HARRISBURG—A New Year’s night altercation ending in a serious injury for a local man prompted a seven-day shutdown of a popular Harrisburg bar, but locals say that the action—punishment for ongoing city ordinance infractions at the biker bar, Poor Boys—isn’t nearly enough.
Further, the incident served to underscore a couple of other things: ineffective police presence and action in the face of a known assailant/criminal, and the fact that the criminal continues to get away with various crimes unscathed, both of these prompting questions about just what’s going on with crime in the city of Harrisburg.
And ultimately, the level of corruption that feeds the bar, the cops and the crims leads back to a pair in Harrisburg who are claiming distance from the whole thing—but are the cause and core of much of what’s completely out of control in the city.
Suspect fled on foot
On the night in question (the early morning hours of January 1, 2013, approximately 2 a.m.), Saline County dispatch received a 911 call in reference to a fight at Poor Boys involving a possible stabbing.
Harrisburg officers Kenny Shires and Brent Davis responded and upon arrival Shires reported that he observed approximately 15-20 individuals on the Poor Boys parking lot. Shires exited his squad and a number of those people approached him, wanting to “give him information.”
The individuals told Shires that a victim, Jason Teegarden, 27, had been stabbed and was transported to Harrisburg Medical Center by a friend.
Upon questioning those on the parking lot, Shires learned that the suspect was a white male wearing a gray hoodie and having a swastika tattooed on his forehead.
“I was advised the suspect fled on foot to the north after friends of the victim tried to stop him,” Shires reported. “I was also advised the vehicle he was trying to leave in was still there and so was the other occupants.”
The mugshot of Roger Combs. The bizarre little man has managed to stay a step ahead of the law and continues to have women fawn all over him, despite having disfigured himself with a tattoo of a swastika and “Mary Beth” (Hutchison) badly inked across his forehead.
Women didn’t see anything
Shires noted that he spoke to a Lisa Larson, 46, and a Shelly Pickering-Thomas, 41, who told him the suspect was Roger Combs, 27, from Eldorado.
The women told the officer that they had been getting into their vehicle to leave when the fight broke out, so they “didn’t see anything.”
Shires relayed this information to Davis, who was busy driving around trying to locate the hooded suspect.
Shires noted that he couldn’t leave immediately because there were “other individuals trying to fight with Larson and Pickering”; as well, he was trying to gather more information.
Shires, being unable to find the suspect by “driving around,” traveled over to HMC to talk to the victim, Teegarden.
Teegarden advised that he was walking out to leave the bar when an “unknown male began a verbal altercation with him for no reason.”
Teegarden advised the male to hit him, so Teegarden punched him back.
Other individuals then stepped in to break up the fight and “that was it,” Teegarden said of what appeared to be a very short-lived incident.
Knife wounds observed
However, when Teegarden got to the vehicle he was leaving in, “his chest began to hurt and he noticed he was bleeding heavily,” reports indicate.
Teegarden was then rushed to the emergency room by a friend.
Teegarden told Shires he didn’t remember being stabbed nor did he see a knife.
At this point, Shires inspected Teegarden and saw a one-half-inch cut on his left upper side/torso with fatty tissue sticking out. Teegarden was having trouble breathing. He was later transferred to Deaconess Hospital in Evansville.
Shires then turned to the “large number of friends at the hospital” who had come to see how Teegarden was faring. William Edwards told Shires he’d had a “clear line of sight” and “believed he observed Combs punch Teegarden in the side of his body at least once,” with Shires noting in his report that this would be where the stab wound was.
Edwards told Shires he didn’t observe Combs with a knife, nor was anyone else involved.
A.J. Smith also told Shires he’d seen the fight, but didn’t observe a knife.
The two made statements, and photos were taken of Teegarden’s injuries. At Deaconess, surgeons opted to enter the abdomen in order to repair punctures to Teegarden’s diaphragm, lung and stomach, this according to his father, David.
Women come in for interview
Later on Jan. 1, Shires began making calls about the possible whereabouts of Combs. At about 7:35 p.m., after having made contact with Pickering and Larson, they agreed to come to the police department to be interviewed.
Larson said that they were “having a good time in the bar” with “no altercations that she remembered” (there was no indication in any reports of how intoxicated she or anyone else might have been, thus affecting their ability to “remember.”)
Larson then said that as they were leaving and getting into their vehicle, Shannon Moss came up to the car beating on it saying something about “someone being stabbed.”
Pickering told Larson to stop and, Larson said, they got into a physical altercation. Larson then told Shires she didn’t see or even know there was a fight until that point, and that she didn’t know where Combs was or could be.
