LAWRENCE CO., Ill.—A case that’s been characterized by many people—including officers of the court—as “that should NEVER have been filed in the first place” has been dismissed by Lawrence County Judge Robert Hopkins this morning.
James Brunson
In August of 2010, after being attacked at his store, Bridgeport Package, in an incident in which his windows there were being broken out, Lawrence County businessman James Brunson was charged with a felony Aggravated Battery count by then-state’s attorney Lisa Wade.
Since that time, the case has been handed off to special prosecutors, with no resolution, and with no possibility of reaching a plea agreement, as Brunson maintained that he was attacked by then-Max Schauf crony Jody Harshman and was only acting in self-defense.
The state lied and said that Harshman was shot by Brunson (who was legally armed, having been the victim of other vandalism attacks at his store at the time, and which he was trying to offset by staying there and seeing who was conducting the vandalism), even though later evidence proved that there was no bullet wound of any kind.
Judge Robert Hopkins…increasingly becoming our hero.
Due to the prevaricating nature of Wade’s prosecution, Brunson filed a federal civil lawsuit at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois in March of 2012, a case which has dragged on for over two years now because those he sued—Wade, Schauf, Harshman, Schauf’s errant kid Mark, the city of Bridgeport, Lawrence County and a host of others—fought back, stating that HE was the perp, and needed punished merely for defending himself.
This morning, his case was set for a pretrial conference. However, on Monday, we learned that the prosecutor who stomped Wade in the 2012 election, Chris Quick, had filed a nolle prosequi (for want of prosecution) motion to dismiss the case, based largely on the fact that Wade had lied about numerous aspects of the case during the investigatory process.
Lisa Wade, doing what she does best….mouthing people.
This morning, without Quick even being present in court, Hopkins granted the motion and told Brunson to go get his bond money back from the circuit clerk…a kind of denouement to the entire horrific situation that has caused more problems for Brunson and those around him than can even be put succinctly here.
Kudos to Hopkins for granting the motion; most nolle pros motions are viewed unfavorably by judges, but Hopkins has shown himself to be very fair in many cases that were of a questionable nature.
Max Schauf, now chilling at the Marion Federal Pen
And kudos to Brunson, who has been vilified by many in Lawrence for his pursuit of exposing the corruption always boiling under the surface of both Bridgeport and the county for years, and broke the surface with the attack on Brunson August 7, 2010.
We’ll have a major follow-up to this situation in the July-August issue…it hits the stands next week. Be watching.