HARDIN CO.—Sometimes there are stories that just keep on giving.
The recent shutdown of the Hardin County jail because appointed sheriff Joyce Cullison allowed inmates to run freely and have access to tools they ended up using to break into the evidence room appears to be one.
The latest information related to Disclosure by a source close to the investigation indicates that inmates Lil Raymond Dutton, III, David Skylar Ramsey and Jerry Hicks, after taking the hinges off the evidence room door with tools provided by the taxpayers of Hardin County via sheriff Cullison, entered the room, utilized an inordinate amount of drugs they found inside—then reportedly hatched a plan to escape that included weapons, also found in Cullison’s evidence room and murdering the dispatcher and deputy on duty.
Sources close to the investigation said the pair failed in their planned to shoot their way out of jail because they were too stoned on the drugs they had consumed.
Drugs listed as missing from the room include Xanax and liquid morphine.
In what appears to be an attempt to counter Disclosure coverage, county elected officials are scrambling in front of microphones of media who they know will not run their statements through a BS filter.
Just one example is county board chairman Wayne Eichorn, who told WSIL TV that the jail only keeps well “behaved, non-violent inmates.
County board chairman Wayne Eichorn claims county doesn't house "violent" prisoners
“These inmates are not the violent type. We don’t lodge any kind of inmate in Hardin County that are a threat to citizens or themselves,” Eichorn said of the men who plotted to kill two officers (dispatcher and deputy).
Five minutes o f fact checking shows Eichorn either lied or was ignorant of the facts surrounding just why the trio were behind bars.
The most blatant is Lil Dutton, who was housed in Cullison’s county jail on April 17, on charges of one count each of Domestic Battery alleging that he knowingly caused bodily harm to Michelle Dutton when he pushed her to the ground several times; Aggravated Battery because when he pushed her to the ground he was armed with a firearm; Aggravated Unlawful Restraint because when he pushed her down with the gun he was refusing to allow her to leave the house; Unlawful Possession of a Weapon by a Felon because he has previously been convicted of a felony; Unlawful Use of a Weapon for allegedly possessing a .22 caliber rifle with intent to use it against Michele Dutton; Obstruction of Justice for knowingly furnishing false information to police as to his real date of birth; Endangering the Life or Health of a Child because a minor child was present when he allegedly while in possession of a firearm pushed Michelel Dutton to the ground, preventing her from leaving the home.
It begs the question: What does Mr. Eichorn consider “violent types” or “threats to citizens”?
He said sheriff Joyce is taking steps to make sure something like this never happens again.
Cullison should have thought about making some changes on Wednesday, May 16, when she had to go chase down inmate Brian Vaughn after he simply bolted out the front door of the sheriff’s department.
The step that sheriff Joyce is taking appears to have nothing to do with figuring out what she’s doing.
Instead, her response has been to close the evidence room.
There has been no mention of discontinuing her practice of allowing inmates with access to work tools to run freely and unsupervised through the department.
Instead of doing a better job as sheriff, a position to which she was appointed by the county board upon the death of her husband, she is going to spend more tax dollars by paying someone else, who knows what they are doing and don’t allow prisoners with tools to have free run of their facility, to store the county’s evidence.
The .22 caliber gun, also missing from Cullison’s evidence room, is said to be the one Lil Raymond used to hold his family hostage.
Officials are not saying a word about police files which also happen to be missing, nor if they were taken by inmates, by inmates at the behest of one or more official, or if some official removed them and lumped the missing documents in with drugs and guns.
Only Hicks and Ramsey have been charged with seven felonies each for breaking into the evidence room.
Dutton, a relative of sheriff Joyce Cullison, has not been tagged with any additional charges.
“Joyce is running around acting like she has done nothing wrong, like she has no responsibility for what happened or could have happened if the inmates would have killed the dispatcher and deputy on duty,” said one critic of Cullison.
Keep checking back, as this doesn’t appear over by a long shot…