PULASKI CO., Ill.—A sad outcome for the citizens of Pulaski County occurred on Election Day Tuesday when their three-term sheriff becomes a four-term sheriff.
Randy Kern defeated second-time challenger Lloyd “Bo” Bosecker this election, coming in at another narrow margin (xxxx-xxxx) but not nearly as narrow as the 2010 race, where Bo lost by 28 votes. The problem with Kern, however, is that he’s not the best selection…unless you like your sheriffs chasing after women, grabbing them, doing and saying lewd things to them, and assaulting them further by kissing them and exposing himself to them.
And all of that is exactly what it’s not only been alleged, but has been proven to have happened, repeatedly, for years. Randy Kern is known as the “Boob Bandit,” and he lives up to the nickname. So why does he keep getting elected? No one is certain, unless it’s that the voters don’t believe the accusations of the women he’s molested because the ones who are credible aren’t on file in the local courthouse; the ones that ARE on file in the local courthouse aren’t credible because they’re known in the county as narks or dopeheads (which, of late, he’s specialized in preying on); or because the local news outlets refuse to run any of the truthful material on the court filings and resolutions (the latter of which there’ve been at least three in the federal court realm).
We don’t cover Pulaski County much, but the circumstance with Kern there has been so odd that we produced an article for the print pages in the Election Edition 2014, in order to show the readership area that yes, in southern Illinois, there ARE counties that have it a lot worse off than many of the others. Here now is something we rarely do, which is to present in full an article found solely in print or at the e-Edition so you can read the atrocity that is the sheriff of Pulaski County.
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Randy Kern, reviled Pulaski Co Sheriff, aka “Boob Bandit”
PULASKI CO.—In the oftentimes unbelievable political arena that is the state of Illinois, there’s going to be some extremes in unbelievable office-holding.
And in Pulaski County, the sheriff’s race is at the far end of the “What. The. Hell??” spectrum.
That’s because once again, Randy Kern is running, this after holding several terms as sheriff…and throughout them, being subject of federal civil rights violations lawsuits, which he’s lost repeatedly, and which, apparently, the citizens of Pulaski are either completely oblivious to, or simply don’t care.
While Pulaski is out of Disclosure’s regular coverage area, every four years, it seems to come to an ugly head, and every four years, the coverage remains the same: Randy Kern, known openly as “The Boob Bandit” in Pulaski County, runs for sheriff; and every four years, more people come out of the woodwork and file either Department of Human Rights complaints about sexual harassment and assault by Kern against them, or one of the many cases filed in actual federal civil court comes out to haunt him.
Boob Bandit can’t keep hands or lips to himself
This is despite the fact that in 2010, Kern, who is certainly nothing to look at but has an obvious uncontrolled penchant for females and simply cannot keep his hands or lips off them, has settled out of court (read: lost) said federal cases, and yet every election time, he begs to differ with the public, circulating letters denying the latest faux pas he’s committed that’s landed him in hearings with DHR or other entities.
Add in the fact that this year as in 2010, Kern’s opponent, Lloyd “Bo” Bosecker is such a modest, normal guy that he has nothing in his closet or otherwise that The Boob Bandit can use against him, and it quickly rises to the level of ‘incredulous’ as to why Kern keeps getting elected, over and over and over.
It might be that Pulaski is somewhat of a wasteland when it comes to media, and any local news outlet attempting to tell the truth about their sheriff is quickly stifled with threats that are actually illegal for Kern or those of his ilk to make toward them.
Whatever the case, the two are pitted against each other on the ballot again, and while the current sheriff prevailed by only 58 votes in the 2010 election, prognosticators brave enough to venture a guess in Pulaski are saying that this time, and with yet another filing coming to the fore revealing incidents Kern was accused of during this past term, it’s a strong possibility that Bosecker just might prevail in the sheriff’s race.
From DHR reports to federal civil rights violation cases
Kern faced a number of DHR complaints in recent years, some of which went away quietly, some of which escalated to actual federal lawsuits.