Pickering rolls on Combs
When Pickering was being interviewed, Shires noted in his report that he got the feeling she wasn’t being honest with him.
At first, Pickering claimed she hadn’t heard from Combs nor had seen him since the bar fight. But she then said he’d called her “earlier,” not saying where he was, only wanting to be sure “she’d made it home alright.”
Shires told Pickering it’d be better for Combs if he turned himself in rather than be issued a warrant and have an officer find him and take him into custody under the current charges.
“I could see her facial expressions change,” Shires noted in his report.
Pickering asked if she could call Combs’ mom and try to speak to him; Shires said she could, but she’d have to use the officer’s phone, and do so in front of him.
Pickering then changed it to calling Combs’ friend, Scotty Adams; Shires advised her the rules would be the same.
“I told her I could tell she knew where he was and she could be facing obstructing justice charges,” Shires reported. Pickering then finally broke down with the truth: “She then advised he had called her on her way to the police department and was supposed to go to her residence and wait for her.”
Shires asked if Pickering would let the police in to take Combs into custody without putting himself in harm’s way, and she agreed.
Combs’ version
Shires contacted Eldorado officer Jack Johnson and asked that Eldorado officers go to Pickering’s residence and cover the front and back doors.
Shires then followed Pickering to her residence at 1300 Johnson Street in ’rado, where she entered the residence and told Combs to come out. He did, and was taken into custody and transported to the Harrisburg police department.
After waiving his Miranda rights, Combs told Shires that he was walking out of the bar to leave when Teegarden started “talking about a family member” of Combs’ (this family member was not named in reports.)
Confronting Teegarden, Combs said he “had words” with him, and then Teegarden “punched him in the head” and others jumped in to break it up.
“He claimed he did not even throw a punch nor did he ever have a knife,” Shires reported on Combs’ assertions.
Teegarden’s friends said they were calling the police, Combs told Shires, so Combs “walked across the street to wait.” But some individuals came at him again, he said, hitting and kicking him, so he fled.
Combs told Shires that a male that was with Teegarden’s group, Scotty Adams, made a statement about “taking the weight for him,” leaving Combs to believe Scotty “may have been the one to stab Teegarden.”
In an effort to verify this, Shires called Pickering on speaker phone to see if she would get Adams on the phone and see if he’d speak to Shires. Pickering said she’d call right back, but did not. So Combs filled out his statement and was remanded to custody of the jail staff.
More serious charges did not emerge
Shires noted in his report that on the night of the incident and at the scene, people had told him that when Combs was confronted in the parking lot after the stabbing, he’d displayed a knife. Shires was in the process of trying to confirm it when Combs was being charged.
Combs was formally charged Jan. 2 with a Class 3 felony count of Aggravated Battery (on a public way); Class 3 felony Unlawful Possession of Weapons by a Felon (the knife); and misdemeanor Unlawful Use of Weapons (same).
On the probable cause affidavit asking for the setting of an amount of bail of $25,000, signed by Assistant State’s Attorney Jason Olson, a handwritten note read “Victim still hospitalized. May be looking at more serious charges (murder).”
While Teegarden was on life support for a short time while doctors determined how to treat the punctures, he improved quickly and the case didn’t rise to that level of seriousness.
But given Combs’ most recent escape from anything resembling justice (see related story about Mary Beth Hutchison), it was bad enough…and his arrest was cause for relief among those who knew that there were a lot of people getting away with a lot of things in Harrisburg.
Not the least of these, the public was saying, was Poor Boys itself.
The Wiley/Bebout incident
The bar has come under fire over the past several years regarding the number of fights occurring inside and on the parking lot, which seem to have increased in number since the brutal beating of Brandon Bebout in the summer of 2011.
In that case, Chris Wiley, 36, was charged with pummeling Bebout, 30, inside the bar and leaving him lay on the floor. Poor Boys staff took the unconscious Bebout outside the building and called the police only at that point.
Wiley was charged with Aggravated Battery/Great Bodily Harm. His criminal case is crawling through the court system, with another pretrial conference having been scheduled for mid-January 2013.
But more importantly, Bebout filed a lawsuit against Wiley and Poor Boys, claiming that Poor Boys was the reason why Wiley beat him up to begin with, and as such, bore the responsibility financially for Bebout’s injuries and subsequent treatment during recovery.
That case, too, has been dragging through court since being filed in September 2011.
Mattingly ‘drinking all day’ at Poor Boys
There have been other cases peripherally involving the bar of the nature of Bebout’s pleadings, most of them not covered in local mainstream media for what they really are.
One of these is an incident that occurred about an hour before the Combs/Teegarden matter.
