County officials elected to terms were officially sworn in Thursday morning. Among them, County Clerk Liz Ann Woodrow, Sheriff Chris Otey, and Supervisor of Assessments Jodi Poole. Those incumbents are joined by new Wayne County Treasurer Yvette Anderson. Otey, Poole, and Anderson had this to say…
Judge Michael Molt who administered the oaths described some of their duties.
County Board members were officially sworn in at a separate ceremony at 10am Thursday morning in the courthouse basement.
Wayne County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a deer collision early Tuesday morning near County Road 1549 North. They say the 2015 Chevy Silverado driven by 62 year old Jerry Brock of Fairfield had to be towed from the scene following the accident. More than $1,500 in damages are estimated.
Rinard resident Cody R. McKinney pled guilty in Wayne County court Tuesday. McKinney pled out to a charge of Possession of Less than 5 Grams of Meth. Charges of Driving on a Suspended License and Operating an Uninsured Motor Vehicle were dismissed as per the plea deal. He was given a year of probation and sentenced to 58 days behind bars which he’ll be serving concurrently with a sentence handed down out of Clay County. Additionally, McKinney will be expected to pay $2,635 in fines and court costs. The original arrest in Wayne County happened back in February. McKinney is expected to report to jail on January 16th.
The family of slain Wayne County Deputy Sean Riley will be given the honor of lighting the official Christmas Tree on the courthouse square prior to this Saturday’s Christmas parade in Fairfield. The lighting is set to take place at 4:45pm. The Riley family, along with the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department will also be collecting donations at the Festival of Lights in Leo French Park next Wednesday, December 7th. Those funds will go towards purchasing a featured display for the Festival of Lights.
This Sunday, the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks Lodge of Fairfield will be holding it’s annual Memorial Service for Elks and their families. The service is planned to honor members that have passed over the last year. Members to be memorialized include Ernest Eastin, Max Tipps, Ann Robinson, Charles Preston Matthews, Larry L. Jones, and former Mayor and WFIW/WOKZ Manager Mike Dreith. The speaker for the memorial service will be Past Exalted Ruler for the Elks, Mr. L. Bryan Williams. Family and Friends are welcome to attend.
Principal Eric Lingafelther of Wayne City and Edwards County High School Principal Dale Schmittler are pleased to announce their students who have been named Illinois State Scholars.
From Wayne City:
Trevor Bailey, son of Chris and Shelly Bailey of Wayne City
Madeline Boyd, daughter of Heath and Misty Boyd of Wayne City
Jovi Horton, daughter of Joel and Cyndi Horton of Keenes
From Edwards County:
Brooklyn Metcalf, Kassidi Metcalf, Cage Metcalf, Isabel Shepherd, and Ali Barnes.
These top scholars rank in the top 10% of Illinois High School students and were selected based on their rank as first in their class, having a perfect 4.0 GPA combined with impressive ACT and/or SAT scores.
Albion Grade School held their annual Spelling Bee Wednesday. This year’s winners include Hudson Green for Grades 3rd – 5th and JD Harrison representing the best of the best in Grades 6th – 8th.
Changes to the SAFE-T Act’s no-cash bail provision set to take effect Jan. 1 have been filed and Illinois state lawmakers are aiming to get it across the finish line on the final day of veto session Thursday.
The measure was passed in early January 2021 along with other provisions of the SAFE-T Act. While there have been several trailer bills since then, concerns have been raised about conflicting language leading to its implementation as well as what crimes are and are not eligible for pretrial release.
Dozens of state’s attorneys and sheriffs across the state have sued to block the law’s implementation. That case is to be heard next week in Kankakee County.
State Sen. Scott Bennett, D-Champaign, filed his own changes weeks ago, but supporters of the original act opposed them. Bennett is now a cosponsor with Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago, of a 300-page Senate amendment to House Bill 1095 with changes he says will address concerns.
