chicagotribune.com
2 tied to false confessions now instruct cops on investigating
2 men tied to tainted Lake County prosecutions now training cops in state to be 'lead homicide investigators'
By Dan Hinkel, Chicago Tribune reporter
April 6, 2012
Hoping to prevent bungled police probes and prosecutions like those that have plagued Illinois' legal system, state lawmakers mandated the creation of a class to certify officers as "lead homicide investigators."
But one of the teams being paid tax dollars to teach the five-day course consists of two law-enforcement figures who were involved in — and sometimes central to — a spate of collapsing prosecutions in Lake County, including high-profile cases that disintegrated in the face of contradictory evidence.
In December, appeals judges called out former Waukegan Detective Lou Tessmann by name as they ordered the release of Juan Rivera after almost 20 years in prison. The judges questioned Tessmann's interrogation tactics and the believability of the confession he took from Rivera in the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl.
The other trainer, Jeffrey Pavletic, has spent 15 years as second-in-command in the Lake County state's attorney's office, an agency battered by recent legal losses in cases where defendants were pursued for years after DNA seemed to suggest their innocence.
Pavletic prosecuted Rivera and handled pretrial hearings for Jerry Hobbs, who was released in 2010 after evidence pointed toward another man in the stabbing deaths of two Zion girls. Like Rivera, Hobbs had confessed after a grueling interrogation that prosecutors defended as legally sound.
Pavletic also tried another man, James Edwards, whose guilt has been called into question by DNA.
The legal and financial fallout from these cases promises to trouble Lake County for years, and critics of its judicial system said they were disturbed to learn that officers around the state are being taught by two of the county's key law enforcement figures — at taxpayer expense.
Proper police training could help stem the flow of false confessions and wrongful convictions revealed in the last 25 years by advancing DNA technology, experts said. Steven Drizin, legal director of Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions, said he fears Lake County's approach to investigations, interrogations and prosecutions could be transmitted "like a virus."
"Are they spreading the wrong lessons throughout the state?" he asked.
Legislators who pushed the certification law, which took effect Jan. 1, questioned the vetting process for instructors. Sen. William Haine, the former Madison County state's attorney, was "shocked" when told by the Tribune that the men taught the course in a nearby county in December.
"I'm at a loss as to why they went up to Chicago to get (instructors with) more baggage than a Greyhound bus when they have diamonds right there in their own backyard," he said.
Pavletic declined to comment. But the lawyer defending him against Hobbs' civil lawsuit, James Sotos, called his client an "extremely ethical and diligent prosecutor."
Tessmann declined to comment.
David Zulawski, chairman of Wicklander-Zulawski & Assocs., the firm that hires out Tessmann and Pavletic for state-sponsored courses, expressed confidence in the men and questioned Rivera's innocence.
"I don't have any doubts about their integrity at all," Zulawski said. "If I did have doubts, they wouldn't work for me."
Cashing in on courses
Although the lead homicide investigator certification class is new, Tessmann and Pavletic have been teaching similar ones for years. Taxpayers have paid nearly $300,000 for courses involving one or both men since 2007, a Tribune investigation has found.
They aren't the only Lake County law enforcement figures who teach police. The Tribune revealed in 2010 that Waukegan Officer Domenic Cappelluti — who helped obtain confessions from Hobbs and another murder suspect who was later cleared — teaches investigation and interrogation through a private firm.
Newly obtained documents show public agencies statewide have paid about $158,000 for classes involving Cappelluti since 2007.
In Illinois, much of the training that police receive comes through 16 regional organizations affiliated with the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. The local agencies are almost entirely responsible for selecting and evaluating instructors, state training board officials said, and often hire private firms such as Wicklander-Zulawski.
The firm advertises Tessmann and Pavletic as seasoned professionals from the elite ranks of law enforcement.
Tessmann, a decorated Vietnam veteran, spent 21 years as a police officer, led the county's Major Crimes Task Force and served as Waukegan's deputy police chief. He retired in 2005.
Pavletic has been in the state's attorney's office since 1984 and has worked on about 150 jury trials, according to online promotional materials.
From 2007 to 2011, before the advent of the lead homicide investigator certification, agencies across the state already had paid Wicklander-Zulawski $267,450 total for training sessions involving Tessmann, Pavletic or both, according to records provided to the Tribune.
State Sen. John Millner, R-Carol Stream, pushed for the law, passed in 2010, that mandated the lead homicide investigator training program. A former Elmhurst police chief and police trainer himself, Millner was alarmed by headlines exposing botched investigations and worried that some detectives were "flying by the seat of their pants."
The certification is not mandatory, but police forces across the state appear to value it. As of mid-March, about 2,500 officers had either taken the classes or were certified based on past training and experience, said Larry Smith, deputy director of the state board.
Wicklander-Zulawski is one of three firms teaching the course. Pavletic and Tessmann had taught the class twice as of January.
The men tackle separate sections, with Pavletic teaching about Miranda rights, search warrants, interrogation, report-writing and testifying, according to a teaching outline shared by Pavletic's lawyer. Tessmann, meanwhile, focuses on crime scene investigation and suspect interrogation, said a detective who took the class.
Though it is not required by the state's curriculum, Zulawski said any class offered through his company would cover the possibility of false confessions. Through his lawyer, Pavletic said risk factors and warning sings of false confessions are discussed.
Two officers who participated gave their teachers positive reviews.
They "had a deep commitment to what we do as police officers, and it came through in the training," said Carbondale Sgt. Anthony Williams.
Though Tessmann and Pavletic have been associated with flawed cases, training officials noted that mistakes happen to everyone in law enforcement.
"A lot of people have something in their history that they're not proud of," said Kevin McClain, executive director of the Training and Standards Board.
But the problems with the cases Tessmann and Pavletic worked go beyond simple mistakes, experts on false confessions and wrongful convictions said.
"Its almost like the Lake County criminal justice system should be in receivership," said Richard Leo, a University of San Francisco law professor who studies false confessions.
Collapsing cases
Tessmann's record on interrogations is highlighted on the Wicklander-Zulawski website, where his bio touts that he has "obtained over 80 homicide confessions during his career with only three instances where he was unable to obtain a confession from the homicide suspect."
Defense lawyers and experts find that claim unsettling.
"Unless he is making near-perfect clinical judgments (of a suspect's guilt) … that is a confession rate that should be a source of concern," said Saul Kassin, a psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
Tessmann's most famous interrogation involved Rivera, who was questioned two months after 11-year-old Holly Staker was raped and stabbed to death in Waukegan in 1992.
Then 19, Rivera confessed after polygraph testing and an interrogation that stretched across four days. After twice being convicted, Rivera was granted a third trial in 2009 based on DNA evidence showing another man's semen was in Holly's body.
Prosecutors sought to explain the evidence by saying the girl had sex with another man around the time of her killing, and the confession was essential to the case. Authorities maintained Rivera gave details only the killer could know.
Rivera's lawyers argued that Tessmann's sworn testimony as to how Rivera confessed was "difficult to take seriously." They sought to convince jurors that Tessmann had supplied the details in a confession the detective himself had typed for the suspect to sign.
