GALLATIN/SALINE COs.—Failure on the part of local authorities to simply do their jobs a few months ago has had a direct bearing on a murder in Iowa.
And in the case of one of those local authorities, warnings regarding his ineffectiveness have been sounded for four years now, including opinions that if he didn’t start taking crime in his county seriously, someone was going to die.
On Dec. 7, 2012, someone did: Anita J. Cusic-Labkon, 68, formerly of the Shawneetown area, was bludgeoned to death in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And authorities say it was her son, Edward Cusic, 44, of Harrisburg, who wielded the crowbar behind the bludgeoning.
The horrific death underscores what seems to be a nationwide attitude of dismissal toward the troublesome elements of society, those who are easily passed through one rehab program to another in an effort to appear as though something’s “being done” with them. But this habit of keeping obviously dangerous offenders out of the courts and prisons where they need to be has far too often ended tragically, and, as in the Cusic case, has a particular bearing on local people, where a handful continue to escape any kind of punishment based on a few factors: their standing in the community, who they “know,” or, in the distinct case of Ed Cusic, who he was able to retain as an attorney.
Cusic’s case isn’t the first that Gallatin prosecutor Allen Roe, pictured at left, refused to deal with in any meaningful way.
Popular but troubled
Ed Cusic, his family members told Disclosure, was a very popular and well-known athlete in high school a couple of decades ago, excelling in football and track.
However, dating back to his high school years, he had a substance abuse problem that was first made a matter of record in 1986 when he was but 18, starting with a Saline County Driving Under the Influence charge—which was dismissed after a supervisory period, despite the fact that Cusic had wrecked his father’s car in the process.
From there, he was charged almost annually with minor criminal counts (misdemeanors) including Aggravated Battery, Domestic Battery, Reckless Conduct, Refusal to Provide Child Support, Possession of Cannabis, Resisting Arrest and Disorderly Conduct. All of these were dismissed, either through pleas on other charges, or outright (nolle prosequi, or, refusal on the part of the state to prosecute).
A few counts that were not nolle prossed seemed to have gone to a guilty plea almost begrudgingly: A bad check charge in 1992; Harassment by Telephone in 1995; another DUI in 2006 and in 2007, 14 counts of forgery and one of theft more than $300 but less than $10,000 were dismissed in favor of a guilty plea to a single Forgery charge.
All of this served to show a couple of things: Cusic was criminally inclined, including violent, with substance abuse problems enhancing the violence; but somehow he managed to squeak out of anything significant when it came to punishment for his criminal behavior. The Forgery count resulted in a four-year DOC sentence, but that was likely halved under Illinois’ truth-in-sentencing laws…and apparently didn’t do any good anyway, as Cusic was back on the docket in Saline in 2010 after a Domestic Battery charge that year…which was, naturally, nolle prossed a short time later.
Cooking and burning
Cusic’s brother, Andy Cusic, 45, of Junction in Gallatin County, was highly critical of the lesson—or lack thereof—this was sending his younger brother.
Andy Cusic outlined the past several years of Ed’s troubled life, including the incident just a few years back (he believes it was 2005) wherein Ed, cooking bacon while under the influence (likely of alcohol), managed to burn his house down while he was living on Raymond Street in Harrisburg.
The situation, Andy Cusic said, was almost repeated in late July of this year when Ed Cusic and one of his young sons was living with Andy and Andy’s fiancé in Junction.
Andy Cusic said that he got up at about 4 a.m. to go to work and found his brother in the kitchen, having been “up all night drinking.” As it turned out, Ed Cusic had “just gotten a whole bunch of new medication,” and had combined some of those with about eight Bud Platinum beers.
Ed, Andy said, was bound and determined to fix himself breakfast in this condition, “after he’d already burned his house down on Raymond Street just the same way.”
Andy Cusic said Ed Cusic threw about a half-pound of butter on a skillet on a very hot stove, whereupon Andy attempted to turn the stove off, and Ed stubbornly turned it back on. This went on, back and forth, several times until, Andy said, Ed “just flipped like a light switch.”
