ALBION—An orchestrated walkout of volunteer firefighters for the Albion city/rural fire department was held on the night of a special meeting, called to address stopping the construction of a new fire station.

The April 8 walkout underscored the divisiveness created over two factors: Calls from members of the city council for accountability in spending, and objection to those members’ concerns by others of the council, this lead by former mayor Ryan Hallam.

It was in fact Hallam who created the walkout, bringing in 19 of 23 firefighters to sign a resignation statement completed before the meeting.

But the entire drama was staged, it appears, in order to detract from one glaring problem: the contract under which the new fire department is being built appears to have been signed and okayed illegally.

And Hallam’s signature is on the bottom line.

The Shupe

Repeatedly indicating that the matter is over increased costs of the fire station, mainstream media has done little but provide sleight-of-hand for those butting heads with members of the city council who have for the past couple of years been attempting to control costs in every aspect of city business.

One aspect came to the fore a year ago in May when Alderwoman Karen Shupe saw in the local paper that fire volunteer Dana Mosson had transported his high schooler to the Edwards County prom in a fire truck. Indicating what an irresponsible use of equipment that was, she set about to learn certain expenses as regards running the fire department—and was immediately besieged with attacks, both verbally and in the form of fire trucks on practice runs once a month blaring their horns past her Main Street residence.

Hallam, in his February 3 resignation, seemed to blame Shupe for all the contention, arising from a handful of Freedom of Information Act requests she had submitted to fire chief Kent Nale.

This was the beginning of the combustion.

Changing bids

At the March meeting, it came to the attention of the council that construction on the new fire station—sited in a rather bizarre location, the old Lovins Pharmacy building lot next to McDonald’s, a poor spot because fire trucks pulling out onto highway 15 would be subjected to heavy school and Champion Labs traffic at least twice a day—had gone about $60,000 over budget already, due to “change orders.”

Searching for the contract that specified what orders had been in place according to the original bid versus what labor and materials were running currently, no one on the council could locate a contract.

On April 2, a copy of the “contract” was mailed to the council. In it, it had a bid called “Bid 3” attached for a total amount of $624,340…for a larger building than had been presented to and approved by the city council (what was called “Bid 2) on October 1, 2012. Bid 3 had never been mentioned to the council, and the council had never authorized any more bidding for the fire station after Bid 2 was approved…so Bid 3 was unauthorized.

Further, the contract mailed to the council (of which there was no official copy, nor fire station plans, found in city hall) showed it was between the “contractor” (Greenwalt and Sons Construction) and the “owner,” Albion Fire Department…an entity unable to legally “own” the station; only the city and/or rural fire district could “own” it.

Even further, the “contract” was found to have been signed by then-mayor Hallam on January 18, 2013. Meeting minutes showed that no discussion or approval had been given by the council to sign the contract, increased costs or not. Hallam had only been authorized to sign for Bid 2, in the amount of $562,288…and authorization hadn’t been formally given as of Jan. 18.

The contract the council received Apr. 2 wasn’t signed by the city clerk (who had also resigned, with Hallam, 17 days after the signature); the city seal hadn’t been affixed to it; the city attorney hadn’t reviewed it; the enclosed plans hadn’t been approved by an architect with an attendant seal; there was no list of sub-contractors; there was no deadline for completion of the contract; and details, like inclusion of electrical and plumbing work, were missing from the contract.

Special meeting called

Resultant of this, the remaining council (the alderman who had acted as pro tem mayor in Hallam’s absence in February, Brett Berger, had also resigned) called a special meeting April 8 to “authorize the council to seek independent counsel to evaluate and explain the rights and obligations of the firehouse contract” and to “determine whether work can be stopped pending validity of the contract on the firehouse.”

Firemen show up in force

When Hallam learned that the fire station work might be stopped, the rally was on to force the council to “call off” their plans to cease construction. There was, Disclosure has learned, a certain level of hubris associated with the siting of a fire station where the firemen could gather, sit and drink coffee (and on certain nights, beer) and watch everything going on out on the main drag through town. The fire department had, over the past several years, come to believe itself a “good ol boys” club for them to pal around in, not just provide a service to the area.

The two items of business on the agenda were not discussed immediately. At first, the source of funds for the construction (reportedly a Rural Development loan) was discussed, as well as how the contract got signed by Hallam.

“Plans got done,” Hallam reported from the audience, “and Brett (Berger) was there and acting as a liaison between the council and fire department.” Hallam then said Berger gave him the approval for the expansion, which accounted for the increased cost.

The council, however, already knew Berger had not done such a thing.

Shupe brought up seeking independent counsel at that point, stating “At least we’ll know where we stand.”

The firefighters began muttering under their breath at the motion, one of them stating clearly, “She’s never known where she stands.”

Mayor pro tem Kevin Harper heard the hateful statement.

“If you guys don’t calm down,” he told them sternly, “then you’ll leave.”

The firemen and the various citizens they’d brought with them in their show of force began attempting to persuade the council to just approve a new bid for the contract, which included an extra $60,000, despite the fact that no one knew where that money was going to come from.

In the melee

Amidst this mess, Edwards County High School Comp/Lit instructor Melissa Felling, seated in the audience in front of Hallam, turned around and said, “Hallam, I had you in my English class at school and I don’t know if you forgot, but ‘liaison’ is the talking between a group of people, not a ‘person signing between groups,’” displaying what several were already beginning to figure out: there was some hedging going on with the signing of the contract; but to what end?

Hallam repeated that Berger had told him to sign the contract.

At that point Shupe moved to hire an attorney to look at the contract and examine its validity. The unspoken presumption at that point was that the construction, therefore, would stop until the contract could be declared valid by independent counsel.

Hallam arose, shaking (although whether out of anger or fear couldn’t be determined), and read the resignation letter from the 19 firemen.

“We know when enough is enough,” he stumbled through what ended up being a highly self-aggrandizing speech, “At this present time, we the members of the Albion Fire Department do present our resignation, effective immediately. We are no longer appreciated and it’s time to move forward. This is not a reflection on the citizens of Albion. We have loved serving you. This is a reflection on the current city council that questions every move, does not appreciate us. It’s very unfortunate when a few rotten apples can spoil the whole barrel. There’s over 300 years combined experience on this department; it’ll take so many years to replace this experience, as Harry Truman said, ‘enough is enough.’” He then read the names of the resignees.

Kevin Harper summed it up immedately.

“All I have to say is that you weren’t hired here; I don’t know why you have to resign from here,” he said mildly but with impact.

The Watchdogs

Many of the firemen, present for their big dramatic exit, began to storm out, with Sam Smith providing one last jab at Shupe by throwing his radio in front of her and muttering about “38 years of experience; YOU get out at 1 in the morning,” displaying no humility at all.

Interestingly, Edgar County Watchdogs, having read the drama about the fire department situation from reading coverage in Disclosure, were present. The team of John Kraft and Kirk Allen (who is fire chief in Kansas) advised from the audience that if ever there was a need for an emergency meeting of the council, this was it, and the council (because it was an emergency and therefore no need to wait the requisite 48 hours for an agenda to be posted) determined that they needed to appoint a fire chief and have locks changed at the station. However, without the resignation letter, they were unsure who was still on the fire department, so a chief couldn’t be appointed, and a locksmith couldn’t be called to tend to the keypad at that time of night.