Clay Mattingly, 37, a local knucklehead, was busted on the same night when dispatch received a 911 call in reference to a white male wearing a black hoodie standing in the middle of Baker Street, swinging a knife at other individuals.
Shires and Davis arrived on scene and found Alex Abell restraining Mattingly, who resisted being placed in handcuffs.
“Mattingly would not get on the ground, nor place his hands behind his back until we physically made him,” Shires reported. “Mattingly, being highly intoxicated, did not feel the three rib strikes I issued him to get his left arm behind his back.”
Aaron Abell, there with his brother Alex, had been Mattingly’s object of ire with a silver folding knife; Alex Abell said he’d told Mattingly to get out of the road after he’d stepped out on front of the Abell vehicle as they were coming home. Mattingly had chased the Abell vehicle to their residence and this was where the altercation occurred.
Disclosure was told that Mattingly had been drinking at Poor Boys across town “all day,” somehow making his drunken way over to Baker only to accost the Abells.
Mattingly was charged with Aggravated Assault, Resisting a Peace Officer and Unlawful Use of Weapons.
Calls did not go unheeded
But after the Combs arrest and Teegarden’s hospitalization, all eyes were on that situation as it regarded the bar.
Calls for something to be done with the place this time did not go unheeded.
Mayor Eric Gregg called a liquor commission meeting to be held Jan. 8 in order to address this latest in a long line of altercations and incidents originating with the bar.
Gregg, who was seated as mayor in the spring of 2011, had said after the Bebout incident that he wouldn’t tolerate ongoing incidents such as that one, where the victim had to be lifeflighted out of town for treatment of his injuries.
But they continued to occur. So Gregg issued a letter to the liquor license holders in town, advising them that there would be punishments if altercations continued, and telling them to get their crowds under control by whatever means necessary.
In the face of several more altercations at Poor Boys over the course of nearly a year and a half since the issuance of the letter (which was also submitted to liquor stores and even convenience stores with package licenses), folks came to be under the impression that Gregg simply wasn’t serious about the threat of punishment, since Poor Boys was the greatest offender and yet, nothing was being done.
That’s why it came as such a surprise when the Jan. 8 meeting was called.
The hearing
Present at the 9 a.m. hearing was Gregg, city attorney Todd Bittle, police chief Bob Smith, and Sheila Harmon, “owner of Poor Boys.”
That title is in quotations because Harmon isn’t exactly the owner of the bar, a point of fact that will be touched upon momentarily.
Much was made, however, over Harmon’s “responsibility as owner and license holder,” and the focus of the meeting, according to those present including the media, was what she was planning to do in order to stay within the guidelines of city ordinance regarding how the bar was run.
Municipal code regarding alcoholic beverages was amended in June of 2008 to include illegal or disorderly acts, and license holders “shall not suffer or permit anyone to engage in such conduct prohibited by any ordinance or law; every licensee shall keep a good and orderly house.”
Punishment for not doing so could result in revocation or suspension of a license, as well as a possible $1,000 fine as a penalty.
Gregg asked Smith to touch upon the specific incidents Poor Boys has had since the letter was issued to license holders after the Bebout case.
Smith advised that there were three pending felonies, three pending ordinance violations and one misdemeanor (including the Bebout incident) involving Poor Boys that were in court right now.
He then, while flipping through a pile of paperwork, enumerated the dates of each incident: One without a specific reference to a specific crime on Aug. 7, 2012; a Sept. 29, 2012 Domestic Battery; an Oct. 21, 2012 Aggravated Battery; a November 11, 2012 Battery; a Nov. 14, 2012 Battery, and then the New Year’s Day Aggravated Battery “which resulted in the victim being lifeflighted out.”
Sheila speaks
After detailing statutes and codes under which the commission was meeting, Gregg called Harmon to the microphone to speak to the commission.
“No one is more sorry about what’s happened, New Year’s Eve or prior to me even purchasing Poor Boys, than me,” Harmon said. “I’m the manager; I’m to be held accountable.”
Her acceptance of responsibility, however, was short-lived.
“You take people that are drinking, you have one hot temper, and it happens,” she then said, immediately changing her tune. She referenced an earlier incident wherein Smith had come to the bar, offering advice on how to handle a situation correctly if a bar patron didn’t want to leave, even after “asked” to do so by management.
“That’s easier said than done,” Harmon said, citing an instance wherein a lady refused to leave when the bar staff asked, and the police were called, but “no one wanted to arrest her until she shoved an officer. Then they wanted to arrest her.”
Harmon talked about how “sorry” she was about all the problems of late, “but there was no sign of trouble that (New Year’s) night in that bar. No one could see it coming. I’m not sure that cameras outside would do that.”