Two of those in 2008 were filed by local women Jessica Barnhill and Regina Goines, both of whom escalated their complaints—after being told by DHR that they had “substantive reports” with which DHR would support them in a federal civil action against Kern—and took their issues with Kern to the U.S. District Court system in Benton.
The cases were settled in July of 2009, with the women’s complaints being dismissed with prejudice (with leave to refile, which they did not.)
Yet another serious case, that filed by Angie Baugher (now Neeley), who worked with Kern, made its way to the settlement table just months before Kern was re-elected to a third term as sheriff in Pulaski in 2010.
Despite these cases coming to the fore in the public’s eye between June and November 2010, Kern skirted under the wire anyway, and went on to win the election that year.
Horrific activity reported right after election
He wasn’t well-behaved long, if a three-year-old DHR filing by a Mounds woman is any indication.
On August 31, 2011, one Carol Cherry complained to DHR of ongoing horrific activity as conducted by Kern against her while she was working as a janitor at the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department.
She stated in an official charge of discrimination against Kern that “sexual harassment continued through January 2011,” and that this harassment “was perpetrated by Sheriff Randy Kern and consisted of the unwelcome touching of my sexual parts and requesting and mandating I perform oral sex.
“The sexual harassment was unwelcome and I opposed it,” she reported to the DHR. “The sexual harassment created a hostile, intimidating work atmosphere that interfered with my ability to perform my duties” at the sheriff’s department where she was employed, and as a result of this, she reported, she was terminated on January 4, 2011, a termination which “followed my opposition to sexual harassment within such period of time as to raise the inference of retaliatory motivation.”
In other words, Kern hired her on at the sheriff’s department (this in December 2008, according to records), sexually harassed her, then fired her when she would perform sex acts on him or allow him to continue to harass her in any way…something that is very much against the law in this country, and which could be charged in state court as a sex assault…but which no one in Pulaski has apparently ever been willing to do, but which SHOULD be done in Kern’s case.
Staggering and brazen
The details of the incidents Cherry reported Kern perpetrated against her are both staggering and brazen.
The report to the DHR indicates that the sexual harassment was perpetuated from almost the moment Cherry was hired, when at a Christmas party at the Pulaski County Courthouse, Kern, who had been drinking, “touched her breasts over her clothing. She told him to stop, and Kern said he was sorry and blamed the alcohol.”
In February 2009, while in the attic at that courthouse, Kern “exposed his penis to Cherry and asked her for oral sex, which she refused. Kern then ‘grabbed (Cherry’s) arm and asked again and said that his wife had a back problem and could not have sex.’”
In April or May 2009, Cherry reported that Kern had commented to her “about her small breasts.”
Around October 2009, Kern “came up behind (Cherry) while she was in a file room and reached around her and squeezed her breasts.”
During the summer of 2010, Kern came into Cherry’s office and “requested oral sex and was rubbing his private area and saying he wanted to sleep with (Cherry) and ‘suck’ her breasts and wanted her to ‘suck’ his penis.”
Actual assault, battery, reported (while this paper was called ‘lying’ about him)
In October 2010 (while Kern’s antics were being actively covered on Disclosure’s website, and while Kern was raging all over the county and to any news organization that would listen that Disclosure was lying about him and his proclivities), “Kern came into the bathroom (Cherry) was cleaning, removed his penis from his pants, rubbed his penis and said ‘just one time’ and grabbed (Cherry’s) arms and kept asking for oral sex just one time. Kern was also touching (Cherry’s) breasts over her clothing. (Cherry) told Kern that she was going to scream and that she was going to tell. When she began to leave the room, Kern grabbed her by the arm to prevent her from leaving. He was standing in front of the door blocking her from leaving and, while still holding her arm, he was pushing her in an effort to bend her down toward his exposed penis to engage in oral sex.