The immediate concern of stopping construction was addressed at that point, with Darren Greenwalt stating he would “wait to continue work until we have a valid contract.”

So another special meeting was called for Wednesday, Apr. 10.

The fearmongering begins

Naturally, at that meeting, the city’s ‘risk manager,’ Randy Hallam, father of Ryan, was available to put the fear of having no (or at least, only a few) active fire volunteers in the city’s volunteer department.

The city’s insurer is Burnham and Flowers, with Randy Hallam as the ‘agent of record.’ This has been the situation for a couple of years; prior to his son becoming mayor in 2001, Hallam was not only the ‘risk manager’ but also bid out the insurance from time to time to ‘keep the premiums as low as possible.’ However, he received a 10 percent commission over and above the premium cost, which resulted in a constant raise for Hallam.

When this was changed in 2011 to bid out the insurance instead, the city saved about $25,000 a year in premiums. Hallam still makes premiums from the carrier as agent of record, but this take is much reduced now, and it’s largely due to the newer members of the council since 2011: Arrol Stewart and Terry Harper, who, along with Shupe, have been doing what they can to save the city money wherever they can…which effort has included what the fire department is doing.

Hallam gave his own soliloquy about how “dangerous” it would be to be without fire volunteers, and how the city needed to “come together” and do what they could to compromise. He spoke of Champion Labs (Albion’s only industry) and the school facing increased risk, and talked at length about how the city’s ISO (Insurance Services Office) rating could rise, meaning that everyone would face increased premiums. It appeared, with every turn of phrase, that Hallam was promoting mass hysteria if the city didn’t back off, end their plans to examine the contract via independent counsel, and allow the fire department to spend as much money as they wanted in order to construct “their” fire house how they saw fit.

His pleas, which were word-for-word with a local “anonymous insurance agent” in the local paper printed that same day, fell on deaf ears.

The council determined to hire attorney Troy Payne from Vandalia as special counsel.

It was determined to change the code on the fire department keypad; but Kevin Harper mentioned that there were several keys to city hall that just “weren’t accounted for” and pointed out that mayor-elect Steve McMahel, present at the meeting, had found a locksmith to address that particular issue.

A fire chief could not be selected at that time per that agenda item, but it was determined that there were at least five volunteers available to staff the station and respond to fires (indeed, they already had, to a field fire earlier that day) and the Browns Fire Department had already pledged mutual aid to Albion.

No action was taken on the agenda item of selecting a go-to person to go between the contractor and the city council; this appointment would be pending review by Payne of the “contract” and its validity.

And no action was taken on discussion/approval of the contract on the new construction of the fire house, the very first item on the agenda

In the meantime, mainstream media continues to either focus on the wrong facets of the problem, or is ignoring the matter altogether. In a place as small as Albion, every dime matters, especially to media, and with a fire department staffed by volunteers who own the only businesses able to advertise in said media, it doesn’t pay to always tell the truth.

Ray Vaughn, above, mayor-
elect of Olney, was but
one of the candidates that defeated incumbent mayors in southeastern Illinois.

SO. ILL.—The regional voter turnout had a wide range depending upon the number of offices up for grabs, this for the April 9, 2013 consolidated election.

Municipal and township races, as well as a handful of ballot questions, were the biggest draw for this go-round, but sadly, not big enough: an overall average of Disclosure’s main counties of coverage had a deplorable voter turnout. In the 13 downstate/south counties Disclosure regularly covers, most of it in the Second Judicial Circuit, the average among the 13 was 30.21 percent turnout. This featured a high of 47.95 percent in Gallatin County (where turnout is typically high) to what’s being called a “historic low” in Wabash County of 6.8 percent (where turnout is typically one of the lowest in the region)…meaning the nation’s apathy toward doing something about the political climate, one that begins with the reluctance to serve/run for office, might be fairly said to end at the ballot box when “there’s no one to vote for.”

Here now are the unofficial outcomes of the main counties in Disclosure’s coverage area for the Consolidated Election 2013; the totals in this, obtained on deadline, are not final and may change pending counting of absentee and provisional ballots.

Clay County

Clay County saw few contested races, most of what they did have contested falling into the realm of the townships’ trustee races.

However, there was a four-candidate race for three spots as Clay City village trustee. Mike Delonshaw came away from that with the top votes at 109; Rod Franklin next at 104 and Dan Patridge seated with 81 votes.

And the village of Xenia had a village trustee race, this one with three of five. Selected were Suzie Hosick, 48 votes, Thomas J. Henson, 43 and Bill Bradley, 39.

Also in the village of Xenia was a two-woman contest for village clerk; Dawn Cazadd prevails over Jenny Gould by one vote, 35-34.

A three-way race for highway commissioner in Xenia Township saw D. Allen Bonham emerging winner over Mike Burdine and Cody Gould, 47-33-31, respectively.

In Oskaloosa Township, that same position went to Rick Payne over Jason Guinn, 80-24.

Four trustees in Larkinsburg Township were selected from amongst eight: Wesley Horath, 85 votes, Louise Beccue, 76, Lloyd Weidner, 56 and Dale Wayne McKinney, 50. Four competed for the position of highway commissioner in Larkinsburg Township, and Ernest Elledge took the least at 66 votes, almost twice his next-nearest opponent, Dean McKinney with 26, while Eric Yingst and Glenn D. Yingst each received 18 votes. And a Larkinsburg Township supervisor was chosen: Claye Warren, who defeated Eric I. Bailey, 74-58.

Blair Township also saw a race for trustees, with Jon Vandyke, 120 votes, Dwaine Worthy, 116, Kenny Hilderbrand, 85 and Stewart Smith, 72, attaining those seats. Blair Township’s highway commissioner will be Ronald L. Kincaid, who defeated Alan Slagley and David McPeak, 89-50-23.

Louisville Township had one challenged office: Highway commissioner, which is now Matt Byers, defeating Tommy Ballard 230-140.

Harter Township has four trustees selected from six competing: Ted Whitehead, 600, Raymond J. Muhs, 526, Amy Sailer Leonard, 522 and Joe Gilliland, 492. Harter Township also had a race for highway commissioner, in which James S. Tackitt prevails over challengers Johnny R. Williams and Bob Meares, 472-259-223.

In Bible Grove Township, four of five were chosen for township trustee: Neil Gould, 82 votes, Reggie Birch, 71, Aaron L. Hardin, 69, and Darren Birch, 48. Also in that township, Cory Wendling defeated Andy Wood 54-49 for highway commissioner.

In Clay City Township, Darrell Britton defeated Kevin Henry for highway commissioner, 140-104. That county also had four trustees selected: Terry Woodrow, 138 votes, Rod Franklin, 133, Steve Spitzner, 122 and Bill Staser, 121.

On the Clay City Community Unit School Dist. (hereinafter all referred to as “CUSD”) 10 school board, Kelly Hance, Amy Dulaney and Darren Lewis will be seated. There were 43 write-in votes.

For Flora CUSD 35, Curtis Leib, Rick Porter and Justin Cook will be seated.