They raise money for causes
Harmon continued by saying that she was willing to listen and try to do “whatever you think I should do.
“But Poor Boys isn’t as bad as you may think,” she sidetracked. “We’ve done a lot of good; we’ve raised a lot of money for people and for a lot of causes. We’ve tried to innovate and change how the bar is run. There’s a cover charge now, and a barred list; we have 135 people barred. I have tried reading the police blotter in the paper to stay on top of things; but I don’t recognize the names sometimes.
“Please tell me what to do; I’m willing to do it,” Harmon begged the commission. “Do I need to start wanding people at the door like at the courthouse? I don’t know where I legally stand at that point. But I’m willing to do anything I can to hold on to this license. I run a good bar. Please take that into consideration.”
Mayor Gregg’s input
Gregg acknowledged her implorings, but proceeded to state that her “track record is pretty difficult.
“You’re sitting in a residential area,” he noted. “If that spills over into the neighborhood, you’ve got a lot of kids living in homes right across the street…so there’s no easy answers.
“You have a huge effort to monitor who goes in and comes out,” he said, “but until they get off your property, they’re your responsibility.”
Gregg noted he’d much rather be talking about “business coming into the community,” but it “makes my job difficult when someone brings out you’ve had a stabbing, a beating, a shooting, whatever it is. We don’t wanna look like…some of the other communities from days past,” Gregg hesitated before expounding on the latter part of that statement, as Shawneetown, in decades before having a reputation for street fights and shootouts, was just 22 minutes away in Gallatin County.
“Maybe look at other facilities to find out what they do to curb problems?” Gregg offered a common-sense solution.
Who’s at fault…?
“They don’t have the volume,” Harmon objected, indicating with that one word ‘volume’ that Poor Boys was the ‘destination’ location for the areas drinkers and brawlers, a fact that had already been well-established, while at the same time propping up the business by sort of boasting that the fights only occur because of the overwhelming number of people that throng the place on a regular basis. Other bars, therefore, fell short of Poor Boys when it came to business; as Harmon explained, “They don’t know how to deal with it. My bartenders and help are trained better.”
Then Harmon tried a different tact.
“We’ve come to you and asked please, just give us walk-throughs,” she said, placing the brawling problem onto the police and in turn, the city. “Just on weekends even. Presence. The shady ones won’t come in there if they know police are just going to show up.”
“Don’t put this back on us,” Gregg said, good-naturedly, but with an intense expression that indicated he wasn’t going to take such an implication without some serious rebuttal.
“I’m not,” Harmon backpedaled; “I’m just asking for cooperation.”
Decision in four days
“This is a good-sized city,” Gregg responded. “Our police are all over the place. We’re looking at ordinance issues to get this under control, and I have five days to make a decision on how we’re gonna move forward.”
Gregg looked at Harmon from over his glasses.
“This could be anything from a suspension of license to 30 days revocation of license,” he informed her. “But I don’t plan on taking five days to string this out. We’ll bring it down to you. We hope the lines of communication stay open; not only with you, but across the city. I’ve been talking about it; now I can’t ‘talk’ anymore. And you have my word, you’re not the only place we’re looking at.”
The hearing, having taken place on a Tuesday, was adjourned at 9:19, having taken roughly 15 minutes to accomplish.
Gregg made good on his word and didn’t take a full five days to reach a decision. He issued it on Friday afternoon, Jan. 11, around 4:30 p.m.
The decision was to suspend Poor Boys’ liquor license for a full seven days, commencing at 9 a.m. Monday, Jan. 14. There was no fine assessed. The place, without a liquor license for that period of time, would not be able to operate, and will ostensibly be closed for that duration, reopening on the 21st.
These shots, taken by David Teegarden of his son Jason, show the results of the surgery the younger Teegarden was forced to undergo on New Year’s Day in order to repair damage to his stomach, diaphragm and lung after being punctured on the parking lot of Poor Boys. Roger Combs is under charges of stabbing the younger man.
The truth
Suggestions in the wake of the edict, but which were not offered during the hearing, entailed Harmon charging a higher cover in order to keep the ‘riff-raff’ at a minimum.
Other suggestions involved severely curtailing how many people would be allowed to be in the bar at any one time, this being affected with the bouncers that Poor Boys wisely hires.
However, that’s likely not going to transpire, particularly because that would impact the economics of the place.
And in order to understand why economics are important, it’s crucial to understand the power structure at Poor Boys…which structure is also why the place has remained unhindered by such things as city ordinances and state law for so long.