Jurors again found him guilty. But last December, appeals judges reversed that, writing in a withering opinion that "no rational trier of fact" could have found him guilty.
The judges noted that Tessmann and another officer acknowledged they might have asked Rivera leading questions, and the judges wrote that the evidence did not "inspire belief in the defendant's candid acknowledgment of guilt." Rivera was freed after 20 years in prison.
The Rivera trial was not the first time Tessmann's account of an investigation had been questioned.
In 1990, a 19-year-old Lombard man was charged with robbing a woman at knifepoint after Tessmann told a grand jury the victim had identified the man in a photo lineup, according to court records. But those charges were quickly dropped when another man admitted to the crime.
The Lombard man sued Tessmann and Waukegan, and the witness said in a deposition she had told the detective something very different about the lineup. She said she told Tessmann, "This is the guy who looks the closest, but it's not him," according to a transcript.
Jurors awarded the man a $71,500 judgment against Tessmann, which Waukegan paid, according to a city attorney.
As to Tessmann's educational credentials, online biographies published by Wicklander-Zulawski raise more questions than they answer.
Until 2004, Tessmann's bio on the site said he graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1974, but the schools in the state's university system reported he had not graduated from their institutions.
DNA problems
During Pavletic's 15 years as chief deputy prosecutor, two cases have been dismantled by DNA, and two more remain in question. He tried or handled pretrial activities for three of the four cases.
At two trials in the 1990s, Pavletic worked to convince jurors that a confession outweighed other evidence. He personally prosecuted the first Rivera trial. The other was that of James Edwards, whose conviction in the 1994 killing of Fred Reckling in Waukegan has been cast into doubt by blood evidence linking another felon to the scene.
Then in 2005, Pavletic was called to help handle the case against Hobbs, who was charged with the heinous stabbing deaths of his daughter Laura, 8, and her friend Krystal Tobias, 9, in a Zion park.
A recent transplant from Texas with a long record and little education, Hobbs had confessed at the end of intermittent questioning that lasted about 24 hours.
By August 2007, defense lawyers had learned semen found in Laura Hobbs' body didn't match that of her father.
Pavletic was in court in 2008 when then-Assistant State's Attorney Michael Mermel told a judge the semen didn't indicate Hobbs' innocence, according to a transcript. Couples sometimes had sex in the woods, Mermel said, and the girl could have touched some semen and then wiped herself.
Almost three years after the DNA mismatch was revealed — and after Hobbs had spent nearly five years in jail — the FBI's DNA database revealed a link between the semen and former Marine Jorge Torrez, a Zion native and close friend of Krystal Tobias' brother, according to court records. Pavletic appeared in court to drop the charges against Hobbs in 2010.
While Hobbs was jailed, prosecutors in Virginia allege, Torrez killed a Navy petty officer in her barracks. He faces trial in that case and is already serving five life sentences for attacks on women in Virginia.
The cases of Hobbs and Rivera could be used to show police and prosecutors how not to try to solve a murder, experts said, from the long, aggressive interrogations of the suspects to prosecutors' unwillingness to change course in the face of forensic evidence.
Although it's unclear exactly what Pavletic and Tessmann are teaching, Williams, the Carbondale sergeant who took the class, recalled one thing the former detective discussed — the Rivera case.
The retired detective told his pupils that Juan Rivera gave details of the crime only the killer could have known, Williams said.
On the last day of that downstate training in December, the appeals court disagreed.
A few weeks later, Rivera walked free. The Staker killing remains unsolved.
dhinkel@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-police-training-20120406,0,7358533.story
Showing posts with label 2012 - corruption in Lake County IL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2012 - corruption in Lake County IL. Show all posts
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Ex-Lake County prosecutor faces disciplinary board in drug case
Ex-Lake County prosecutor faces disciplinary board in drug case
Lawyer for state was roommate with drug dealer
By Steve Schmadeke, Chicago Tribune reporter
8:17 PM CDT, June 13, 2012
His drug-dealing roommate loved baking "marijuana pastries," a former Lake County prosecutor testified Wednesday, so when the roommate offered him some chemically enhanced batter, he couldn't refuse.
But Aaron Isaacson, 30, who was forced to resign as a prosecutor in 2009 shortly after his roommate was arrested, testified that he had a "horrible … reaction" to the cannabis-laced batter.
Isaacson testified Wednesday during an attorney disciplinary hearing that he witnessed dozens of drug deals, helped his roommate count and organize drug money, and used marijuana and cocaine while working as a traffic court prosecutor who sometimes handled misdemeanor drug cases in 2009.
"I didn't think anything of it at the time," Isaacson said when asked why he didn't move out. Isaacson was never criminally charged. Instead he agreed to testify against his friend in exchange for immunity.
But he could lose his law license.
Isaacson and his friend, Ryan Yoselowitz, 30, were living in a lavish new Logan Square town house full of high-quality marijuana stored everywhere from a hidden compartment in a sofa to glass "candy jars" stashed next to boxes of macaroni and cheese in the kitchen cupboards, according to testimony Wednesday before an Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission hearing.
The bachelor pad was "without a doubt … the most elaborate, over-the-top place I've been to," testified now-retired Illinois State Police investigative Sgt. Earl Candler, who said he had executed more than 1,000 search warrants in his career.
Candler started laughing as he recounted how Isaacson sweated profusely and denied knowing there were drugs in the house even though the place reeked of marijuana. "It was comical," he said.
Yoselowitz said in a deposition that Isaacson also sometimes delivered marijuana or picked up drug cash, but Isaacson denied that. The former prosecutor, who was dubbed "Yoda" by friends in the drug trade, also denied searching law enforcement databases to help his roommate.
Isaacson testified that he paid just $800 of the town house's $2,800 monthly rent himself even though he knew his roommate's only source of income was from selling drugs. He also testified that he helped Yoselowitz sort drug cash only because they were running late for a social engagement.
"It was driving me nuts because we were running so late," Isaacson said. "And he said, 'If you want to get out of here, you have to help me with this money.'"
His supervisors in the Lake County state's attorney's office testified that Isaacson lied to them the day after Yoselowitz was arrested in McLean County in central Illinois with 23 pounds of top-grade marijuana. Yoselowitz pleaded guilty and is serving a 12-year prison sentence.
As a "painfully shy" student at Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, Isaacson was morbidly obese, he testified. He said he first met Yoselowitz at Bradley University in Peoria, but the two lost touch before reconnecting in 2006 after Isaacson had gastric-bypass surgery and was studying at John Marshall Law School. By then, Yoselowitz was selling high-grade marijuana from the "chill room" on the second floor of his mother's Long Grove home, according to testimony. Eventually the two decided to room together.
Isaacson removed his glasses and began crying when his uncle, Samuel B. Isaacson, who heads the Chicago litigation practice at the massive DLA Piper law firm, testified to his "great character."
George Collins, Isaacson's attorney, asked the hearing board to consider a "significant suspension" of his client's law license rather than disbarment.
