JACKSON CO.—The situation with the death of Molly Young, a Carbondale woman who lost her life March 24, 2012, to a single gunshot wound to the head, has captured the attention of southern Illinois and indeed the nation.

Nationally-televised programs have scrutinized some of the missteps that took place from the very outset of the investigation. They’ve done a pretty good job, including chronicling that the coroner’s inquest, held in January, was slanted severely toward a verdict of “suicide” by those in charge of delivering testimony (primarily Aaron Cooper, who read from Young’s supposed “diary” about how hard she believed her life was, etc.)

Interestingly, Cooper, we learned last week, has been reassigned to road trooper, from “special agent” status, which he was holding when he was tasked with working on the Molly Young case.

Additionally, in a somewhat coincidental move, the commander of Zone 7 investigations, Steve Shields, announced his retirement last week, on the same day we learned about Cooper.

But there’s one person who was at the press conference with Mike Carr at District 13 in DuQuoin on August 22 who remains firmly in place…and he’s really the one whose presence in ISP, and any involvement in the Young case, should be questioned.

Heavily.

Scott Rice has a long and undistinguished history with ISP. We here at Disclosure have been chronicling his exploits both in and out of uniform since nearly ten years ago. To prove this, we’d like to present to you the articles we published back in 2006 about his exploits with mushroom hunters. Here now are two articles we’ve combined into one, “Poaching State Police captain shoots mushroom hunters in National Forest,” and “ISP Capt. Scott “Poacher” Rice canned after shooting morel enthusiasts.”

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Scott “Google It” Rice, at the August 22 press conference.

UNION CO.—It appears that United States vice-president Dick Cheney isn’t the only one who has a difficult time telling the difference between his fellow man and feathered friends.

According to a McLeansboro source, Illinois State Police captain Scott Rice, formerly assigned to District 19 in Carmi, now commander of the DuQuoin post, should have gone to work April 24 instead of trying out his hand at poaching.

It would seem that Capt. Rice had a “landowner only” permit to hunt turkey, which allows him to hunt on his own land.

Landowner permits are handed out free of charge by the kind fellows working for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

No birds on the Rice ranch

It appears that few turkeys could be found on the Rice compound in early April, making hunting less than fun for someone like Capt. Rice, who was obviously in the mood to kill “something” and so—he decided to try his hand at poaching.

Known to be an overachiever since his youth, Captain Rice wouldn’t dream of poaching from just anyone else’s property and therefore traipsed onto federal property to see what there was to kill in the Shawnee National Forest.

Eyesight less than perfect

Despite rumored physical and IQ requirements commonly boasted about by the Illinois State Police standards and training folks, it appears that Captain Rice’s eyesight was, shall we say, less than 20/20.

According to published reports, shortly after crossing over into the National Forest, Captain Rice’s poaching immediately looked like it would be more successful than hunting legally on his own property.

Flushed flock o’turkey

Captain Rice told the Southern Illinoisan that he had chased a turkey out of its roost.

Employing his tracking skills (funded by taxpayers and obtained by intense state police training), Captain Rice immediately went into Rambo mode and began stalking the winged creature well into the National Forest and well away from his own property, which was the only place he had a permit to legally shoot at anything.

Back to the roost

After getting a good description of the bird and staying low, under his line of sight, Captain Rice stealthily followed the waddler not just back to its roost but to what appeared to be an entire encampment of turkey.

Initiating his fowl linguistic skills, also paid for by the state, Captain Rice said he attempted to “call out” one of the birds.

It was at that pivotal moment in the hunt (or poach, in this case) that one of the brave birds attempted to make a run for it in what Captain Rice described as “a slightly different direction.”

Startled by this “slightly different direction” and unaccustomed to every living creature not obeying his every command, Captain Rice decided to open fire.

Published reports indicate Captain Rice fired twice, “in rapid succession.”