“When (Cherry) refused to comply, Kern let go of her arm and proceeded to masturbate to ejaculation while continuing to block the door with his body. When Kern had concluded, he told (Cherry) that he would not bother her anymore and that he was sorry. Kern then stepped aside and both left the room with (Cherry) walking out in front of Kern. (Cherry) stated that although this incident took place in Pulaski County Courthouse’s public bathroom, no one attempted to enter the room as very few people were in the building yet because it was around 8:30 a.m., prior to the beginning of court proceedings.”
There was no formal report made with law enforcement. If one was made, several charges could have—and should have—been filed against Kern, including Unlawful Restraint and Sexual Battery, under this particular incident alone.
Fired after drug test
On January 3, 2011, Kern asked Cherry if she was “going to do what he had asked her to do, which was to set up community members for selling drugs and to submit to sexual contact with Kern. (Cherry) refused. Kern then directed her to submit to a drug test at the Pulaski County Courthouse and then to another drug test at the Community Health Center.”
On January 4, 2011, Kern notified Cherry of the drug test results being positive for cocaine and stated that it could be overlooked if she “did what he told her to do with regard to setting up community members for selling drugs and submitting to sexual contact, or she would be discharged. She refused and was discharged on the same day. She admitted that she had used cocaine on January 1, 2011.”
At other times between 2009 and 2011, Cherry reported, Kern “made statements that she would not be able to pay for her house and medication without a job, which also provided her with insurance, and that she owed him. She stated that such comments were made on four to six occasions.”
Cherry said there were “no witnesses to the sexual harassment incidents, and she did not report them to anyone else.” She further reported to DHR that there was no sexual harassment policy or sexual harassment officer at Pulaski County at the time the described incidents took place.
Kern denies it, DHR says nope
Kern, of course, denied it all when interviewed by DHR.
He also supplied a sexual harassment policy which had been implemented in September of 2009, and is supplied to all employees of the department. One Michelle Lang, he pointed out, is the sexual harassment officer for the county.
Cherry rebutted that “if these incidents had not happened, she wouldn’t be knowledgeable of the small size and uncircumcised nature of Kern’s penis.”
Further, she stated she was not given an employee handbook and was not aware of a sexual harassment policy.
Regardless of Kern’s ongoing assertions, on March 30, 2012, the DHR caseworker found substantial evidence existed for Cherry to go forward with a civil complaint in federal court if she so desired.
At that point, Cherry opted not to go to the federal venue, but instead, to file a civil case against Kern in state court (Pulaski County).
That case was opened July 26, 2012, against Kern and the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department, and has been slogging through the court system ever since.
Bo stretches forward in the race
Lloyd Bosecker
In the meantime, Kern, through other brouhahas going on within his family and county (his adopted son, arson felon Will Kern, was hemmed up on weapons charges in mid-2011, and Will’s wife Teresa, a “deputy” in Pulaski, was also in trouble over the situation at that time), continued on with business as usual, and is now doing the same, appearing in parades, and pretending that none of this sex stuff ever happened at all.
And in the meantime, Lloyd Bosecker, a two-and-a-half decade lawman who lost to Kern in 2010 by those 58 votes coming from the unenlightened, has proceeded in his plans to run for sheriff as he did four years ago…and this time, he’s gained quite a bit of ground, as the state case in Pulaski has been one of the more public incidents of Kern’s bizarre behavior, not buried in the federal court system where Kern can deny it.
Bosecker has continued to prove himself the clean, stolid candidate, and has run a clean campaign against Kern, despite the dirt that’s clearly sticking to the three-term sheriff.
How it will all shake out, however, remains to be seen on November 4; watch Disclosure’s website for the results.
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Apparently, Kern has most of the voters snowed into believing “none of it happened”…just like they still defended him after his useless kid was sent up on charges. Some things won’t change…and one of these days, someone who refuses Kern is going to get seriously hurt. Until people wake up—and that includes the local prosecutor, who needs to be filing charges, as well as other victims, who need to be suing the local officials for allowing it to go on for so long—nothing will change…and Pulaski County will remain a dangerous place.