And the North Clay Unit 25 School Board will seat Darrell McKnelly, Ryan Ballard, Cecil Cochran and David Simmons; there were 23 write-in votes for that board.

Five people were elected to serve on the Xenia Fire Protection District Board of Trustees, this after a mass walkout last year of firefighters over real irresponsibility with department money courtesy of Daniel Edgington, who is now out: Shand Kanitz, Randy Hockman, Burl DeWayne Wesner, Joyce M. O’Donnell and William P. Moorman will serve where only three were serving last year, and will be elected instead of appointed by the county board. This was accomplished by a ballot question placed by citizens petitioning their government last year to rectify the situation, and they were successful in their endeavor.

Crawford County

Crawford saw a turnout of 33.39, prompted by mayoral/village president races in their various towns/villages.

Robinson saw the retention of their incumbent mayor Roger E. Pethtel over challenger Lon M. Smith, 923-375.

Flat Rock chose Larry Keeler over Brandi Weber for mayor, 77-32.

Palestine also kept their incumbent mayor, Pat Schofiel, over Candy Carter and Earnie Mendenhall II, 281-62-60.

Races on councils/boards came from Ward 2 in Robinson, where Karen Bowman bested Nikki Aldrich 117-79. In Palestine, three were selected for village trustee: Harry Gene Purcell, Ricky Stork and Lloyd Dunlap, 307-247-243.

In townships, Honey Creek had a race for supervisor: Greg Wampler defeated Daniel Gower, 279-220. They also had a selection for township clerk, with Lynn McCleave defeating Beverly Hemrich, 275-223. And for highway commissioner, Chris Bonnell defeated Ralph Weger, 341-167.

Hutsonville Township had competitors for township trustees; four of six prevailed: Guy Rumler, 199 votes, Mike Kraemer, 192, Ryan Love, 176 and Todd Seaney, 168, with Seaney narrowly defeating Rob Lowrance, 167, and Tim Terry, 164, for the final seat, the outcome of which could change upon official tally, it being so close.

Martin Township selected four trustees from a field of five: Bill Midgett and John Russell received 87 votes, Danny Mundhenk, 84, and Madeline Harris and Dewayne Mundhenk received 75 each, tying for fourth; no word as of press time was available on how that matter was going to be settled.

In Montgomery Township, a race for highway commissioner was decisively settled for Ed Carpenter over Michael Eakins, 200-49.

Oblong Township also had a highway commissioner race, and Jerry Ping took it over Jerry D. Lewis, 569-139.

In Prairie Township, a highway commissioner race saw Gerald Hill prevail over William Gamblin, 140-63. And in that same township, four trustees were elected: Lyle Crane, 146 votes, Chris Weck, 131, Charles Guyer, 127 and Derek Staley, 125.

In Robinson Township, a highway commissioner’s race had David Lachenmayr trouncing former Crawford County deputy Troy Love, 1,364 to 497. A township supervisor was chosen: Larry McCoy, 1313, over Debra Dix, 567. And four trustees were selected: Patrick J. Richards, with 1,097 votes, Lori Ann Hodge, 1,018, Shirley A. Berry, 1,003, and Gregory C. Wolfe, 942.

The Palestine Public Library had selected for them three trustees, Rhonda Kaye Eller, Terrie L. McDaniel and Robert F. Taylor.

Crawford County’s voters in the Hutsonville CUSD 1 chose Chad Guyer, Mike Knecht and Tina Callaway for their school board picks; in Red Hill No. 10’s District, Jim Legg outpaced Bob Christy and the third and fourth picks were Roger Kissen and Dixie Purcell; for Palestine’s school board, Crawford’s picks were Shari L. Eckert, Matt McCoy and Susan J. Hawkins; and Oblong School District No. 4 selected Todd Musgrave, Chad Pusey, and Michael Higgins.

Edwards County

In Edwards, the voter turnout was centered in Albion, where big ward races were going on and a “wet/dry” vote would enable those within city limits to buy and sell alcohol in a retail setting as opposed to just the clubs. Voter turnout, therefore, was a respectable 38.3 percent.

No mayoral race was on tap, as former mayor Ryan Hallam ceased to be an incumbent candidate in early February, which was predicated, it’s since been learned, on the possibility that he fraudulently signed a contract for construction of the new Albion fire station (see related story). As such, the only one on the ballot was former mayor Steve McMahel, who nevertheless received a symbolic 556 votes, displaying a showing of support for the town’s new mayor.

On the city council it was firefighter supporters versus supporters of the public’s right to have their tax dollars spent wisely, and it went fifty-fifty.

Ward 1 saw the peoples’ candidate, incumbent Aarol Stewart, prevail over former alderman Kevin Savage and firefighter supporter Rochelle Thomason, 151-107-73.

Ward 2 had two seats up for election, and saw firefighter candidate/former sheriff/former firefighter Scott Meserole take the seat over contender/peoples’ candidate Randy Speir, 101-72. While Meserole was ostensibly put up as a candidate by the firefighters, however, he indicated to Disclosure the day after the election his disgust with the fireman walkout, and how the churlish behavior was one of the things he saw during his tenure as sheriff…and was a big factor in his April 2008 resignation, as he “couldn’t get anything done” because of childish public officials in Edwards County.

Former firefighter Dana Mosson barely defeated the peoples’ candidate in Ward 2, David Works, 66-64. Since this is an unofficial total, it remains hopeful that there may be absentee/provisional ballots that could change this outcome over the next 30 days.

Edwards County doesn’t have townships, but instead has road districts. There were a couple of contests as such: In Road District 1, Mark Beehn prevailed over Tony Keortge, 83-44, and for clerk in that road, the ill-tempered Jackie Knackmus was finally ousted by the more gentle Robert E. Keortge, 69-59. In Road District 2, the only other contest, a write-in made a better showing than a ballot contender but both were still defeated when Robert Headley prevailed with 35 votes; on the ballot was Nancy Cowling who garnered 22 votes, but edging ahead of her was write-in Mike Greathouse with 29 votes. Tying with Cowling was another write-in, Robert Hayes, in that district.

Completely overlooked in all the mayhem was the fact that the village of West Salem has a convicted felon on the board. Only two board positions were open, and Don Cornelius and Logan Yates took those. Yates, however, is a convicted felon from a 2001 Burglary in Clay County. Disclosure checked with Clay County and the felony has not been expunged, as was what was reported to have been the case when Mike Ristvedt held a board position in West Salem after a federal weapons (explosives) conviction more than 20 years ago. However, when Disclosure checked with Ken Menzel at the Chicago office of the Illinois State Board of Elections, it was discovered that expungement doesn’t matter: in the state of Illinois, according to Illinois Municipal Code, a convicted felon of any length of time (one year ago or 50) cannot hold a city or village elected office. Disclosure is in the process of making a report to the Illinois Attorney General on the matter, as far too much of this kind of thing is going on in the state, and it’s being totally ignored by uninformed people and media alike.

Also in West Salem, two were selected from among a field of three for the coveted position of library trustee: Mary Jane McKinney and Kelsey Adam Schilt beat Elmer Ellsworth Lytle, 153-92-41.

