U.S. DISTRICT COURT, EAST ST. LOUIS—A story we broke a year ago has come to fruition in the form of a lawsuit against the State of Illinois, the entire Illinois State Police agency and two of its employees.
Jim Hinkle
Last year we told you about former Wayne County sheriff Jim Hinkle, who was falsely accused, by his stepdaughter, of an act of molestation against her. The little girl, whose behavior rivals that of most 14-year-olds these days (which is to say, it’s BAD), was mad at her stepfather and mom, and wanted to go live with her crim father up in Charleston, who allowed her to do whatever she wanted whenever she wanted….so she concocted a story about Hinkle touching her inappropriately when he was helping his stepdaughters with chigger bites in the summer of 2010.
Because she made up this story, of course the father got the idea to call DCFS, and they came in and investigated, declaring the claim “unfounded” against the former sheriff. The little girl, embarrassed, finally came clean, not once, but twice, on tape when a private investigator interviewed her.
However, because all this went on before Hinkle gave up his office in November that year, having lost in the Primary to another Republican contender, “Special Agent” Rick White apparently thought he’d get another public official charged and another notch in his belt (White was involved peripherally with the Raymond Martin case, was lead investigator on the former Wayne County sheriff Sonny McCulley case [which was warranted, but which went nowhere], and fancied himself some sort of “sheriff killer” when it came to finding criminal charges against sitting public officials). So White went to a supervisor, Tom Oliverio in Zone 7 investigations, and opened an investigation into the “child molestation” case.
Sara Vaughan White, aka Mrs. Rick White (ISP investigator, in background).
On several occasions, White and Oliverio “interviewed” Hinkle, a veteran state police investigator of almost 30 years, under very contentious circumstances….because Hinkle knew how it worked, and requested that White use a recording device when talking to him. But White refused (a practice that later came back to bite him on the ass during the Haven Kirkpatrick trial, actually). And so Hinkle began refusing to talk to the two. Which lead to more contention, and lead to White and Oliverio allegedly telling people outside their sphere of influence about the allegations against Hinkle. We say “allegedly,” but we KNOW for a FACT that it was leaking out, and leaking from White, because WE heard about it in late 2010, and it originated from a source who had spoken to SARA (corrected…I always get her damn name wrong) WHITE, Ricky Retardo’s wife. She works within the school system in Wayne County…..and that’s where WE heard about the whole thing.
A view of Hinkle's fire-destroyed home in rural central Wayne County, June 2010
Worse, about a year after Hinkle’s house burned to the ground following a lightning strike in June 2010, Oliverio set about allegedly accusing Hinkle of arson to various and sundry people….including people who, again, told US about it, way in advance of anyone putting anything into a lawsuit. Bad enough the man lost his house and everything he owned…now, he was (allegedly, of course) now being accused of burning it down, by a former fellow ISP agent.
The whole thing culminated when the ISP boyz took the case to a special prosecutor at the appellate prosecutor’s office in September 2011. She reviewed the material, then told the boyz unequivocally what everyone else already knew: that there wasn’t anything there, and she wasn’t filing charges against Hinkle for child molestation.
Hinkle waited until the boyz and ISP closed the case altogether. Then he filed suit.
When you read the material (filed Feb. 14…Happy Valentine’s Day, suckahs), you’ll see that Hinkle is claiming a “property interest in his good name and reputation in the general community and law enforcement community with that interest being protected under the Constitution of the United States.” Through this suit, he’s claiming that the way in which White and Oliverio conducted the investigation was reckless….and because of the alleged unprofessional conduct, Hinkle was irreparably damaged in the eyes of those in the community (Wayne County, which is easy to do, unfortunately…people are just weird there). So now, he’s seeking recompense….and more power to him.
Rick (Ricky Retardo) White
We’re not really sure why ISP continues to put up with Rick (“Ricky Retardo”) White. He has bungled more investigations than he’s aided over the years, and has been a detriment to everything the Illinois State Police stands for. Our investigation of him turned up paperwork last August showing that he was reprimanded by ISP in 2009 regarding a 2008 case involving the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the fact that White leaked information about THAT case, too. Nevertheless, they kept him on….likely because of the dearth of ‘investigators’ in ISP to begin with, and at least Ricky isn’t one that’s inclined to beat restrained suspects. He just likes to talk about them without justifiable basis so as to make his case look better in the public’s eye when it finally gets there.
Unfortunately for him, this time, the public let people know that this was what was going on, and Disclosure was on it almost immediately….despite non-coverage of the matter by mainstream media. MSM has a tendency to suck up to White. That’s unfortunate, too…that he leaks info to certain outlets may be a benefit to them, but that they choose to NOT cover the facts of this matter is to their detriment…and, in this case, a BIG detriment to Ricky, as he’s probably sealed not only his own fate, but that of his supervisors, the agency, and the state of Illinois, who ensures that ISP is up and running and funded.
Check with us frequently on the progress of this case (as, we’ve proven, other media isn’t going to tell the truth about it; they’re too far up White’s and ISP’s asses). And if you want to read the details of what Hinkle went through, check out the March 2011 issue of Disclosure, available at Graf Ink Printing in Harrisburg, The Rose Hotel in Elizabethtown, and by back-issue order directly from us at the info on the ‘about’ page.