Flipped
Andy Cusic reported that Ed began throwing items around the kitchen, including kitchen chairs, and was “going after me” with pieces of them, including slats from the chair backs.
Andy said he was forced to attempt to defend himself with other slats when his brother pulled a knife on him and actually stabbed him superficially, unable to get a deep stab as Andy Cusic fought him off successfully.
But ultimately, Ed Cusic had his brother down on the floor, and “I was begging for my life.”
Andy Cusic advised that since he and his fiancé had just moved into the residence, there had not yet been a land line installed, and of course that section of Illinois is generally where cell phone receptions go to die so their cell phones were no good.
As a result, his fiancé had to leave the house and run to a neighbor’s to get help.
Gallatin County responded, and reports were made.
Did not take it seriously
However, when the reports made it to state’s attorney Allen Roe, the seriousness of the matter ceased to be.
Roe didn’t believe the issue rose to felony Assault, and instead charged Ed Cusic with misdemeanor Domestic Battery, this despite Andy Cusic showing Roe the stab wounds and other injuries Ed Cusic had inflicted.
As it turned out, word got back to Andy Cusic that Roe was afraid to tangle with Ed Cusic’s attorney from Marion, Joe Bleyer.
Bleyer is generally the attorney of record for municipalities, counties, and the officials in them who go awry of the law in civil situations and are faced with civil rights lawsuits.
How Ed Cusic managed to get Bleyer to represent him (in a custody/child support issue, which Cusic continued to lose and for which Cusic has been arrested repeatedly in Saline County) remains unknown, but because Bleyer apparently remains on retainer for Cusic, Roe was hesitant to make any more serious of a charge than the simple domestic battery he faced from the July incident.
Alleged arson attempt
Because Gallatin County did nothing meaningful over Ed Cusic’s July breakdown, Cusic was out and able to allegedly conduct more criminal activity in late October, this time in Harrisburg (Saline County).
There, Ed Cusic went to Andy Cusic’s daughter’s house on West Poplar and allegedly set fire to it.
“My son-in-law came around the corner of the house while it was on fire and found Ed hiding behind a tree, watching it,” Andy Cusic said.
When officers and fire department personnel responded, they found Ed at a neighbor’s house, “in a daze,” saying he needed to “go get a debit card” as explanation as to why he was there.
Andy Cusic said Harrisburg officers Nathan Moore and Todd Cavender were the responding law enforcement officers, and a debate among them was underway as to what to do with Ed.
The neighbor at whose house Ed was located advised against taking Ed in on any charge, as that would “just piss him off” and make the situation worse once he got out of jail.
Anita Cusic was called in Cedar Rapids, and the determination was made right there to “put Ed on a bus and send him” to her instead of allowing the law and the courts to tend to the matter.
Happy pills
Andy Cusic said that when Ed had previously stayed in Cedar Rapids, his father-in-law (Anita’s seventh husband, according to her son, who claimed she was “a hopeless romantic”) would drive Ed back to his doctor in Eldorado from Iowa “to keep him happy.”
Ed’s brother advised that Ed was on many different medications (such as hydrocodone) to treat not only a previously-broken neck and the pain associated with metal plates in it, but also mental illness medication (such as Valium and Elavil).
However, the abuse of the medications, Andy Cusic said, was that while Ed was on large doses, he would “take a whole month’s worth in seven to ten days, then beg, borrow or steal whatever he could to get through the rest of the month until he could get his prescription refilled.”
Ed Cusic had been in and out of the Mulberry Center in Evansville prior to moving up north with his mother, where, Andy Cusic said, they’d “treat him for a few days, shove a bunch of pills at him, let him go for a few days, then he’d check back in,” especially when he continued to get in trouble with the law, as he had been in both Gallatin and Saline counties.
The pills, added to Ed Cusic’s problems with alcohol, created an explosive and often uncontrollable situation.
Anita had divorced her husband, but she was still living with him until he died in the summer. At that time Anita went to live in a house belonging to a man who was on the road a lot traveling in an RV, essentially “housesitting.” Ed went with her.