And of course, the “wet/dry” vote went well for those who were looking to overturn the decades-long prohibition of alcohol sales in a place other than a club (or illegally out of the back door of certain residences) in Albion: voters elected to remove it 333-323, meaning the city can now reap the benefits of having a potential liquor store, or even a nice restaurant that sells wine, beer and mixed beverages with a meal, on their sales and other taxes. Amusingly, because of the backwards-sounding wording on the ballot question, Indiana television stations reported for hours on April 9 and 10 that the prohibition had been upheld and the town was still “dry.”

Gallatin County

The little southern county of Gallatin once again lead the pack in the Consolidated Election with voter turnout: 47.95, still low, but number 1 in the coverage area. Several contested offices in villages and townships, as well as a ballot question about the ubiquitous public safety tax, prompted the run to the polls.

In the village of Equality, Brittany Johnson took the office of village clerk with 135 votes, over Patricia Barnes, 58, and April Bilski, 25. A write-in on the village trustee ticket, Bruce Gowan, actually came in the third of three with 123 votes; Garrett Wargel and Billy C. Moore were the to two vote recipients with 173 and 131, respectively.

In the village of Junction, a write-in also lead the night, and landed the office of village president over incumbent Melinda K. Robbins, 23 to 18.

In the village of New Haven, a trustee race was on, with Zella Medlin, Amy Lashley and Brigitte Browning, 130-86-73. They are joined by Jackie Wicker, who was the only one running for a two-year unexpired term.

In the village of old Shawneetown, a trustee race found Kenny Oldham, James Back Jr. and Nell A. Moore-Rosser prevailing, 51-47-37.

In the village of Ridgway, Anthony Drone (204), Mike Kitchens (183) and Ardon Smith (160) took the lead in the trustee race.

In the city of Shawneetown, David Barker, who ran unsuccessfully for circuit clerk last year, prevailed in the mayor’s race, besting Robert Boon and Terry Williams 184-174-75.

Township races were heated in Gallatin, particularly in beleaguered Equality, where the Bayer-Glover combine has held sway for years and to the detriment of that area. While many of their supporters were retained as trustees, other offices were overthrown. In particular, that of highway commissioner in Equality Township was a big deal, and former Equality mayor Lee Parker handed Jimmy Bayer his butt on a platter with a vote tally of 195 to 154. For township supervisor, it was David Casey over Doggie Poshard narrowly, 165-156, that vote likely muddied by the presence of third candidate Bill Springer, who took 27 decisive votes away from the main two. And for township trustee, Cletus Wargel took top votes at 268, followed by the nasty-tempered Pat Frohock, 223, then Terry G. Wood, 172 and Don Collins, 169.

Ridgway township had a supervisor’s race: Robert McGuire prevailed against Barbara Stricklin Rodgers, 188-153.

New Haven Township had a highway commissioner race, where David Chamberlain received 93 votes to Jim Fromm’s 89.

Shawnee Township also had a highway commissioner race: Jay Barton won against Sherman E. Rider, Jr., 67-35. There also was a township trustee race, and Kimberly Bryson and Sandy Willis each received 52 votes, followed by Rhonda Twitchell (34) and Misty Hazel (30).

Members of the Gallatin County CUSD 7 board were selected: Rob M. Wood (954 votes), Gary Clayton (863) and Richard Case (819).

Gallatin voters also gave in to another public safety tax, passing it 1210-633.

Hardin County

A bit of confusion ensued at one polling location in Hardin County, marking a weird election there, where there was only a 33.5 percent turnout, very very low for one of the southeasternmost counties in the coverage area.

While county prosecutor Tara Wallace investigated and released press information the day after the issue, that didn’t seem to soothe those voters who received a ballot containing incorporated candidates for those voting in unincorporated areas.

It didn’t help that Wallace’s numbers for the outcome of votes in Rosiclare didn’t match the unofficial final tabulation Disclosure obtained from the county clerk’s office.

Wallace’s press release stated that the six ballots that were given to voters in unincorporated Rosiclare incorrectly wouldn’t have made a difference to the emerging candidates from the particular race of city commissioner, even if all those voters had selected candidates on that ballot—something they weren’t supposed to do, being that they lived outside Rosiclare city limits. However, they were handed ballots meant for those within city limits.

Wallace’s numbers had Bryan Keith Stone receiving 216 votes; Roger D. Brazell, 168; Final tabulation on the unofficial results released at 8:15 p.m. that night read Stone, 261; Brazell, 204; Oxford, 187; Williams, 173; Winchester, 172; Atkinson, 170; Stoker, 158; Lane, 165; and Hayden, 69.

In Rosiclare, the mayoral race wouldn’t have been affected by just six votes: Roy W. Tolbert prevailed over Rusty Warren, 250-172, although many news outlets were reporting the reverse on that night for some reason.

In the village of Cave-in-Rock, incumbent mayor Marty Kaylor kept his office against the challenge of Perry Foster, 57-34.

In Elizabethtown, the citizenry, remembering what Heck Rose did to them a couple of years ago, gave him a resounding “NO” for his bid (again) for the office of mayor—from which he’d “retired” (read: resigned) in 2011—and voted to keep incumbent Bertis Cook, 84-58.

They didn’t have much of a choice when it came to village trustee, as all three running were elected, but a message was sent to Heck’s sister, Sandra “Sandbags” Conkle: only her close friends and family were interested in having her back as a village trustee, all 27 of them. The other two running, Rebecca Barnard and Bruce Hemphill, had much better showings by comparison: 105 and 78, respectively.

Sandbags, regular readers will recall, had the distinction of enduring a slow-speed comeapart during the 2011 flood, wherein her true colors showed during the emergency of residents not having drinkable water, and Sandbags stubbornly refusing to distribute water hoarded at the village fire department, where her husband, the then-alive Ed Conkle, was fire chief.

A Hardin County school board race saw former HC Schools principal Jimmy Stunson, who also “retired” last year after numerous reports of kids on the school bus waving to him as he sat on a village barstool in the afternoons, exchange the barstool for a seat on the board. Top vote recipient for the school board race was Jerry D. Fricker with 839; followed by Ricky D. Williams, 702; Natalie Vaughn, 572; and Stunson’s 550.

And Hardin, too, passed a public safety tax like Gallatin did, displaying the power of the Democrats in both counties, who believe it’s okay to tax the citizens beyond their limit, then tax them some more. The PST, which will not preclude raising of property taxes if the county fathers believe it’s necessary, at least didn’t have a landslide victory like Gallatin: 561 to 472.

Hamilton County

A mayoral contest in McLeansboro and a few challenged seats on townships, as well as McLeansboro’s own wet/dry vote, were big enough draws to bring Hamilton County’s overall voter turnout to 38.13, on the higher end of the southeastern part of the state.

Long-time McLeansboro mayor Dick Deitz was a landslide over challenger Matt Bilderbeck, whom Disclosure learned has had numerous run-ins with the law and has a somewhat shady past, and only ran because he “wanted to prove he could.” Unlike Logan Yates, however, he doesn’t have a felony conviction, and therefore could run legitimately. Yet, he was stomped: 668-177, proving Deitz’ popularity and capability as the city’s mayor keeps the voters coming back to him term after successful term.