“What we’re trying to do is talk to the people, public defenders and state’s attorneys and judges who actually will be dealing after Jan. 1 with the in-courthouse portion of this bill and making sure that the bill’s got the specifics in here that help them do what they need to do to implement the bill,” Bennett told The Center Square.
Among the changes, pretrial release can be denied for defendants charged with first and second degree murder, sexual assault of a child, robbery, home invasion, kidnapping and other severe crimes. Changes also make clear that pretrial release can be denied in cases of real and present threats to any persons, instead of just a single specific person, or the community.
Release conditions can also include a review of prior criminal history of violence, abusive behavior and more, including a “regularly validated risk assessment tool to aid its determination of appropriate conditions of release.”
The amendment also addresses individuals who have been released pretrial who fail to show up for a court hearing. Added is, “If the person summoned fails to appear by the date required or cannot be located to serve the summons, a warrant may be issued by the court for the arrest of the person complained against.”
The amendment also allows revocation of pretrial release for a felony or Class A misdemeanor if the defendant is charged with a crime that occurred during the defendant’s pretrial release. If a defendant is released awaiting trial for a petty or business offense or ordinance violation and is subsequently charged with a felony during pretrial release, such conditions may not be revoked, but the court “may impose sanctions.”
One new element regarding the release of arrest reports to the media, the amendment leaves intact the identifying information of a defendant like name, age, address and photograph and information on charges upon arrest. But, it removes language allowing the furnishing of “the conditions of pretrial release.”
“The argument is there’s certain information that we want to make available to defense counsel, but then the initial privacy issues of people who have not been convicted of a crime yet and so we have to balance those two issues of privacy and that they can defend themselves at that hearing,” Bennett said.
The measure will be heard in a Senate committee Thursday morning. If passed there and then by the full Senate, the House would need to take it up before it can be sent to the governor. The final day of scheduled session is Thursday.
Bennett hopes the measure quells opposition heading into implementation in just weeks.
“And we just keep whittling down what started as a lot of issues to language that everyone gets something they want, but nobody gets everything they want,” Bennett said.
State Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, said the process feels rushed and that’s not good for transparency or public safety.
“Who knows if it will address the issues that are in question in the court case. I hope we find out soon,” Plummer told The Center Square. “But, this is really consequential legislation. We’re not talking about a random $25 fee here. This is going to impact people’s lives and legislators need to take it more seriously.”
The Old State Capitol in Springfield will always be associated with former President Barack Obama. Governor Pritzker and others gathered yesterday to dedicate a historical marker on the grounds of the Old State Capitol to Obama’s 2007 and 2008 presidential campaign announcements. Obama was a U.S. Senator when he announced his bid for presidency from the Old State Capitol in 2007. Eighteen months later, he returned to announce that U.S. Senator Joe Biden of Delaware would be his running mate. Barack Obama was elected the nation’s 44th president on November 4th, 2008.
The Illinois House voted unanimously Wednesday to withdraw state investments in Russia to protest the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The legislation requires divestment of money in Russian banks and companies and prohibits future investments. The bill would also welcome Ukrainian refugees to Illinois and develop a way for detecting Russian money laundering in real estate. The bill now goes to the governor for his signature.
Today is the deadline for driver’s licenses and ID cards to be renewed in Illinois. Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White issued an extended grace period in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The deadline applies to licenses, ID cards and permits, but not commercial driver’s licenses.
Indiana U.S. Senator Mike Braun has filed the paperwork to run for governor in 2024 after expressing interest in succeeding Governor Eric Holcomb. Holcomb cannot run again due to term limits. Braun was elected to the Senate in 2018 over incumbent Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly.
Contempt citations against DCFS director reversed by appellate court
Public guardian says he plans appeal to Supreme Court
By BETH HUNDSDORFERSpecial to WFIW/WOKZ courtesy of Capitol News Illinoisbhundsdorfer@capitolnewsillinois.com
An appellate court on Wednesday reversed several contempt of court citations that were filed in recent months against Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith for failing to comply with court orders to place state wards in appropriate settings.