It was in this house in Cedar Rapids that the two were in the late evening hours of Friday, Dec. 7, when Ed Cusic had one more explosive moment.
Official story vs. Ed’s story
Officially, the story is as follows:
A 911 call made at about 11 p.m. that Friday night came in from Ed Cusic, who advised dispatch that he’d “killed his mother with a crowbar after she threatened him with a gun.”
The call was classified as a “disturbance with a weapon” and when authorities arrived, they found Anita Cusic-Labkon’s body face up on a bed in a back bedroom, with a crowbar between her legs (one report has it between her feet) and a bottle of prescription medication on her chest.
A handgun was found on top of a dresser in that bedroom, and there was a dagger located under pillows.
Ed Cusic told officers that he’d struck his mother once with the crowbar, and, contradicting himself, later said she’d come at him with a dagger, at which time he’d run away from her to the garage, where he found a crowbar and used it to kill her.
Jailhouse interview
In a jailhouse interview with a local reporter, Cusic elaborated, saying that Anita had threatened to kill him when she’d had a 9 mm handgun in her hand.
He was asked why he’d gotten the crowbar, and he’d answered that he “didn’t want to get hurt,” adding that Anita was “bipolar and suicidal.”
“She carried a .380 in her pocket, she had a 9-millimeter in her room and she had several daggers in her house. She was not in her right frame of mind. She couldn’t remember where she put something, and she’d blame someone for taking something, when no one was in the house but me and her. She’d say, ‘Oh, I guess the gremlins took it’” Cusic was quoted as saying.
Cusic claimed his mother was holding the 9 mm on him and said “I’ll send you straight to hell” when he was forced to defend himself against her.
He insisted that he only struck her once with the crowbar, although public documents show that she had been beaten multiple times with “obvious signs of blunt force trauma to her face and arm.”
Further, Cusic, in his interview, claimed that he was not under the influence of any intoxicating compounds. However, authorities said that they believed he was.
Ed Cusic in his interview stated he believed that when toxicology reports on his mother’s body came back, they’d see how messed up she was, and see that he acted in self-defense against a woman who was intent on shooting him.
Clarity
Andy Cusic begs to differ from Ed Cusic’s version of what happened.
“I believe my mom died over her words,” he said. “They were probably fighting, and instead of him walking away, he went to a garage and got that crowbar. I know it was her words because he nearly dislocated her jaw beating her with that crowbar.”
Andy Cusic said he believes his brother is a sociopath, without conscience, and not seeing any difference between right and wrong, and noted a scam Ed was running on their father before the elder Cusic died.
Andy commented on the mugshot photo of his brother, noting the drooping left eye.
“He looks like he’s had a stroke,” Andy said. “I think he’s fried his brain. He’s been a classic alcoholic since he was young. We always wondered when he’d hit rock bottom. We wonder if this is it.”
Andy Cusic lays the death of his mother right at the feet of Allen Roe and any other authority in southern Illinois who could have put a stop to Ed Cusic’s rages when they caught him at it, as he was in late July, and again in late October. Roe, in particular, has had opportunity in the past to make an impact on the life of a person involved in crime but refused; this case, however, is the extreme example of something that could have been done properly, but wasn’t.
“If they’d just done their jobs,” he said, “our mother would be alive. The system has failed us…but Ed Cusic is still responsible for Ed Cusic.
“That doesn’t mean that next time—if there is a next time, since we’re so used to Ed getting out of these serious things, who knows—he’ll stop. He won’t. So they have to stop him. Maybe another family won’t have to go through this,” Andy Cusic concluded.
One last thing
Before this issue went to press, Disclosure was notified that at some point in time on Thursday, December 13, Ed Cusic attempted to commit suicide while in his jail cell.
Andy Cusic said he was not advised of what the method was his brother used to make the suicide attempt; only that correctional personnel advised him of it.
Ed Cusic, a former criminal justice major at Southeastern Illinois College in Harrisburg, has been charged with a single count of First-Degree Murder and is being held in the Linn County Jail on a million dollar ($100,000 cash bond) bail.
Future court dates are pending and will be covered in upcoming issues of Disclosure.