Mushroom hunters maimed

What Captain Rambo Rice didn’t know was that in the exact direction he was shooting, “poaching,” illegally hunting and otherwise molesting innocent birds in the “National Forest” were two mushroom hunters, 59-year-old Matt Clutts and 65-year-old James Salinger of Union County.

The two men, neither of whom were wearing turkey costumes, were legally hunting mushrooms when Rambo Rice opened fire, hitting both of them.

Both men were hit with both shots, each being struck with 40 to 50 pellets.

Clutts was shot in his side while Salinger received wounds to his back and arms.

Drops his gun

Even with all the “intense training” received by Illinois State Police and Captain Rambo Rice being affectionately known as “a leader of men,” when he heard the two mushroomers yell out in pain, he “dropped his gun” and ran to provide assistance.

“Dropping your gun isn’t exactly what we teach here at the institute,” said one state police instructor.

The two wounded morel hunters, not exactly comforted by Captain Rice’s presence, actually drove themselves to the Union County Hospital emergency room where they were both flown by helicopter to a hospital in Cape Girardeau, Mo. There, they were treated for their wounds and later released.

Captain Rice ticketed

Realizing they had to do something because Captain Rice had actually shot two people, those good boys from Department of Natural Resources showed they were not to be messed with when it comes to rogue turkey hunters, even if they are state-trained.

Amassing all the testosterone they could, they issued Captain Rice a “ticket” for hunting without a proper permit and issued a “warning,” not for shooting two mushroomers, but for using an illegal size of buckshot load for turkey season.

There were no “tickets” or charges having to do anything with poaching on federal property.

As far as can be determined, Captain Rambo Rice even retained his Firearms Owners Identification Card and could be roaming the countryside even now.

Rice ridiculed

Following the shooting, more than a few Rice critics stomped forward to shed even more light on the cross-eyed, gun-dropping, state police captain.

“If Captain Rice would have stayed on his own property and obeyed the law he would not have shot those two men,” one critic said. “He even shot them with illegal size shotgun pellet for turkey hunting.”

Some even questioned what Rice does with his salary if he didn’t have the proper permit and shells for the season.

“Captain Rice makes about $120,000 a year from state taxpayers but can’t seem to afford a $15 regular turkey permit,” one critic said. “That’s just wrong.”

Apparently, state officials poaching on state or federal land isn’t a rare occurrence.

“It is well known that some of the worst poachers in southern Illinois also carry Illinois State Police badges,” the critic said. “I guess they have to shoot someone before anything is done—then they get a ticket. I wonder what they’d get for killing someone—a gold shovel to bury their victim with and a promotion so someone could keep an eye on them?”

What is not clear is if the two injured mushroomers are going to seek legal recompense for their injuries—and thus sue the crap out of the state police and Department of Natural Resources for their lackluster performance.

“You know, Rice used to work in District 19,” the critic mused. “I wonder if it was that Richey Fulkerson who taught him how to shoot. Anyone who would call himself Richey over his given name of Charlie has to have problems somewhere.”

ARTICLE 2

UNION CO.—It appears that Illinois State Police captain Scott “Poacher” Rice, formerly assigned to District 19 in Carmi can now add former commander of the DuQuoin state police post to his resume after wandering off his own property, then shooting and injuring two mushroom hunters while they were looking for edible toadstools.

Poacher’s problems began when he claimed to have accidentally shot the two men while he was turkey hunting. It wasn’t that turkeys were out of season or anything as bland as all that. It was the fact that Poacher Rice didn’t have a turkey permit and that he accidentally-on-purpose-absent-mindedly meandered off his property and into a federal reserve chasing a flock of the winged creatures, then mistook two mushroom hunters for a gathering of big, fat, dark-complectioned, bug-eating poultry.

Poacher got a bead on the morel enthusiasts (who looked a whole lot like a gathering of a big, fat… well, you get the picture) and pulled the trigger twice in quick succession.