"I so badly want to practice law," Isaacson testified. "I just hope I can do that."
sschmadeke@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-prosecutor-drugs-20120614,0,4563541.story
Editor's note: The ARDC will most likely give this connected druggie a pass but will continue to persecute an attorney of complete integrity, Ken Ditkowsky. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Lawyer for state was roommate with drug dealer
By Steve Schmadeke, Chicago Tribune reporter
8:17 PM CDT, June 13, 2012
His drug-dealing roommate loved baking "marijuana pastries," a former Lake County prosecutor testified Wednesday, so when the roommate offered him some chemically enhanced batter, he couldn't refuse.
But Aaron Isaacson, 30, who was forced to resign as a prosecutor in 2009 shortly after his roommate was arrested, testified that he had a "horrible … reaction" to the cannabis-laced batter.
Isaacson testified Wednesday during an attorney disciplinary hearing that he witnessed dozens of drug deals, helped his roommate count and organize drug money, and used marijuana and cocaine while working as a traffic court prosecutor who sometimes handled misdemeanor drug cases in 2009.
"I didn't think anything of it at the time," Isaacson said when asked why he didn't move out. Isaacson was never criminally charged. Instead he agreed to testify against his friend in exchange for immunity.
But he could lose his law license.
Isaacson and his friend, Ryan Yoselowitz, 30, were living in a lavish new Logan Square town house full of high-quality marijuana stored everywhere from a hidden compartment in a sofa to glass "candy jars" stashed next to boxes of macaroni and cheese in the kitchen cupboards, according to testimony Wednesday before an Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission hearing.
The bachelor pad was "without a doubt … the most elaborate, over-the-top place I've been to," testified now-retired Illinois State Police investigative Sgt. Earl Candler, who said he had executed more than 1,000 search warrants in his career.
Candler started laughing as he recounted how Isaacson sweated profusely and denied knowing there were drugs in the house even though the place reeked of marijuana. "It was comical," he said.
Yoselowitz said in a deposition that Isaacson also sometimes delivered marijuana or picked up drug cash, but Isaacson denied that. The former prosecutor, who was dubbed "Yoda" by friends in the drug trade, also denied searching law enforcement databases to help his roommate.
Isaacson testified that he paid just $800 of the town house's $2,800 monthly rent himself even though he knew his roommate's only source of income was from selling drugs. He also testified that he helped Yoselowitz sort drug cash only because they were running late for a social engagement.
"It was driving me nuts because we were running so late," Isaacson said. "And he said, 'If you want to get out of here, you have to help me with this money.'"
His supervisors in the Lake County state's attorney's office testified that Isaacson lied to them the day after Yoselowitz was arrested in McLean County in central Illinois with 23 pounds of top-grade marijuana. Yoselowitz pleaded guilty and is serving a 12-year prison sentence.
As a "painfully shy" student at Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, Isaacson was morbidly obese, he testified. He said he first met Yoselowitz at Bradley University in Peoria, but the two lost touch before reconnecting in 2006 after Isaacson had gastric-bypass surgery and was studying at John Marshall Law School. By then, Yoselowitz was selling high-grade marijuana from the "chill room" on the second floor of his mother's Long Grove home, according to testimony. Eventually the two decided to room together.
Isaacson removed his glasses and began crying when his uncle, Samuel B. Isaacson, who heads the Chicago litigation practice at the massive DLA Piper law firm, testified to his "great character."
George Collins, Isaacson's attorney, asked the hearing board to consider a "significant suspension" of his client's law license rather than disbarment.
"I so badly want to practice law," Isaacson testified. "I just hope I can do that."
sschmadeke@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-prosecutor-drugs-20120614,0,4563541.story
Editor's note: The ARDC will most likely give this connected druggie a pass but will continue to persecute an attorney of complete integrity, Ken Ditkowsky. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Lawsuits, special investigator arise in wake of deaths of two Lake County Jail inmates
Lawsuits, special investigator arise in wake of deaths of two Lake County Jail inmates
BY DAN ROZEK
Staff Reporter /drozek@suntimes.com
Last Modified: Jun 9, 2012 02:08AM
Lyvita Gomes launched a 15-day hunger strike while locked in the Lake County Jail, then died of malnutrition and dehydration less than a week later at a north suburban hospital.
Eugene Gruber suffered paralyzing neck injuries while struggling with officers in the jail, then died months later after being transferred to a Chicago rehabilitation center.
Their deaths this year outraged family members and sparked two federal civil rights lawsuits, the most recent filed this week by relatives of Gomes, a 52-year-old native of Mumbai, India, initially jailed for missing jury duty she was ineligible to serve.
The uproar over the deaths prompted Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran to appoint a former prosecutor to independently investigate how jail employees dealt with Gomes and Gruber, a 51-year-old Grayslake man.
Attorney Terry Ekl, an ex-Cook County prosecutor who has conducted investigations of several suburban police departments, also will examine whether officials should change procedures for handling inmates -- particularly those needing medical attention -- at the 608-bed jail in Waukegan.
The two deaths within the span of two months clearly demonstrate something is wrong at the jail, attorneys representing Gomes and Gruber said.
“It’s obvious the jail needs to make some changes so people don’t end up injured or dead because they’re detained there,” said attorney Jan Susler, who represents Gomes’ relatives in their civil rights suit.
A critical issue is how inmates needing health care are assessed and treated, said attorney Mark Smolens, who represents Gruber’s sister in her pending federal lawsuit. A contract medical firm, Correct Care Solutions, is paid about $2 million annually to provide health services at the jail.
“There are big problems at the Lake County Jail. Something needs to be done with the way medical care is provided to inmates,” Smolens said.
Gruber was arrested Oct. 31 for disorderly conduct and criminal trespass, then allegedly became uncooperative in the jail, prompting officers to physically restrain and pepper-spray him.
He suffered a spinal injury while in custody, and security cameras later showing him being dragged as his legs dangled unmoving, though an attorney representing Lake County said jail personnel weren’t aware Gruber had been seriously hurt. Gruber was transferred a day later to a Waukegan hospital and died March 3 while being treated for his injuries at a Chicago rehab center.
The lawsuit contends he was beaten during the altercation and that his requests for medical assistance were denied. Medical staffers from Correct Care didn’t properly assess or treat Gruber for his injuries, the lawsuit alleges.
The Lake County state’s attorney’s office reviewed the case and concluded there was no indication jail officers intentionally harmed Gruber, though that probe didn’t touch on the role played by medical workers.
Gomes initially was arrested in October in Vernon Hills for failing to answer a jury summons -- though she was ineligible to serve because she wasn’t a U.S. citizen -- and resisting arrest. When she later missed a court appearance, she was taken into custody Dec. 14. She immediately declared a hunger strike, refusing to eat or drink, Susler said, contending it was apparent Gomes “was struggling with mental health issues.”
Despite that assessment, health workers and jail officials “stood by as she withered away before their eyes,” Susler contended in the lawsuit. Gomes lost at least 18 pounds in the 15 days she was jailed, before authorities moved her to a hospital, where she died Jan. 3.
“We believe that the judiciary system, the prison services and the health care services to the prison system have let down the Gomes family through a collective failure that should not have submitted Lyvita to such a tragic end,” Gomes’ brother-in-law, Rodney Fernandes, said in a statement.
Citing the lawsuits and pending review, Curran declined to comment, though an attorney denied there was a “systemic problem” in the way inmates are treated and supervised at the jail.