One contest was had in the city’s wards: Ward 1, where Dennis Crain defeated Billy Glenn, but not by much: 218-197.

The village of Dahlgren also had a mayoral race, with Steve Wilkerson easily sliding past David Wicks Jr., 99-26.

Township trustee races were held in Crouch Township, where Denise Hopfinger (67 votes), Brian Lueke (62), Richard Hatfield (55) and Ron Webb (54) edged in over Dwayne Smith (53 votes) for the four seats; and McLeansboro Township, where Dennis Johnson (645 votes), Kyle Ingram (642), Becky Cross (639) and Bill Ingram (585) prevailed.

A race for highway commissioner in Twigg Township had Jeffrey “Tinker” Wheeler squeaking past Randall Price, 115-113.

The vote for Hamilton County Board of Education had Tom Maulding with 1,335 votes, Randal Kirsch, 1,207, Larry Launius, 1,233 and Danny Anselment, 1,141.

And the wet/dry was decisively in favor of going wet, with 534 votes for “not prohibiting the sale of alcohol in the city,” 341 for continuing the prohibition.

Jasper County

Jasper County, in the Heartland area of Disclosure’s coverage, saw a voter turnout of 24.19 percent of registered voters, about mid-range amongst the counties and likely because there were no big challenges there. Mayors or village presidents ran unopposed in the municipalities: Mark Bolander in Newton; Jason Kirby in Hidalgo; Jack Thompson in Ste. Marie; Robert Flowers in Wheeler and Sanford Andrews in Yale.

A few village trustee races were on tap: in Wheeler, Charles Emmerich and Edward Schmidt each received seven votes, and Gerald Short received five, to attain the trustee seats there. And in Yale, Jerry Middleton (10 votes), Jamie Smith (9), Jerald B. Andrew (9) and Phillip Wagner and Nicholas Huddleston (both receiving 6 votes) vied for the positions; county clerk personnel said it was up to the village to determine who would fill the fourth slot between Wagner and Huddleston.

In townships, Crooked Creek had trustees selected: Christopher Parr (89 votes), Robert Young (74), Jeff Carr (68) and James Houser (66) prevailed there. Hunt City Township saw a tie vote for first place, Jerry Tharp and Tarry Birch (34 votes), Lafe Graham (31) and James Miller (28) win trustee seats. And Smallwood Township selected four: Paul C. Will (114 votes), Daniel A. Stark (109), Nicholas Milliman (90) and David Kistner (89) selected from six.

Fox Township had a road commissioner race, in which David Pilman defeated Robert Smithenry, 76-65.

In school board races, Jasper CUSD 1 had Gordon Millsap (921 votes), Holly Farley (863) and Mandy Rieman (792) emerge the top three; Casey-Westfield CUSD C-4 had a little input out of Jasper, with Robert L. Dougherty, Alan Hutton (whose name was spelled “Hurron” on some ballots) and Terri Cox being selected as their picks among voters for that district.

Lawrence County

A couple of major mayoral races highlighted ballots in Lawrence County, but voter turnout was still dismal there: 26.85 percent, amongst the mid-range for the coverage area.

The big story was the unseating of two-term Lawrenceville mayor Brian Straub, who’d fallen considerably out of favor over the past couple of years due to two debacles, one involving the water department, and one involving his own use of city credit cards.

Emerging victorious in light of this was the city’s clerk, Don Wagner, who’d signaled is intent to run as mayor after the credit card flap last summer.

Challenging both the incumbent and the city clerk was Ed Brumley, who in the early stages seemed to be an odds-on favorite but couldn’t quite muster the support either Wagner or Straub had.

As a result, Wagner pulled ahead in the final stages of the race (and it was somewhat tense at first, as he was lagging at the outset, and the count took several hours), and defeated the other two, 458 to Straub’s 338 and Brumley’s 208.

Lawrenceville had one ward race: Ward 3, where former county board member David Courtney stomped incumbent Don Goff, 333-158.

The other big race in Lawrenceville generated plentiful jokes about payment of water bills, and with good reason: Janice Laslie, running for the office Wagner was vacating in seeking the mayoral seat, was challenged for city clerk and was soundly defeated by Rodney Nolan: Nolan 729, Laslie 241. Laslie might have been the beginning of the nails in Straub’s political coffin in late 2010 when it was revealed that she and her husband Bruce were receiving special dispensation for a water bill they owed that exceeded $3,000. It was later shown to be that Straub himself owed a back bill dating over 90 days late, but he had never been charged the same late fees others would be were they late on their bills. In some cases, voters have long memories; the Nolan-Laslie matchup was one such case.

In Ward 1, Wendell Stevens; Ward 2, John Waldrop; and Ward 4, Janice S. Holcomb, all ran unopposed.

In other municipal races, the next big news was Bridgeport, where the new mayor received symbolic votes of support as he too ran unopposed. Brad Purcell received 241 votes, not challenged by outgoing Max Schauf or any other candidate. Of 1,205 registered voters in Bridgeport, approximately 300 in the incorporated area voted, meaning Purcell received an 80.3 percent turnout unopposed—a startling number, given that Schauf’s in 2009 was something like 16 percent—and that shows that Bridgeport voters do indeed have sense…when they have a decent candidate.

A ward race was up in Bridgeport as well: former alderman Robin Wirth was up against James Hamilton and David Hammel, but Wirth prevailed: her vote tally was 15, by comparison to Hammel’s 8 and Hamilton’s 5. Ldora “Button” Laughlin in Ward 2 and Tyler Griffin in Ward 3 each ran unopposed.

A mayoral race in St. Francisville saw the unseating of incumbent mayor Stan Williams, who lost to Donald Ravellette: Ravellette 117, Williams 105.

In township trustee races, Denison picked John R. Clark, 175; Rita Sue Tillotson, 157; Dora Glenn, 148 and Alfred Mushrush, 126; Lawrence Township selected Bruce Morey, 824; Don R. Myers, 744; Jenny Schick Chapman, 649 and Roger Orr, 610; and Russell voted in Amber O’Dell, 81; Sue C. Gerhart, 77; Joe Weber, 68 and Alan Thompson, 64.

Bond Township selected a clerk, Billie Taylor, over Cynthia A. Hays-Morris, 61-45; Bridgeport Township picked a road commissioner, Stevan J. Moore over Woody R. Rousey Jr., 224-133 and a township clerk, Lisa Lemeron, over Thomas Daniel Stanescu, 243-104; Christy had a race for township clerk, Jenny Roark v. former county board member Bonnie Hann, resulting in Roark 107, Hann, 93; Lawrence selected a township supervisor in Kimberly Yost Winningham, 763 over Becky Piper, 609, and a road commissioner, Bill Shick, who ran and won against David Mefford, 956-439; and Russell chose a township highway commissioner from amongst three: Gabe Foreman took ethe lead over Richard Churchwell and Keith Fisher, 58-44-34.

Red Hill CUSD 1 saw Bob Christy take the most votes for school board, 621, followed by Dixie Purcell, 619, Ashley Ryan, 517, and Jim Legg, 449.

Richland County

It was a mixed bag in Richland, with the good and the bad featured in a voter turnout of 28.78 percent: roughly twice the turnout of the 2009 race.