The court found that Smith did not willfully ignore a Cook County judge’s order to move children who were discharged from psychiatric hospitals into group homes or residential settings. He was just unable to do it.
The opinion written by First District Appellate Court Justice Joy Cunningham stated that for a judge to find a party in contempt there must be an order of the court and proof of willful disobedience of that order. The appellate court found that DCFS did try to comply with the court orders, but it acknowledged that those efforts “fell woefully short of expectations.”
“We are pleased that the appellate court found the contempt orders were erroneous,” DCFS spokesperson William McCaffrey said in a statement. “As the appellate court described, DCFS has been actively working to secure clinically appropriate placements for these children. Based on the record of DCFS’ actions, the appellate court found it was an abuse of the trial court’s discretion to hold the agency in contempt.”
In each case where Cook County Judge Patrick Murphy cited Smith for indirect civil contempt and fined him $1,000 per each day the kids remained hospitalized, he also acknowledged that DCFS was actively engaged in trying to secure appropriate placements for the minors.
Murphy found that Smith was in contempt for failing to comply with the court’s order, opining that DCFS had “ignored the trial court’s orders.” Cunningham wrote that such a ruling was “inconsistent with the record.”
Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert, whose office represents state wards, including eight children involved in 10 contempt citations, said Wednesday that he will ask the Illinois Supreme Court to review the decision.
“We will continue to be aggressive about pursuing contempt of court findings in appropriate cases where DCFS unlawfully forces children to languish in wholly inappropriate placements like psychiatric hospitals, emergency rooms, detention centers, offices, ‘temporary’ shelters, and the like,” Golbert said Wednesday afternoon.
While the court opinion was a win for DCFS, Cunningham also called the agency’s efforts to place the children “seemingly inefficient” and “clearly ineffective.”
The ruling found that while the contempt citations may have been issued in error, Murphy’s efforts were meant to force Smith and the agency into action in these cases to address “a serious widespread problem.”
The appellate court also noted that the eight minors were ultimately placed in appropriate settings.
DCFS attorneys argued the agency had done “everything it could” to place children and faced many obstacles affecting appropriate placement, including staffing and COVID-19 pandemic-related issues.
The appellate court decision also acknowledged the judge’s frustration at the agency’s failure and the difficulties the agency faces while placing children with very complicated histories, personal circumstances and specific treatment plans.
“DCFS is tasked with providing for some of the state’s most vulnerable youth, who present a wide range of significant challenges. The fact that some of the minors were hospitalized beyond medical necessity or left in inappropriate placements for months, or even over a year in some instances is absolutely unacceptable,” the ruling stated.
Golbert said there are eight children with cases on the “beyond medical necessity” or “stuck kids” docket that was created in December 2021.
“DCFS will continue working closely with the trial court to ensure children are placed as quickly as possible in clinically appropriate settings, as we have done with each of the youth cited in the contempt orders,” McCaffrey said.
Golbert maintained that expanded services for all children in care are still much needed.
“DCFS must finally, once and for all, get its act together and develop the array of placements and services that our children so desperately need,” he said. “The current dysfunctional state of affairs at DCFS is inexcusable.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide, as well as hundreds of radio and TV stations. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita wants the Medical Licensing Board to sanction Dr. Caitlin Bernard. She told a “traumatic medical story to the press for her own interests” says Rokita for telling a reporter about a ten-year-old rape victim. The child came to Indiana for an abortion last summer after Ohio outlawed the procedure. Rokita says Bernard did not immediately report the girl’s rape and is an “abortion activist acting as a doctor.”
River Stages from the around the area as of early this morning:
The Little Wabash at Golden Gate sat at 5.46 feet (flood stage is 17 ft). The Little Wabash below Clay City is at 4.9 feet (flood stage is 18 ft). The Skillet Fork at Wayne City had a reading of 5.19 feet. Elsewhere, Bonpas Creek at Browns reads 1.54 feet, the Little Wabash at Main in Carmi is at 3.61 feet, and the Wabash River at Mt. Carmel is at 2.84 feet.