The two mushroom hunters, 59-year-old Matt Clutts and 65-year-old James Salinger of Union County, neither of whom were wearing turkey costumes, were hit with both shots, each being struck with 40 to 50 pellets.

Clutts was shot in his side while Salinger received wounds to his back and arms.

Despite “intense training” received by Illinois State Police, when he heard the two mushroomers yell out in pain, Poacher “dropped his gun” and ran to provide assistance thinking to himself, “Oh Sh*t-Oh Sh*t-Oh Shi*t!”

The two wounded morel hunters, not comforted by Poacher’s presence, decided it would be safer to drive themselves to the Union County Hospital emergency room where they were both flown by helicopter to a hospital in Cape Girardeau, Mo. There, they were treated for their wounds and later released.

Now in charge of investigations

Poacher pulled some strings, plead guilty and ended up with one written citation and a $100 fine.

Nothing was ever mentioned in the court record about him hunting without a license, illegally hunting in a federal preserve, reckless discharge of a firearm, being stupid out of uniform, being a waste of state supported property and useless use of human skin.

“This guy should donate his organs while he can still do some good for people,” said one ISP critic.

Additional punishment for his reckless actions include a reassignment from Commander of ISP District 13 in DuQuoin to “He Who is in Charge of Investigations at District 13 in Du Quoin!”

Poacher’s assignments are restricted to overseeing investigations that are not related to mushrooms or any other fungi, the hunting of said mushrooms or any other said fungi, cases with the word “Federal” in the title, or anything to do with large groups of birds that tend to gather, flock, meet, assemble, collect, amass or otherwise congregate.

“IF he received an actual demotion in rank, I seriously doubt he has had his pay docked,” said one insider. “Like Disclosure says, ‘With every screwup in ISP there is a promotion and a gold shovel to bury the victims with.’”

Poacher after Disclosure?

“I would not be surprised if Rice initiated the investigation of Disclosure in retaliation for the embarrassing, but accurate story about his turkey poaching exploits,” mused the ISP critic. “Maybe that’s why the two female troopers were sent to your home to intimidate you. The ISP is trying to locate the source of Disclosure’s information.”

Disclosure was told by the critic that there was no investigation into a local trooper.

“That was a deliberate attempt to throw you off point,” the source said. “ISP has a very difficult time accepting responsibility for their frequent and many criminal misdeeds. They are notorious for intimidation and payback.”

Publisher Jack Howser said he wasn’t worried about the ISP.

“I have not and am not doing anything illegal,” Howser said. “If that were not the case I might be worried. Anything else they want to throw at me, I believe I can not only catch but throw back at them before it goes off.”

The Fulkerson connection

Sources indicate that not only is Poacher Rice either bad at hunting turkey or good at hunting morel enthusiasts, but he’s also great buds with District 19’s captain Charles Richard Fulkerson (a.k.a Dick).

“He (Poacher) and Fulkerson are very good friends,” the source said. “Fulkerson is fearful that one day you will find out about his personal misconduct. If you look into his personal financial matters you will discover that he is not too good at paying his bills anywhere in southern Illinois. He has even had to have his poor mommy bail him out and wipe his butt on several occasions.”

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There are more articles we’ve produced about him; when we get back to the Calhoun location, we’ll find them and post them when we can.

In the interim, we’d like to call on ISP to remove Scott Rice from their force, if for no reason other than he prevaricated when he was talking about gunpowder residue at the press conference, and advised those in attendance to “google it.” This latter fact has prompted us to stop calling him Scott “Shooter” Rice, like we have for years, and we are now calling him Scott “Google It” Rice.

All kidding aside: he needs removed. Responsible investigators need brought into the case. And those at ISP who are in the know need to start talking. We’re here to listen, and we protect our sources viciously; just ask DOC spokesperson Tom Shaer about that, as he got an earful this afternoon. You can contact us at disclosurenewsonline@yahoo.com, or at the number listed in our paper, which is a tipline, and which we’ll call you back on when we get out of production in this upcoming issue.