At that time, the city of Olney’s mayoral race was a face-off between the highly-detested and very detestable Tommie Fehrenbacher and challenger Mark Lambird. Lambird prevailed, bringing an end to the corruption that surrounded Fehrenbacher for eight years, which included sweetheart deals between the city and the county, and alleged under-the-table bids for state facilities being sited on property Fehrenbacher owned…for which he was briefly investigated by state agencies in his second term.

However, Lambird didn’t fare as well this go-round because the Fehrenbacher crowd was in force…this time backing an attorney, Ray Vaughn, to run as challenger against Lambird. Vaughn was Fehernbacher’s pick because he’s a likeable enough guy and has nothing shady in his history. The only problem is, he’s a mere figurehead so that Fehrenbacher can operate through him, behind-the-scenes, this according to many who keep an eye on Fehrenbacher and his doings in the city. The Fehrenbacher crowd was able to drum up enough support to thwart Lambird’s retention: 927-788. Sadly, with the minimal turnout, it’s apparent that voters could have turned this election around with just a little effort, had it come to light sooner that Vaughn was Fehrenbacher’s front-man, but it came a little late in the game, and the damage was already mostly done. Now Olney is back to under-the-table and backdoor doings, and, worse, is being run by attorneys: Vaughn, and city manager, city attorney Larry Taylor, the real brains of the operation as Olney does not have a “strong mayor” form of government.

A no-show at the returns this year was bi-annual pest Brian James O’Neill II, whose stench precedes him when he walks into the courthouse…but not this election. O’Neill ran for mayor against Vaughn and Lambird, delivering a massive diatribe to the Olney paper as his candidate profile which, as usual, made about as little sense as the five-minute speeches to which he’s now limited at public meetings. While many believe O’Neill is mentally challenged, the only real problem the man has is that he’s stupid and simply doesn’t know it, and uses his obliviousness to target certain people in the community and make them as miserable as possible. For whatever reason, O’Neill has a handful of jokers that vote for him in his district, and this year, besides himself and the woman he lives with, there were eight casting a vote for his mayoral challenge, meaning he’s lost someone in the district (four years ago he received 11 votes)…but whether by death, moving out of the area or gaining a modicum of common sense, is not known at this time.

Two incumbents were seeking another four years on the council—Bob Ferguson and Gary Foster—and apparently, Foster’s grumbling personality got him booted this year. Ferguson, propped up by the same Fehrenbacher crowd who put Vaughn in place, received the most votes of the four competing: 913. This was followed by John McLaughlin, who will replace Foster, with 843 votes; then Foster with 706, and challenger Jeremiah Brown, 570. What it will take to get Ferguson booted like Foster just was remains unknown but is a challenge for 2017.

Across the county, there weren’t many matchups. Two other mayoral races came from Noble, where incumbent Richard Clark took his fourth term over challenger John C. Mason by two votes: 70-68; and Parkersburg, where Tom Hanna defeated challenger Darlene Clark, 53-37. Also in Parkersburg was a race for village clerk, where Sandra Reich prevailed over Kelly Hanna, 63-26.

Otherwise, in Claremont, the legal status of their mayor (this year, by 13 symbolic votes, as no one ran against him and the voter turnout for the village was a dismal 14.1 percent) remains unanswered: John Joyce was found a few years ago to still have an illegal immigrant status when he announced that he couldn’t hold a liquor license for the village’s only convenience store because he was in the country illegally. The Illinois State Board of Elections also advised Disclosure that it is highly illegal for an illegal to hold an elected position in the state, so Disclosure is taking that matter up with the Attorney General’s office at the same time as the issue of felons holding public office following this election.

Township trustee races otherwise dominated the landscape in Richland: in Madison, Dave Bricker (129 votes); Austin Ridgely (128); Shawn Rose (122) and Franklin Dorney (102), the entire slate of Republicans, prevailed as trustees; in Noble Township, Gerg Amerman (228); Steve Hemrich (222); Mike Shan (196); and Brian VanBlaricum (186) were selected; in Olney Township, trustees selected were Jeff Fleming (1,230); Carmen Kowa (1,163); Heather Cecil (1,075) and Donald Barnett (863); in Preston Township, Dennis R. Graves (207); Wade Wilson (196); John R. Snider (176) and Kyle Henton (147) were chosen.

Township offices had matchups, these coming from Bonpas, where there was a highway commissioner race between Don Gayer (winner with 71) and James. M. McDowell (68); German where James Schneider prevailed with 76 votes over James L. Jones’ 10; Noble, where township highway commissioner went to Pat Morgan with 203 votes to Kenneth Wilson’s 183; Olney Township, where an assessor’s race was won by Kimberly J. Houchin 1,322, over Mary Kay Stoltz, 593; Preston Township, which had three offices up for grabs: township clerk, going to Kim Kuhl with 180 versus Donna Whitaker-Mitchell, 105; township assessor going to Michelle Kuenstler, 147, against Cathy Bromm’s 140; and highway commissioner, going to Phil Kuenstler over Chad Stanley, 186-106.

The only contested school board race was at East Richland CUSD 1, where Pete Seals and Alex Cline prevailed over incumbent Micah Grimes, 1,655-1,253-918.

The ballot question regarding raising Richland County’s sales tax another .25 percent appeared yet again and was defeated, despite county engineer Dan Colwell’s implorings in a mass mailing showing how high many of the county sales tax rates were all around Richland. Voters weren’t swayed, likely thinking “too bad for them!” and opted against any more raising of the tax, which is at 6.75 percent already. Colwell tried to convince voters that the money would be put to good use and used only for county road purposes. The reality is that all it would do is free up money in the larger funds, and county spenders would then have more to play with in their particular departments. So the voters sent a message to the county: Be more responsible with the money you have, and stop asking to get it from US.

Saline County

The feature of Saline County’s ballots this year was that there were so few offices being challenged, resulting in a dismal voter turnout of 26.63 for one of the more highly-populated counties downstate.

A single mayoral race came from Raleigh, where James W. Agin defeated Charles Maloney, 56-36. In that village was also a selection of three trustees; those were Jean Ellis, 53 votes, Ron Maloney, 51, and Athel Wiseman, 46.

A village trustee race was held in Galatia, where David L. Grant took top votes with 127, followed by Rickey Cates, 103, and Larry Kukla, 99.

Township trustee races occurred in Galatia, with Mike Triplett taking top votes at 174, followed by Larry Darnell with 155, Gerald W. Heflin with 150 and Merlina Pritchett with 139; Harrisburg Township, where Roger Angelly received 1,054 votes, Roger Craig, 1,051, Steve Horn 854 and Lovie Stunson, 699; and Raleigh Township, with Ron Bradley receiving 180 votes, Willard Prather, 156, Jack Whitlock, 146 and Sarah Davis, 137.

Township offices that were challenged were East Eldorado road commissioner, which went to Greg McKinney over Kevin Boulds, 744-331; Raleigh Township road commissioner went to Pervis Ellis, 173 over Dean Hutcheson’s 74; and the big race, that of Harrisburg Township road commissioner, wherein Bob Holmes defeated Harrisburg police chief Bob Smith, 973-880.

