Why does the Illinois State Police keep investigator Rick White on the payroll?
Rick White
That’s the question so many people are asking these days. With his laissez-faire attitude toward how exactly he “investigates” his cases, his history of literally stalking people who have pissed him off, and an ever-growing number of hung juries in which the primary testimony comes from White, the fact that he remains employed in his position is one of those mysteries that may never be solved.
The most recent debacle White has been involved in comes from White County, where his employment is based (ISP District 19 in Carmi). Thanks to White’s non-believable testimony and lack of viable interviewing techniques, including recording his interviews (he doesn’t do it because he “doesn’t have to,” as we’ve heard him say in court testimony that apparently hasn’t gone over well with juries), yet another mistrial was declared with a hung jury…which is our afternoon Read the Lead for you, Could mistrial in sex case be the result of rogue state police investigator?
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WHITE CO.— The high-profile trial of a suspended White County jailer has ended in a mistrial…and marks yet another mistrial in which Illinois State Police investigator Rick White and his questionable investigative “skills” are again called into question.
Sources close to the case said jurors deliberated for nearly 12 hours before the judge in the case called a mistrial in the late hours of Friday, April 11.
Phillip Lowery, 38, was charged with one count of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse of a four-year-old victim, who is now 7 years old.
Lowery took the stand in his own defense and jurors heard him testify that his wife had been a babysitter for the four year old for more than two years, but that he was never alone with the little girl.
“It was Lowery’s word against the word of a seven-year-old who testified about abuse that allegedly took place when she was three or four,” said the source. “The jury just heard tough facts, there was no confession or anything like that.
In the end the jury was split 6-6 by the time they informed the judge they were hung.
The White connection
Those who have followed the case and cases like it in the region were not as surprised as some to find out that embattled Illinois State Police Investigator Rick White leaked early on, months before the trial and some say before charges were even filed, that the case came about because in June of 2012 the mother of the four-year-old was scrolling through some photographs on her cell phone and pointed out a picture of Lowery to her daughter, information that ultimately came out at trial.
White allegedly leaked the information to not only a radio media contact in Wayne County but to several individuals in the general public.
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