ST. CLAIR CO.—How much cocaine does a person have to ingest to overdose on it?
We’re not sure of the answer to that question, but we now know what killed a St. Clair attorney who had just ben named a judge in that county: Cocaine intoxication.
Joe Christ, dead of cocaine consumption. Geez.
According to published reports, former state’s attorney, Joe Christ, 49, who had just been sworn in as a St. Clair County judge, died in a Pike County cabin at some point in time in March (published reports are very vague about this, ridiculously enough). The cabin belongs to another St. Clair County judge, Michael Cook, who was the only other person present when Christ succumbed, and reportedly “found” him (probably face-down in white powder, but reports, as I indicated, are vague).
Now, Cook, who has been a public defender, then associate judge (2007), then appointed judge (2010), then won a six-year term later that year (as Illinois judges often do, since no one can be a judge in Illinois but an attorney), is under federal investigation, and that’s being assisted, admirably enough, by the sitting St. Clair county prosecutor, Brendan Kelly (even though the death occurred in another county).
Coke provider David Woods…mysteriously gone from the area on and off for a while….
We’re not sure they’re going to like what they find, however….that is, if they do a THOROUGH investigation. Which leads us to believe they will not. Because we’ve known for YEARS that the Illinois circuit-level judiciary has had a problem with cocaine and other upper-end recreational pharmaceuticals. As a matter of fact, during Raymond Martin’s federal jury trial, we heard from Gallatin County man David Woods, who testified that he not only was a pot provider for Raymondo, but that he also dealt cocaine, and was receiving immunity from prosecution of that crime because he was testifying in the former sheriff’s case. He testified that he had, in 2010, been a dealer of coke for 15 years, and had 7 or 8 clients, which he was very, very careful not to identify by name, age, gender, status, etc…as was the U.S. prosecutor, James Cutchin. But you’d better believe they knew who those “clients” were. And you’d better believe the coke didn’t dry up when Woods came to be a witness in a federal case. Those clients were among the “elite” in Gallatin, Hardin, Pope and Saline, according to our sources…and included either current or former judiciary.
And those are just the south county users…our same sources have confided that there are plenty “up north” judges who like their toot and have for years. Many people have come to us over the past ten years telling us what they’ve seen with their own eyes as regards cocaine use by the judiciary in the Second, Fourth and Fifth circuits in southeastern and south-central Illinois. So this in the metro-east area shouldn’t surprise anyone at all.
Published reports indicate that the chief judge of St. Clair County, John Baricevic, reassigned Cook’s caseload yesterday (May 23), so he’s out of action, if not off the bench, for now. We’ll see how this shakes out…but probably not very many heads are going to roll. Unless, of course, David Woods comes back up from Texas (where it’s been reported that he went into hiding not long ago, because he fears, as many do, what Raymond Martin will ultimately tell authorities in an effort to curry favor during his life sentences) and pressure begins on taking out perhaps the lower-rung, nambypamby dealers…which has its own inherent problems, as those lower-rung people often rub elbows with the higher-rung people/dealers…and then, we’re once again talking who’s willing to give up their “seat on the bus.”