A selection of three for Carrier Mills-Stonefort CUSD 2 landed Stephen Scott Figg 186 votes, followed by Jeff Parks, 179, and Sammy J. Dudley 177…just edging out Georgia Cowger with 173 votes; however, Cowger, a long-time school board member, was saved from being booted off the board with votes from other CM-SCUSD districts, in particular, in Williamson County.

And a ballot question failed. Voters were asked if the sale of bonds should be made to build a new high school; the district was told NO 1,239 times, to a yes vote of 1,075. Reports were that a student at the polling place in the old high school accessed the public address system on election night and was asking people to vote for the bonds in question; he was shut down, but whether anything will be done about him remained unknown as of press time. The general consensus was that he should be given a stern talking to and it be done with…but electioneering is electioneering, and some believe the kid should be punished in accordance by existing state laws.

Wabash County

The reports of having an abysmally-low voter turnout in Wabash County—6.5 percent—repeatedly offended a large group of people…apparently, the populace of the county themselves. However, they were the only ones who could change that, by first putting up their own candidates and then getting the vote out…neither of which was done this election cycle.

While low contests were blamed, that should never be the excuse for not going to the polls, if for no reason other than to show everyone it can and should be done. But with only one mayoral race county-wide—in Bellmont, where it certainly did matter—that was a hard package to sell.

There, the office of mayor was finally appropriately filled, after pissy—and now, charged—Colby Rigg resigned in a snit in the summer of 2011. Rigg was appointed mayor in 2007 with the resignation of then-mayor Ed Bowman, and was then duly elected in 2009, but couldn’t stick it out. Bowman—father of convicted serial killer Greg Bowman, who is on death row in Missouri—decided to take a stab at it again this election cycle and ran against Larry Sloss for the office. Apparently Bellmont thought the wiser of putting Bowman back in charge—after all, he could potentially appoint Rigg back in, as Rigg isn’t convicted yet and can still hold public office—and voted in Sloss, 28-25.

The only other contests in Wabash came from road districts, specifically district 2, where Joe Hall defeated contenders Danny Deisher and Alan Marx, 70-36-22. District 3’s contest was between Derek Guisewite and Timothy Glick, 66-37.

There was a write-in win for school board in Wabash CUSD 348, where Teresa Hocking succeeded in that with 124 votes. On the ballot were Kyle Peach, 351, Jared Alka, 310 and Timothy Schuler, 303.

And for Allendale CUSD 17, Tia Speth Morgan received 72 votes, Beth Etzkorn 68, Richard D. Gochenour 63, and Mike Wilson, 36 as a write-in.

Wayne County

The big story in Wayne is the loss for incumbent mayor to a challenger, and that had Wayne’s larger precinct turning out in droves, resulting in a decent (for Wayne, anyway) turnout of 32.44 percent.

Mayor Mickey Borah lost to contender Chuck Griswold, and what a loss: Griswold 1,125 to Borah’s 429. Where all of Borah’s throngs of supporters were from 2001, 2004 and 2009, at which time he was supported by Fairfield’s paper and a host of RINOs (Republicans in name only) is unknown, but the choice of whether they stayed home, lost interest or defected could be any and all. Whatever the case, it was a stunner in a way, and yet again in a way, not: The Griswold family is well-known in Fairfield for being upstanding, decent citizens, and Chuck is very well-liked, as stated in last month’s issue. So the upset is certainly one to take note, as public sentiment can be fickle and sway with the wind.

Ward races were seen in Ward 1, where Ralph Barbre defeated incumbent Tom Tucker, 205-179; in Ward 2, where Jim Griffith defeated Clifford Reever, 176-130; Ward 3, Steve Robinson defeating Ron Rush 183-174 and Ward 4, David Fletcher defeating Phillip E. Williams, 273-174.

In village races, Sims had three trustees selected: Stephanie Harris with 32 votes, Billie Moyer, 31 and Donny Robertson, 27; Wayne City, where LaDonna McKinney received 190 votes; Benny Garner, 180, and Diana Wood, 142, and James G. Smith received 135 votes for an unexpired 2-year term over Shawntell Desch, 100.

For township trustees, in Elm River, Austin Lambrich took top votes at 42, followed by Frankie Molt and Rob Neikirk both with 38 and John Harrington with 36; Indian Prairie, Lawrence Pennington received 167 votes, followed by Randy Hilliard, 150, Jeff Barnard, 132, and Justin E. Smith, 117; Mt. Erie saw Jerald Hubble get 89 votes followed by Dennis Taylor’s 73, Randy Hedrick with 72 and Clayton Massie with 67; Orchard Township went to Donald Sharp, 93, Richard Greenwalt, 79, Inez O. Copelin, 76 and William Copelin, 74; and Zif township, where the Hosseltons hold sway: Larry Leon Hosselton came in with 36 votes, followed by Warren Scott Hosselton, 34, Claren Lee Hosselton, 33 and Lee Garrett Hosselton, 30.

Other township office races were found in Barnhill for highway commissioner, where Shular Smothers defeated Jerry Webb, 137-53; Big Mound’s highway commissioner went to John K. Jones Jr. over Jack Monroe, 275-192; Indian Prairie highway commissioner went to Mark A. Talbert versus Lyle Lee Allen, 57-50; a three-way race in Jasper Township for highway commissioner with Brent Opell taking the most votes, 325, over Matt Kinney’s 187, and Ray Webb’s 66; a highly amusing three-way race in Lamard Township, where incumbent Richard (Grant) Hoskins badly defeated his challengers, Craig Donoho (96) and convicted arsonist/operator (along with the vile and somewhat dangerous Rich Tuttle) of the ridiculous Wayne’s World website, Roy Finley, who managed to get 42 of his friends and family—most of them the west Wayne yellowhammers—to vote for him; Mt. Erie Township’s highway commissioner race went to Chris Massie over Steve Bass, 80-27; Orchard Township highway commissioner went to Kevin Greenwalt, 94 votes over Jesse Kidder Jr.’s 52; and Zif Township highway commissioner went to Loren Lee Kauble by one vote over Randall Gill, 26-25.

Geff CCSD 14 school board will be composed of Ken Taylor with 131 votes, Kim Belangee, 115 and Shannon Lambert, 90. Jasper CSD 17 will be Kimberly Liston with 241 votes, Anita Pond, 235, Connie Mitchell, 202, Christopher Otey, 180; Wayne CUSD 100 will be Denise M. Barbee with 503 votes, Andrea Lewis, 453, Karen D. Haile, 355 and Bruce Johnson, 299; Fairfield CSD 112 will be Heidi Hodges, with 1,104 votes, Andrew Miller, 91, Dan Coomer, 871, and Joe DiMaggio, 866.

White County

Another upset occurred in the city of Carmi, where a big mayoral race found the incumbent ousted; the contest assisted a 30.99 percent voter turnout county-wide.

Carmi’s mayor David Port was defeated by challenger, alderman Jeff Pollard, 774-758. Many have wondered if the vote weren’t split by the presence of another contender, Bill Mears, who garnered 466 votes. Nevertheless, Pollard, still espousing bringing a hospital to Carmi (after the previous one folded in 2006, unable to keep up with the illegal immigrant population in White and nearby counties flooding the emergency room as if it were a clinic so they could get free healthcare), appealed to the greater number, and he emerged victorious.