“There is no systemic problem in the jail with the way inmates are handled,” attorney James Sotos said. “These are isolated incidents; that’s the fact of it.”
Officials with Nashville-based Correct Care couldn’t be reached for comment.
Ekl said his investigation will include examining how medical personnel reacted to both Gomes’ hunger strike and the injuries Gruber suffered while in custody.
He will use medical experts to try to determine how Gruber was injured -- and the type of force required to inflict his injuries.
Ekl promised an “impartial” investigation despite the fact that he was hired by Lake County to conduct the probe of its jail.
“My report is going to be fair and it’s going to be impartial,” Ekl said.
Gruber’s relatives hope his death will at least lead to changes that benefit others detained at the jail.
“They’re angry at the way Eugene’s life was taken from him, and nothing can bring him back,” Smolens said, but added: “if there’s an improvement at the Lake County Jail, that’s obviously a good thing.”
http://www.suntimes.com/13063372-761/lawsuits-special-investigator-arise-in-wake-of-deaths-of-two-lake-county-jail-inmates.html
BY DAN ROZEK
Staff Reporter /drozek@suntimes.com
Last Modified: Jun 9, 2012 02:08AM
Lyvita Gomes launched a 15-day hunger strike while locked in the Lake County Jail, then died of malnutrition and dehydration less than a week later at a north suburban hospital.
Eugene Gruber suffered paralyzing neck injuries while struggling with officers in the jail, then died months later after being transferred to a Chicago rehabilitation center.
Their deaths this year outraged family members and sparked two federal civil rights lawsuits, the most recent filed this week by relatives of Gomes, a 52-year-old native of Mumbai, India, initially jailed for missing jury duty she was ineligible to serve.
The uproar over the deaths prompted Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran to appoint a former prosecutor to independently investigate how jail employees dealt with Gomes and Gruber, a 51-year-old Grayslake man.
Attorney Terry Ekl, an ex-Cook County prosecutor who has conducted investigations of several suburban police departments, also will examine whether officials should change procedures for handling inmates -- particularly those needing medical attention -- at the 608-bed jail in Waukegan.
The two deaths within the span of two months clearly demonstrate something is wrong at the jail, attorneys representing Gomes and Gruber said.
“It’s obvious the jail needs to make some changes so people don’t end up injured or dead because they’re detained there,” said attorney Jan Susler, who represents Gomes’ relatives in their civil rights suit.
A critical issue is how inmates needing health care are assessed and treated, said attorney Mark Smolens, who represents Gruber’s sister in her pending federal lawsuit. A contract medical firm, Correct Care Solutions, is paid about $2 million annually to provide health services at the jail.
“There are big problems at the Lake County Jail. Something needs to be done with the way medical care is provided to inmates,” Smolens said.
Gruber was arrested Oct. 31 for disorderly conduct and criminal trespass, then allegedly became uncooperative in the jail, prompting officers to physically restrain and pepper-spray him.
He suffered a spinal injury while in custody, and security cameras later showing him being dragged as his legs dangled unmoving, though an attorney representing Lake County said jail personnel weren’t aware Gruber had been seriously hurt. Gruber was transferred a day later to a Waukegan hospital and died March 3 while being treated for his injuries at a Chicago rehab center.
The lawsuit contends he was beaten during the altercation and that his requests for medical assistance were denied. Medical staffers from Correct Care didn’t properly assess or treat Gruber for his injuries, the lawsuit alleges.
The Lake County state’s attorney’s office reviewed the case and concluded there was no indication jail officers intentionally harmed Gruber, though that probe didn’t touch on the role played by medical workers.
Gomes initially was arrested in October in Vernon Hills for failing to answer a jury summons -- though she was ineligible to serve because she wasn’t a U.S. citizen -- and resisting arrest. When she later missed a court appearance, she was taken into custody Dec. 14. She immediately declared a hunger strike, refusing to eat or drink, Susler said, contending it was apparent Gomes “was struggling with mental health issues.”
Despite that assessment, health workers and jail officials “stood by as she withered away before their eyes,” Susler contended in the lawsuit. Gomes lost at least 18 pounds in the 15 days she was jailed, before authorities moved her to a hospital, where she died Jan. 3.
“We believe that the judiciary system, the prison services and the health care services to the prison system have let down the Gomes family through a collective failure that should not have submitted Lyvita to such a tragic end,” Gomes’ brother-in-law, Rodney Fernandes, said in a statement.
Citing the lawsuits and pending review, Curran declined to comment, though an attorney denied there was a “systemic problem” in the way inmates are treated and supervised at the jail.
“There is no systemic problem in the jail with the way inmates are handled,” attorney James Sotos said. “These are isolated incidents; that’s the fact of it.”
Officials with Nashville-based Correct Care couldn’t be reached for comment.
Ekl said his investigation will include examining how medical personnel reacted to both Gomes’ hunger strike and the injuries Gruber suffered while in custody.
He will use medical experts to try to determine how Gruber was injured -- and the type of force required to inflict his injuries.
Ekl promised an “impartial” investigation despite the fact that he was hired by Lake County to conduct the probe of its jail.
“My report is going to be fair and it’s going to be impartial,” Ekl said.
Gruber’s relatives hope his death will at least lead to changes that benefit others detained at the jail.
“They’re angry at the way Eugene’s life was taken from him, and nothing can bring him back,” Smolens said, but added: “if there’s an improvement at the Lake County Jail, that’s obviously a good thing.”
http://www.suntimes.com/13063372-761/lawsuits-special-investigator-arise-in-wake-of-deaths-of-two-lake-county-jail-inmates.html
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Video-taping a sore subject at North Chicago council meetings
Video-taping a sore subject at North Chicago council meetings
By Judy Masterson
jmasterson@stmedianetwork.com
Last Modified: May 15, 2012 08:23PM
A renewal of the practice of videotaping North Chicago City Council meetings has been a sore point between Mayor Leon Rockingham and some council members, especially those who are after his job.
Council meetings have not been video-recorded since Mayor Bette Thomas left office in 2005, according to 7th Ward Alderman Charles January, who plans to challenge Rockingham in the next mayoral election. January arranged for the taping of meetings about four months ago with the help of local cable talk show host Wadell Brooks, who provided equipment and the services of his videographer. The meetings air from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday on Comcast cable access Channel 17.
The videotaping was restarted at the height of an ongoing protest against police brutality in the city in the wake of the arrest and subsequent death of Darrin “Dagwood” Hanna. Protestors, who packed council chambers in the months after Hanna’s death on Nov. 13, have been highly critical of Rockingham and his administration, venting their anger and frustration during lengthy public comment sessions.
“I want transparency,” January said.
Last week, the city took over the taping of its own meetings. But January, who said he will keep taping an unofficial or “people’s” version, is refusing to let go of his prime time Sunday slot on cable access, leaving the city a less desirable time — from noon to 2 p.m.
The disagreement came to a head after a committee meeting on Monday, when the tape kept rolling after the meeting was adjourned. January’s wife, Kathy January, who was acting as the unofficial videotaper, attempted to catch a verbal confrontation between Rockingham and her husband, when Shawna Huley, a Rockingham ally, approached and blocked her lens.