The fact is, Harmon does not own the bar; she’s only purchasing it on a contract for deed.
She effected the purchase from “Crazy” Jim Watson, who years ago purchased the bar in partnership with his best bud, former Harrisburg mayor and attorney Robert “ChickenBob” Wilson, from Bob Carnett.
Wilson is a “silent owner” of the facility. Watson can no longer obtain a liquor license, according to sources familiar with the operation. Disclosure is in the process of learning why this is case.
Girl trouble
Harmon is a former long-time girlfriend of Watson. Two years ago, however, Watson dumped Harmon in favor of a bartender, Brooke Engles, in her mid-20s, after seeing her behind Harmon’s back for several months.
Harmon used the liquor license as a tool to get Watson back; she was falling behind on her bills and had lost her car. This worked; Watson dumped Engles and, in order to keep the liquor license valid, hooked back up with Harmon, despite the fact that he obviously cannot stand her, as evidenced by his treatment of her as witnessed by regulars at the bar: he is very mean to her, running her down and yelling at her constantly, behavior and treatment which she appears to have gotten used to.
Thanks to mainstream media coverage that takes the presentation hook, line and sinker, most of the general public believes that Harmon is the “owner,” when in actuality, all she’s doing is running the place.
The owners are actually Watson and Wilson…and they are propping up the place, which doesn’t make that much money, for sources far greater than they, and at points considerably north of Saline County.
The northern investors
These sources are extremely nervous about the ongoing coverage Disclosure has been giving the place.
Two months after the Wiley/Bebout incident, the northern investors in Poor Boys called a meeting for the Wilson/Watson contingent, expressing great dismay that the bar was in the spotlight and telling them in no uncertain terms that somehow, the spotlight needed turned off.
Things calmed down for a little while, but since they’ve geared back up, apparently there was no recourse except for it to appear as though the city were taking the steps they needed to in order to affect the appearance that there is no favoritism at Poor Boys.
What is the interest the northern investors have in the bar? The answer to that is known likely only to a few. It’s been said over the years that the bar is a front for running large amounts of dope through, courtesy of biker gangs who are placed prominently throughout southern Illinois. The presence of syringes on the parking lot of the bar has lent to that premise over the years, especially recently.
However, there’s never been anything definitive established that would lead to such a revelation.
Instead, the more likely scenario is that the place is a front for money that passes hands in the Chase National Corporation Wilson operates, which has a host of investors across the country, and which takes the possessions from diseased wealthy people via approximately 200 funeral homes across the country and their pre-need/life insurance policies.
Power structure
The power behind this structure is enough to freak most people out when they learn about it.
This was the power that got Ray Wilson, Robert’s brother, out of anything resembling trouble after Ray’s wife “committed suicide” by shooting herself in the head twice. It was also the power that stopped Robert Wilson’s run for state representative, when the powers-that-be told him if he didn’t drop out of the race, the file on Ray would be reopened.
This was the power that helped Watson avoid prosecution and investigative child protective services years ago after his foreskin got caught in the braces of a 15-year-old daughter of a Harrisburg city councilwoman and he had to be taken to the emergency room for extraction. These same powers-that-be ensured that the young girl was put through college, and that the councilwoman has lived very comfortably ever since.
However, these powers, for all their influence, can’t stop the brawling and rowdiness at the bar. And it may be that very facility that might be their undoing.
As long as there are people inclined to drink and fight, Poor Boys is going to be a questionable investment venture for them. And now, with Eric Gregg at least making an effort to curb the violence there, the questions have arisen twofold: Is he in the pocket of the investors, or is he acting on his own and showing that as a mayor in charge of the town, he’s standing up to the shadiness going on in his midst?
The answer to that may come with subsequent brawls, hospitalizations, and perhaps a ultimately a death at the place, and the reaction Gregg takes to handle the matter at that time.
Meanwhile, the crims…
In the meantime, the felony cases, including Wiley’s and Combs’, are now moving through the court system.
Combs, incidentally, was bonded out ($2,500 cash) by Shelley Pickering’s mother on Jan. 8, the day of the liquor commission hearing, after Pickering reportedly begged, pleaded and cajoled her mother to get the younger man—who has not only a swastika, but the name of another woman, Mary Beth (Hutchison, see related story), badly tattooed on his forehead—out of jail at the Saline County Detention Center.
What the appeal is with Combs is unknown, as is why he has evaded arrest up to this point, despite the November meth blast and the Dec. 12 pot bust in Eldorado.
He is, however, set for a probation revocation on his 2012 Criminal Damage to Property conviction, this for Feb. 11, 2013….something Pickering and her mother won’t be able to bond him out of.