile. Information we've received indicates that the prosecution will likely seek to hold another grand jury, thus bypassing a formal filing and preliminary hearing. So Bethune will likely only know this has happened after he's served a warrant on the true bill - if one is returned - and arrested.
Bethune's family has been obnoxious over the years since the situation emerged. By contrast, the Varughese family has been stoic and resolved. You can read our coverage of the matter at any of the links on the boys' names above.
Julie Rea Kirkpatrick
But it might be noted that like Julie Rea's re-trial in 2006 (coverage by us not available here at the site because...we didn't have a site at the time. Just the paper.) things might not go well for the prosecution. The 2006 re-trial was a debacle, screwed up irretrievably by David "Rollover" Rands, a special prosecutor from the AP's office who didn't do a thorough job ensuring all the evidence was submitted to the court and the jury...and she got off in the second trial. So David Robinson (who tried the Bethune case this summer for the AP's office) now has an opportunity to learn from mistakes - his own, and Rollover Rands' - and make sure that all his waterfowl are in a linear formation before going forward.
We'll be watching; we hope you'll be watching us, as apparently, mainstream media doesn't seem to be that interested.