January said she felt threatened by Huley, who she said accused her of editing the tapes and “not telling or showing the truth.”
Learning of the altercation, Charles January said he caught up with Huley just outside City Hall and warned her not to harass his wife. He said Huley then accused him of threatening her.
Huley, operator of Huley 10 Productions, could not be reached for comment. Rockingham did not return a phone call.
Aldermen on Monday discussed how often to videotape and whether to continue to allow public comment after every meeting, or to limit it to twice-monthly, full-council sessions.
City attorney Chuck Smith alluded to past lengthy and boisterous public comment periods in suggesting that the council consider adopting a Committee of the Whole format and allowing comment “at that meeting.”
“At some point you’ve got to get some work done,” Smith said.
January and 3rd Ward Alderman Valerie DeVost, who also plans to challenge Rockingham, want comments, now limited to three minutes per person, allowed at every meeting. DeVost also wants them noted on every agenda.
“The taxpayers are paying us and they have the right to speak,” DeVost said.
“Let them come here and vent and speak their conscience and their minds,” January said.
Rockingham said he supports public comment at full council meetings and he prefers taping limited to those meetings.
The council is expected to vote this spring on a contract for a media person who will be paid $150 to videotape designated meetings.
http://newssun.suntimes.com/news/12528036-418/video-taping-a-sore-subject-at-north-chicago-council-meetings.html
By Judy Masterson
jmasterson@stmedianetwork.com
Last Modified: May 15, 2012 08:23PM
A renewal of the practice of videotaping North Chicago City Council meetings has been a sore point between Mayor Leon Rockingham and some council members, especially those who are after his job.
Council meetings have not been video-recorded since Mayor Bette Thomas left office in 2005, according to 7th Ward Alderman Charles January, who plans to challenge Rockingham in the next mayoral election. January arranged for the taping of meetings about four months ago with the help of local cable talk show host Wadell Brooks, who provided equipment and the services of his videographer. The meetings air from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday on Comcast cable access Channel 17.
The videotaping was restarted at the height of an ongoing protest against police brutality in the city in the wake of the arrest and subsequent death of Darrin “Dagwood” Hanna. Protestors, who packed council chambers in the months after Hanna’s death on Nov. 13, have been highly critical of Rockingham and his administration, venting their anger and frustration during lengthy public comment sessions.
“I want transparency,” January said.
Last week, the city took over the taping of its own meetings. But January, who said he will keep taping an unofficial or “people’s” version, is refusing to let go of his prime time Sunday slot on cable access, leaving the city a less desirable time — from noon to 2 p.m.
The disagreement came to a head after a committee meeting on Monday, when the tape kept rolling after the meeting was adjourned. January’s wife, Kathy January, who was acting as the unofficial videotaper, attempted to catch a verbal confrontation between Rockingham and her husband, when Shawna Huley, a Rockingham ally, approached and blocked her lens.
January said she felt threatened by Huley, who she said accused her of editing the tapes and “not telling or showing the truth.”
Learning of the altercation, Charles January said he caught up with Huley just outside City Hall and warned her not to harass his wife. He said Huley then accused him of threatening her.
Huley, operator of Huley 10 Productions, could not be reached for comment. Rockingham did not return a phone call.
Aldermen on Monday discussed how often to videotape and whether to continue to allow public comment after every meeting, or to limit it to twice-monthly, full-council sessions.
City attorney Chuck Smith alluded to past lengthy and boisterous public comment periods in suggesting that the council consider adopting a Committee of the Whole format and allowing comment “at that meeting.”
“At some point you’ve got to get some work done,” Smith said.
January and 3rd Ward Alderman Valerie DeVost, who also plans to challenge Rockingham, want comments, now limited to three minutes per person, allowed at every meeting. DeVost also wants them noted on every agenda.
“The taxpayers are paying us and they have the right to speak,” DeVost said.
“Let them come here and vent and speak their conscience and their minds,” January said.
Rockingham said he supports public comment at full council meetings and he prefers taping limited to those meetings.
The council is expected to vote this spring on a contract for a media person who will be paid $150 to videotape designated meetings.
http://newssun.suntimes.com/news/12528036-418/video-taping-a-sore-subject-at-north-chicago-council-meetings.html
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Lake County announces new arrests in killings once linked to other men
Lake County announces new arrests in killings once linked to other men
By Dan Hinkel
Tribune reporter
4:06 p.m. CDT, May 15, 2012
Lake County prosecutors this afternoon announced new murder charges in two notorious slayings that had been attributed to other men until DNA pointed away from the suspects.
The announcement comes on the same day prosecutors dropped rape charges against a man whose case was also torpedoed by DNA evidence.
Prosecutors have charged Jorge Torrez, 23, with killing 8-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias in a Zion park in 2005. Jerry Hobbs, Laura’s father, spent five years in jail awaiting trial for the crime before semen evidence found in one girl’s body was matched to Torrez, according to court records, and Hobbs was released in August 2010. Hobbs had confessed to the crime, though he said his confession was coerced during nearly 24 hours of interrogation.
Torrez, once a close friend of Tobias’ brother, is currently serving five life sentences in prison for a separate series of brutal attacks on women in Virginia. He also faces federal murder charges in the 2009 killing of a 20-year-old Navy petty officer in her Virginia barracks, and federal authorities are seeking the death penalty.
In a second written statement released to the media simultaneously, prosecutors announced charges against 42-year-old Hezekiah Whitfield of Chicago in the 1994 bludgeoning death of 71-year-old Waukegan appliance store owner Fred Reckling. Whitfield was arrested this morning and a judge ordered him held on $3 million bail, according to the news release.
James Edwards was convicted of that crime in 1996 after he confessed. The case was recently called into question by blood evidence linking the crime to another man but Lake County had not named any alternate suspect until this afternoon. Lake County State’s Attorney Michael Waller personally helped to prosecute Edwards, who is now serving a life sentence at Menard Correctional Center.
Edwards is set for a hearing in Lake County on May 25. He is not expected to go free, however, because he has yet to begin serving a life sentence for a 1974 murder in Ohio, a crime to which he confessed at the time of his arrest in the Reckling case.
“I would anticipate…charges will be dismissed against James Edwards,” said Paul DeLuca, Edwards’ defense attorney. “Everyone who doubts false confessions exist, here is another example.”
On Tuesday morning, prosecutors dropped charges against 52-year-old Bennie Starks in the 1986 rape of a 69-year-old woman in Waukegan. Starks has been free on bond since 2006 when the appeals court ordered a new trial after DNA evidence was found to point away from him, but prosecutors had not announced whether they would retry him.
The three cases are especially noteworthy because, in each one, prosecutors continued to insist on the original suspect’s guilt after DNA evidence suggested his innocence.
Freelance reporter Ruth Fuller contributed.
dlhinkel@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-lake-county-announces-new-arrests-in-killings-of-laura-hobbs-and-krystal-tobias-as-well-as-fred-reckling-all-once-linked-to-other-men-20120515,0,5372500.story
By Dan Hinkel
Tribune reporter
4:06 p.m. CDT, May 15, 2012
Lake County prosecutors this afternoon announced new murder charges in two notorious slayings that had been attributed to other men until DNA pointed away from the suspects.
