IL sheriff seizes, sells guns. But does he have the authority?

By Ben Yount | Illinois Watchdog

March 10, 2014

ISN’T TALKING: Sheriff Darrell Cox won’t answer questions about seized guns, says it’s political.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Dozens of guns taken from crime scenes and accused criminals in Coles County have been sold or traded.

That much is clear.

But ask whether the sheriff had the power to make those deals, and things get murky.

A joint investigation by Illinois Watchdog and the Edgar County Watchdogs looked into the sale or trade of weapons seized by Coles County Sheriff Darrell Cox.

But Cox wouldn’t answer our questions.

Illinois Watchdog repeatedly reached out to Cox, who made it clear he would not comment on his department’s seizure policy, because he thinks the issue is political.

Cox is running for state representative in the 110^th District.

Coles County Chief Deputy Kerry Whitley hung up when Illinois Watchdog tried to clarify the dates surrounding the seized and sold weapons.

“This is all political,” Whitley said in a brief phone call Monday. “We don’t discuss politics.”

But there’s more to the story.

Information uncovered through Freedom of Information requests show that, on Aug. 20, 2012, the Coles County Sheriff’s Office traded 11 pistols, shotguns and rifles to Kaskaskia Firearms for two AR-15 rifles.

Records also show the sale of 37 other guns, but there is no data to indicate when those transactions happened or for how much the guns were sold.

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Also check it out at Edgar County Watchdogs, where they’ve been covering the Cox issue for months and have obtained records through FOIA…even though they were told recently, when wanting to place ads displaying this FOIA’d material in local mainstream rags, “We won’t accept ads based upon the Watchdog or Disclosure without presenting hard evidence to back up any claims. We have followed up on a few of their stories and found lots of incorrect information.” Easy to say; harder to prove. We can PROVE what we publish; unfortunately for the lamestream idiots, they can’t PROVE what they allege. Time reveals it. We’re in our THIRTEENTH YEAR now, and what we’ve been stating all throughout that time has come to pass more often than we can account for. Note to lamestream, state-sanctioned media: Just because you SAY it doesn’t mean it’s real. That’s why your papers are dying, and our news outlets (paper and websites) are GROWING. Get with the program, lamestream…YOU are the PROBLEM.