BRIDGEPORT, Ill.—A meth bust in Bridgeport has resulted in charges for two men.
The incident occurred Friday, September 12, in the late afternoon (around 4 p.m.).
Raymond J. Robinson
While it’s unknown what drew authorities to the location, what we do know is that Bridgeport chief of police Scott Murray called in county deputies to assist with the arrests of Raymond Robinson, 36, who is out on parole from a 2010 Lawrence County meth conviction and sentencing, and Zachary Riggs, almost 24, an accused petty crim who doesn’t have much of a record to speak of.
Arresting charges were Meth Manufacturing, Possession of Meth Manufacturing Materials, Possession of Meth, and an assortment of other charges are pending.
A meth response team was called to dispose of the material that was found at the residence.
The two are each being held on $75,000 bail ($7,500 cash bond).
That Robinson, who was on a ten-year sentence but didn’t even serve a full four on it, was out and able to allegedly ply his trade, speaks volumes for Illinois’ stance on meth, as well as Lawrence’s outlook for the future. First, the stance on meth is nothing but lip service in Illinois. People are busted and rarely do they serve any meaningful prison time. First-time offenders nearly always get extended probation; subsequent offenders get reductions in sentencing. They brag while in prison about what they learned from their arrests and how they’re going to do things differently when they get out…and most of them do exactly that.
Which leads us to Lawrence’s problem, especially after former prosecutor Lisa Wade’s failed four years in office: She never fought hard enough to put the offenders behind bars for anything meaningful. And now, the wave of people she managed to get a conviction-through-plea-agreement over are being released from DOC, coming back to the shitholes where they started out, and doing it all over again. NO ONE learns a lesson in this, unless of course it’s the crims who get smarter about being caught. And they’re out there…sucking in other people with their poison…and decimating a huge percentage of the population in Lawrence.
We’ll see what Lawrence’s current prosecutor, Chris Quick, is going to do with Robinson and Riggs. More as we get it, likely in the print version, on stands September 30 and October 1.