The announcement comes on the same day prosecutors dropped rape charges against a man whose case was also torpedoed by DNA evidence.
Prosecutors have charged Jorge Torrez, 23, with killing 8-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias in a Zion park in 2005. Jerry Hobbs, Laura’s father, spent five years in jail awaiting trial for the crime before semen evidence found in one girl’s body was matched to Torrez, according to court records, and Hobbs was released in August 2010. Hobbs had confessed to the crime, though he said his confession was coerced during nearly 24 hours of interrogation.
Torrez, once a close friend of Tobias’ brother, is currently serving five life sentences in prison for a separate series of brutal attacks on women in Virginia. He also faces federal murder charges in the 2009 killing of a 20-year-old Navy petty officer in her Virginia barracks, and federal authorities are seeking the death penalty.
In a second written statement released to the media simultaneously, prosecutors announced charges against 42-year-old Hezekiah Whitfield of Chicago in the 1994 bludgeoning death of 71-year-old Waukegan appliance store owner Fred Reckling. Whitfield was arrested this morning and a judge ordered him held on $3 million bail, according to the news release.
James Edwards was convicted of that crime in 1996 after he confessed. The case was recently called into question by blood evidence linking the crime to another man but Lake County had not named any alternate suspect until this afternoon. Lake County State’s Attorney Michael Waller personally helped to prosecute Edwards, who is now serving a life sentence at Menard Correctional Center.
Edwards is set for a hearing in Lake County on May 25. He is not expected to go free, however, because he has yet to begin serving a life sentence for a 1974 murder in Ohio, a crime to which he confessed at the time of his arrest in the Reckling case.
“I would anticipate…charges will be dismissed against James Edwards,” said Paul DeLuca, Edwards’ defense attorney. “Everyone who doubts false confessions exist, here is another example.”
On Tuesday morning, prosecutors dropped charges against 52-year-old Bennie Starks in the 1986 rape of a 69-year-old woman in Waukegan. Starks has been free on bond since 2006 when the appeals court ordered a new trial after DNA evidence was found to point away from him, but prosecutors had not announced whether they would retry him.
The three cases are especially noteworthy because, in each one, prosecutors continued to insist on the original suspect’s guilt after DNA evidence suggested his innocence.
Freelance reporter Ruth Fuller contributed.
dlhinkel@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-lake-county-announces-new-arrests-in-killings-of-laura-hobbs-and-krystal-tobias-as-well-as-fred-reckling-all-once-linked-to-other-men-20120515,0,5372500.story
After 20 years in prison, man cleared in '86 Waukegan rape
After 20 years in prison, man cleared in '86 Waukegan rape
By Dan Hinkel
Tribune reporter
12:03 PM CDT, May 15, 2012
Lake County prosecutors have dropped rape charges against Bennie Starks, who spent 20 years in prison before DNA pointed away from him.
Assistant State's Attorney Jim Newman appeared at a brief hearing and dropped the sexual assault charges.
"He is a free man and he is not guilty," said Starks' lawyer, Jed Stone.
Starks, dressed in a burgundy sport coat and black and white checked shirt, accepted a hug around the shoulder from another of his lawyers, Vanessa Potkin from the New York-based Innocence Project.
"This has been a great day," Starks said.
As to his plans, he said, "Spend time with my grandkids and just...living."
Starks, 52, of Chicago was convicted in 1986 of raping a 69-year-old woman in Waukegan. He was in the middle of a 60-year sentence when the appeals court ordered a new trial in 2006 and he was released on bond. As with three other recent Lake County cases, prosecutors insisted on his guilt even after DNA pointed toward someone else as the attacker.
The possibility of a retrial had been thrown into doubt by court rulings barring prosecutors from using the testimony of the victim, who identified Starks as the rapist.
She died several years ago, and a Lake County judge ruled in January 2011 that prosecutors could not use her past testimony at the retrial.
The state appeals court affirmed that decision in February, writing that Starks' lawyers would not have a fair shot at cross-examining her and holding that the original cross-examination was inadequate.
Since February’s ruling, Starks has waited to learn whether prosecutors planned to retry him.
After the conflicting DNA evidence became public in the early 2000s, prosecutors responded much as they did to other cases involving forensic evidence suggesting a suspect's innocence.
Prosecutors argued that the DNA did not clear Starks because the woman could have had consensual sex with someone else, although she said at trial she had not had sex in the weeks before the attack.
The woman identified him as the man who pulled her into a ravine and beat, bit and raped her. A dentist said bite marks on the victim matched Starks, and his jacket was found at the scene.
Starks said the jacket and money were stolen from him after he passed the evening in a local tavern, and the defense attorneys have called the scientific rigor of the bite-mark evidence into question.
In the early 2000s, testing turned up a genetic profile from another man on the victim’s underwear. Later, testing on a vaginal swab found DNA that didn’t come from Starks, and the appeals court ordered a new trial in 2006.
Starks was also convicted of battery in the 1986 attack, and his attorneys hope to have that conviction vacated.
dhinkel@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-after-20-years-in-prison-man-cleared-in-86-waukegan-rape-20120515,0,1125375.story
By Dan Hinkel
Tribune reporter
12:03 PM CDT, May 15, 2012
Lake County prosecutors have dropped rape charges against Bennie Starks, who spent 20 years in prison before DNA pointed away from him.
Assistant State's Attorney Jim Newman appeared at a brief hearing and dropped the sexual assault charges.
"He is a free man and he is not guilty," said Starks' lawyer, Jed Stone.
Starks, dressed in a burgundy sport coat and black and white checked shirt, accepted a hug around the shoulder from another of his lawyers, Vanessa Potkin from the New York-based Innocence Project.
"This has been a great day," Starks said.
As to his plans, he said, "Spend time with my grandkids and just...living."
Starks, 52, of Chicago was convicted in 1986 of raping a 69-year-old woman in Waukegan. He was in the middle of a 60-year sentence when the appeals court ordered a new trial in 2006 and he was released on bond. As with three other recent Lake County cases, prosecutors insisted on his guilt even after DNA pointed toward someone else as the attacker.
The possibility of a retrial had been thrown into doubt by court rulings barring prosecutors from using the testimony of the victim, who identified Starks as the rapist.
She died several years ago, and a Lake County judge ruled in January 2011 that prosecutors could not use her past testimony at the retrial.
The state appeals court affirmed that decision in February, writing that Starks' lawyers would not have a fair shot at cross-examining her and holding that the original cross-examination was inadequate.
Since February’s ruling, Starks has waited to learn whether prosecutors planned to retry him.
After the conflicting DNA evidence became public in the early 2000s, prosecutors responded much as they did to other cases involving forensic evidence suggesting a suspect's innocence.
Prosecutors argued that the DNA did not clear Starks because the woman could have had consensual sex with someone else, although she said at trial she had not had sex in the weeks before the attack.
The woman identified him as the man who pulled her into a ravine and beat, bit and raped her. A dentist said bite marks on the victim matched Starks, and his jacket was found at the scene.
Starks said the jacket and money were stolen from him after he passed the evening in a local tavern, and the defense attorneys have called the scientific rigor of the bite-mark evidence into question.
In the early 2000s, testing turned up a genetic profile from another man on the victim’s underwear. Later, testing on a vaginal swab found DNA that didn’t come from Starks, and the appeals court ordered a new trial in 2006.
Starks was also convicted of battery in the 1986 attack, and his attorneys hope to have that conviction vacated.
dhinkel@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-after-20-years-in-prison-man-cleared-in-86-waukegan-rape-20120515,0,1125375.story
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Republican higher-ups in Lake County favor a flawed candidate for Lake County coroner March 18, 2012
Nancy J. Thorner
Just another WordPress.com weblog
Republican higher-ups in Lake County favor a flawed candidate for Lake County coroner March 18, 2012
The most difficult part in vetting the race for the Lake County coroner office was to decide where to begin my somewhat revealing story that has all the makings of a local soap opera. It involves shenanigans behind the scene by LC Republican Establishment higher up officials to assure that Steve Newton could run unopposed in 2012, unethical doings by Newton while serving as Chief Deputy Coroner in Dr. Keller’s administration, an office love affair by Newton turned marriage leading to Newton’s dismissal in 2007, and the late arrival of Dr. Howard Cooper into the race as a long- shot Republican challenger.
I am well aware that my coroner expose might not set well with many, knowing also that many will thank me for letting them know the truth about a candidate before voting next Tuesday. Why then am I then taking it upon myself to reveal what many of my fellow Republicans have so far been successful keeping under cover and for which I will (hopefully not more is done) be criticized for doing?
As a Republican I place my conservatism above my Republicanism. My sense of integrity demands that I point out abuse and corruption wherever and whenever it may surface, realizing that corruption in political parties is an equal opportunist where winning often is all that matters. Like cancer, corruption first invades, then follows pollution, which can eventually destroy all that it comes in contact with if not curtailed in time.
Steve Newton, like all candidate running for office, must face the public and be prepared to answer uncomfortable questions that the candidate would rather not deal one.
One question Newton faces repeatedly from concerned, potentials voters is about certain indiscretions that occurred when serving as Chief Deputy Coroner under the Administrations of Republican interim Coroner Jim Wipper and elected Democratic Coroner Dr. Keller. I’ve seen Newton brush off the incident as a happening that is all about nothing when he spoke in February in front of the Republican Assembly of Lake County.
The indiscretion involved an office relationship that Newton now describes as being between two single individuals, that fraternizing was not forbidden, and that Dr. Keller didn’t fire him in 2007 (Newton wasn’t prosecuted, because, as a Republican, the present Lake County State’s Attorney, Mike Waller, preferred not to bring charges. Waller’s propensity not to level charges against fellow Republicans is but one of the reasons why Mike Waller is not running for re-election and is leaving office under a cloud of inaptness in executing the duties of his office.).
The opposite is true. Through my own research I was able to find newspaper articles which tell a different story. I have shared two of them with you.
1. Daily Herald described the nature of the firing due to an improper “relationship” with a female underling, a direct subordinate of Steve Newton: Chicago Tribune reported on April 24, 2007 of Dr. Richard Keller’s announcement of the effective date of Newton’s firing, April 20, 2007.
The women/girlfriend who later became Steve Newton’s wife was a Deputy Coroner; Newton was her supervisor in the Office as the Associate Deputy Coroner. This romantic office coupling resulted in two gross infractions by Steve Newton as Associate Deputy Coroner in the Keller administration.
1. Steve Newton gave his county-issued purchasing card, P-card, to his girl friend when she traveled to St. Louis to attend a medical course required by Lake County. At the time, the county P-card could be used only by the employee who’s name was on the card (Only Newton was issued the card as the LC Associate Deputy coroner.). While in St. Louis, and with Newton’s credit card in hand, Steve’s girl friend charged her expenses (including hotel) to Newton’s credit card. There was even a situation where Newton’s girlfriend paid for another individuals meal, which, under P-card regulations, the card could not be used for purchases of non-county employees.
The usual practice would have been for Newton’s girl friend to have used her own credit card and then to have submitted the charges accrued in St. Louis for reimbursement.
2. Steve Newton submitted false pay claims for his girl friend by having her paid for hours she did not work. Newton, as Associate Deputy, was not in charge of time keeping. This infraction is called “ghost payrolling” according to the document I am privy to.
Both of the above examples were totally inappropriate and appalling, to say the least.
The aftermath: Because of financial improprieties and other performance problems of such severity, Newton’s girlfriend was discharged from her position as a Deputy Coroner effective August 3, 2007.
Without question, and despite Newton’s denial to the contrary, he WAS FIRED (4/20/2007) as Associate District Attorney by Dr. Richard Keller three months before his girlfriend’s discharge as a Deputy District Attorney by Dr. Keller in August of 2007 upon discovery of Newton’s acts of financial improprieties toward his girlfriend.
Established was that Steve Newton had acted above his authority to monitor time card applications. The person in charge of the process wasn’t able to monitor Newton’s girlfriend’s time cards, because Newton had established a separate procedure for her authorization, to which was leveled the charge of “ghost payrolling.”
Just as egregious was Newton’s sharing of his personal P-card, issued for his use only, for use by his girlfriend when she traveled to St. Louis for a required medical course.
.The financial indiscretions that resulted in Steve Newton’s firing in the Keller administration should be enough to disqualify Newton for holding any Lake County elected office, but the Steve Newton Lake County soap-opera saga doesn’t end at this point.
Steve Newton, in touting his education, cites his background in criminal justice and fire science. He claims to have attended the College of Lake County and lets voters assume that he indeed has his degree. Verified through the clearing house is that Newton only attended CLC for one semester and that no degree was given. One semester of college cannot give anyone a proper background in criminal justice or fire science, that’s assuming Steve Newton did indeed take courses in criminal justice and fire science during his one semester at the CLC. In regard to Steve Newton’s Republican challenger for Lake County coroner, a recent mailer gave me insight into Dr. Howard Cooper’s background and qualifications (Candidate Dr. Howard Cooper is not related to David Cooper of Highland Park, who was forced out of the corner race through machinations by the Republican Establishment even before Cooper had officially made formal application to seek the office).
Although Dr. Cooper is not a forensic ondontologist, he volunteers as a member of the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team (DMORT WMD). Cooper was sent by the federal government to identify victims from the attacks on 9/11 in NYC and to recover, decontaminate and identify victims of Hurricane Katrina. He also hold the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery from Loyola university of Chicago and has managed his dental practice for the last 20 years as an Illinois licensed D.D.S. (IL license #19022566).
Also cited on Cooper’s mailer is that he works with coroners throughout the nation to help identify victims, using their dental records, as a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
Cooper’s proposals, if elected to the position of Lake County Coroner, are in keeping with good and ethical policy practices in the office which relate also to the citizens of Lake County.
In Howard Cooper’s own words: “I will take my decades as a health care professional and business owner to reform the Coroner’s Office into one that we once again can be proud of.”
Also a plus for Howard Cooper is that he doesn’t have Steve Newton’s political baggage in a pair up with the Democrat candidate in the November National Elections. Cooper was also endorsed by the Chicago Tribune.
It is quite ironic that Steve Newton is reapplying for an even higher position in 2012 as Lake County’s coroner than was the Chief Deputy Coroner position from which he was fired in 2007!
Voters on March 20 in Lake County must not allow this to happen!
http://nancyjthorner.wordpress.com/
Just another WordPress.com weblog
Republican higher-ups in Lake County favor a flawed candidate for Lake County coroner March 18, 2012
The most difficult part in vetting the race for the Lake County coroner office was to decide where to begin my somewhat revealing story that has all the makings of a local soap opera. It involves shenanigans behind the scene by LC Republican Establishment higher up officials to assure that Steve Newton could run unopposed in 2012, unethical doings by Newton while serving as Chief Deputy Coroner in Dr. Keller’s administration, an office love affair by Newton turned marriage leading to Newton’s dismissal in 2007, and the late arrival of Dr. Howard Cooper into the race as a long- shot Republican challenger.
I am well aware that my coroner expose might not set well with many, knowing also that many will thank me for letting them know the truth about a candidate before voting next Tuesday. Why then am I then taking it upon myself to reveal what many of my fellow Republicans have so far been successful keeping under cover and for which I will (hopefully not more is done) be criticized for doing?
As a Republican I place my conservatism above my Republicanism. My sense of integrity demands that I point out abuse and corruption wherever and whenever it may surface, realizing that corruption in political parties is an equal opportunist where winning often is all that matters. Like cancer, corruption first invades, then follows pollution, which can eventually destroy all that it comes in contact with if not curtailed in time.
Steve Newton, like all candidate running for office, must face the public and be prepared to answer uncomfortable questions that the candidate would rather not deal one.
One question Newton faces repeatedly from concerned, potentials voters is about certain indiscretions that occurred when serving as Chief Deputy Coroner under the Administrations of Republican interim Coroner Jim Wipper and elected Democratic Coroner Dr. Keller. I’ve seen Newton brush off the incident as a happening that is all about nothing when he spoke in February in front of the Republican Assembly of Lake County.
The indiscretion involved an office relationship that Newton now describes as being between two single individuals, that fraternizing was not forbidden, and that Dr. Keller didn’t fire him in 2007 (Newton wasn’t prosecuted, because, as a Republican, the present Lake County State’s Attorney, Mike Waller, preferred not to bring charges. Waller’s propensity not to level charges against fellow Republicans is but one of the reasons why Mike Waller is not running for re-election and is leaving office under a cloud of inaptness in executing the duties of his office.).
The opposite is true. Through my own research I was able to find newspaper articles which tell a different story. I have shared two of them with you.
1. Daily Herald described the nature of the firing due to an improper “relationship” with a female underling, a direct subordinate of Steve Newton: Chicago Tribune reported on April 24, 2007 of Dr. Richard Keller’s announcement of the effective date of Newton’s firing, April 20, 2007.
The women/girlfriend who later became Steve Newton’s wife was a Deputy Coroner; Newton was her supervisor in the Office as the Associate Deputy Coroner. This romantic office coupling resulted in two gross infractions by Steve Newton as Associate Deputy Coroner in the Keller administration.
1. Steve Newton gave his county-issued purchasing card, P-card, to his girl friend when she traveled to St. Louis to attend a medical course required by Lake County. At the time, the county P-card could be used only by the employee who’s name was on the card (Only Newton was issued the card as the LC Associate Deputy coroner.). While in St. Louis, and with Newton’s credit card in hand, Steve’s girl friend charged her expenses (including hotel) to Newton’s credit card. There was even a situation where Newton’s girlfriend paid for another individuals meal, which, under P-card regulations, the card could not be used for purchases of non-county employees.
The usual practice would have been for Newton’s girl friend to have used her own credit card and then to have submitted the charges accrued in St. Louis for reimbursement.
2. Steve Newton submitted false pay claims for his girl friend by having her paid for hours she did not work. Newton, as Associate Deputy, was not in charge of time keeping. This infraction is called “ghost payrolling” according to the document I am privy to.
Both of the above examples were totally inappropriate and appalling, to say the least.
The aftermath: Because of financial improprieties and other performance problems of such severity, Newton’s girlfriend was discharged from her position as a Deputy Coroner effective August 3, 2007.
Without question, and despite Newton’s denial to the contrary, he WAS FIRED (4/20/2007) as Associate District Attorney by Dr. Richard Keller three months before his girlfriend’s discharge as a Deputy District Attorney by Dr. Keller in August of 2007 upon discovery of Newton’s acts of financial improprieties toward his girlfriend.
Established was that Steve Newton had acted above his authority to monitor time card applications. The person in charge of the process wasn’t able to monitor Newton’s girlfriend’s time cards, because Newton had established a separate procedure for her authorization, to which was leveled the charge of “ghost payrolling.”
Just as egregious was Newton’s sharing of his personal P-card, issued for his use only, for use by his girlfriend when she traveled to St. Louis for a required medical course.
.The financial indiscretions that resulted in Steve Newton’s firing in the Keller administration should be enough to disqualify Newton for holding any Lake County elected office, but the Steve Newton Lake County soap-opera saga doesn’t end at this point.
Steve Newton, in touting his education, cites his background in criminal justice and fire science. He claims to have attended the College of Lake County and lets voters assume that he indeed has his degree. Verified through the clearing house is that Newton only attended CLC for one semester and that no degree was given. One semester of college cannot give anyone a proper background in criminal justice or fire science, that’s assuming Steve Newton did indeed take courses in criminal justice and fire science during his one semester at the CLC. In regard to Steve Newton’s Republican challenger for Lake County coroner, a recent mailer gave me insight into Dr. Howard Cooper’s background and qualifications (Candidate Dr. Howard Cooper is not related to David Cooper of Highland Park, who was forced out of the corner race through machinations by the Republican Establishment even before Cooper had officially made formal application to seek the office).
Although Dr. Cooper is not a forensic ondontologist, he volunteers as a member of the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team (DMORT WMD). Cooper was sent by the federal government to identify victims from the attacks on 9/11 in NYC and to recover, decontaminate and identify victims of Hurricane Katrina. He also hold the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery from Loyola university of Chicago and has managed his dental practice for the last 20 years as an Illinois licensed D.D.S. (IL license #19022566).
Also cited on Cooper’s mailer is that he works with coroners throughout the nation to help identify victims, using their dental records, as a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
Cooper’s proposals, if elected to the position of Lake County Coroner, are in keeping with good and ethical policy practices in the office which relate also to the citizens of Lake County.
In Howard Cooper’s own words: “I will take my decades as a health care professional and business owner to reform the Coroner’s Office into one that we once again can be proud of.”
Also a plus for Howard Cooper is that he doesn’t have Steve Newton’s political baggage in a pair up with the Democrat candidate in the November National Elections. Cooper was also endorsed by the Chicago Tribune.
It is quite ironic that Steve Newton is reapplying for an even higher position in 2012 as Lake County’s coroner than was the Chief Deputy Coroner position from which he was fired in 2007!
Voters on March 20 in Lake County must not allow this to happen!
http://nancyjthorner.wordpress.com/
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