The Carmi city clerk position went to Brian Allen, 887 votes, over Dee Blazier, 787. And a couple of ward races were on the Carmi ballot: Ward 3 re-elected Steve Winkleman, 187 to challenger Doug Redman’s 116; and Keith Davis took 396 votes in Ward 4 to defeat Leon Groves, 307.

In Crossville, Konnie Harrington, apparently having dumped Tony Wolf (father of child sex offender Tyler Wolf from five years ago), was the top vote recipient with 142, followed by Jeff Spencer, 140 and Stephanie Martin, 89, to be seated as village trustees.

Township trustee races were in Carmi Township, where Jeff Bohleber received 1,083 votes, Anthony Huffer, 1,064, David Hall, 971 and Roger Heckler, 847; Emma Township has Terry Frashier with 76 votes, David Delong, 75, Tom Scates was almost thrown out this time with a reduced 61 votes and Anna Baumgart, 59; Enfield Township has Bill Williams at 69 votes, Karen McKinney, 66, Scot Weiss, 61 and Chris Mitchell, 52; and Phillips Township has Cindy Hodgson with 226 votes, Ruth Ridenour, 181, Nicholas Combs, 155 and Terry Oeth, 152.

Other township offices that were contested included Burnt Prairie highway commissioner, which is Alan Williams over Charlie Kempton, 84-52; and Phillips highway commissioner, Denny Coston, 195 to Thomas Murk, 155.

In Grayville, school board votes went to Vanessa Fullop, 128, Charles Turner, 100, and Robert Armstrong, 99.

CLAY CO.—A simple news release issued Friday, April 12, 2013 outlined the very basics of the latest murder case in the region, this coming out of Clay County.

But sources close to the situation with Denny Blanchard and the death of his almost-five-month-son in July of 2012 say there’s a lot more to the story than public officials are telling, even after an eight-month-long investigation by the Department of Children and Family Services and the Illinois State Police.

And what they’re saying all leads back to whether an agency that has no statutory authority in the state—DCFS—has the right or ability to not only get involved in what could very well have been a tragic accident, but to break up a family, call in a law enforcement entity and issue their “opinions” on whether they believe the father is telling the truth about the incident…or whether he’s concocted a cover for himself, something only law enforcement should be allowed to do.

Simple press release

The news release, submitted to local press shortly before 3 p.m. on April 12, stated simply:

“On April 12, 2013, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office received an outstanding warrant for Denny D. Blanchard, 26, Effingham, for 2 Counts of Murder and 2 Counts of Aggravated Battery of a Child. Subsequently to receiving this warrant, Blanchard was arrested by the Illinois State Police and transported to the Clay County Jail. Blanchard’s bond is set at one million dollars. Blanchard is currently incarcerated in the Clay County Jail awaiting his court appearance in Clay County court.”

Attempts to reach Clay County state’s attorney Marilyn Brant were unsuccessful as of that Friday afternoon; and, given that this current issue had a Sunday deadline, the attempts by her office staff to convince Disclosure Brant could “call back Monday” were determined useless in the scheme of things.

What Disclosure was trying to ask Brant is what many in Clay who know Blanchard, and who were aware of the situation last summer—which was aired across social media in full—wanted to know: How could what Blanchard called “an accident” be charged as a homicide and a battery, both charges meaning he acted with intent?

Had surgery

The situation last summer as it was put forth on numerous Facebook pages belonging to those involved goes like this:

Blanchard and his wife Corrinna had had a son, Kamden, in late February 2012. Then Denny Blanchard had had significant surgery on his feet: Insertion of an implant under his ankle bones, along with some replacement of what was reported to be tendons on the back of both legs. This also involved placing seven screws in his right foot and four in his left. All of this left him in a wheelchair for several weeks during his recovery.

Nevertheless, he believed he could care for the infant boy while Corrinna was at work, and so he was left with the baby and in early July 2012 (without the exact charges, which Disclosure did not have due to the absence of Brant and the vagueness of the press release, the exact date was unknown as of press time April 14), claimed to have the baby either in his arms or on his lap while he was in the wheelchair.

For whatever reason, Blanchard is reported to have told authorities, he somehow overturned the wheelchair, and the baby boy, not quite five months old, sustained life-threatening injuries as a result.

Whether the baby merely fell to the floor (from a height that wasn’t too far up, if it was in a standard-sized wheelchair), or was crushed under the wheelchair or his father’s weight, remained unknown as of press time as well.

ISP, DCFS didn’t buy the story?

Whatever the case, Blanchard was able to call his wife at work, and ultimately, the baby was transferred to a hospital in St. Louis, where he died of his injuries on July 13.

Sources close to the Blanchard family tell Disclosure that they were unaware of the exact nature of the injuries, but there was swelling of the brain ordinarily associated with shaken baby syndrome, so DCFS was called in, likely by medical staff who are mandated reporters and who apparently didn’t buy Blanchard’s story of the wheelchair falling over.

DCFS, a middleman group who has no statutory authority in the state (they cannot conduct a forensic [legal] investigation for a criminal case, nor are they an arm of law enforcement, the courts or the judiciary), got involved and reportedly separated the Blanchard parents in an effort to figure out who was telling the truth about what. Corrina Blanchard’s young daughter was reportedly removed from her custody as well while DCFS’ “investigation” was ongoing; and Denny Blanchard of course was not allowed to see his daughter.

Throughout the intervening eight months, the Illinois state police interviewed Blanchard, and ultimately told him in March that DCFS had determined that since he was in a wheelchair, he shouldn’t have had the baby boy in his care.

ISP advised that their investigation, too, was pointing to action on the part of Blanchard for culpability in a crime, not in a tragic accident with a wheelchair.

Interestingly, just days before ISP came to arrest Blanchard, it’s been reported to Disclosure that an alleged pending theft charge against his wife had been dropped; that DCFS was now “out of the picture,” and that Corrinna was going to be allowed to see her daughter “anytime she wanted” and would be “getting her back as soon as she (Corrinna) gets a place.”

Baby’s mom’s input

The arrest was affected on April 12 and Blanchard is now awaiting court appearances.

Corrinna Blanchard reached Disclosure to comment on the case that evening, and stated unequivocally that she “didn’t want to say anything” because she “didn’t want to get herself in trouble.” She alluded to video statements having been given, and admitted that the whole situation is “a big mess.”

There was no indication on her part—nor indeed on the part of anyone thus far involved—of the suspicion that Blanchard actually shook his son, causing brain injuries, then tried to cover it up by the wheelchair-falling-over story.

As more information becomes available, Disclosure will bring it, via either the printed pages, or through disclosurenewsonline.com’s website.

ALBION—As a follow up to the issue currently on stands, we’re providing a copy of the latest development in the drama of the Albion Fire Department resignations.

Apparently, eight of the firefighters, as you will read here in this letter, were misled as regards tendering their resignations, and they have rescinded said resignations and are currently on duty to fight fires within the city and the rural fire protection district. They are joined by Browns Fire Department, which is also one of the best-equipped and well-run fire departments in the area.

Kudos to the eight who stepped forward and have told the truth.

Baby Lillian Jones with her mom, the late Andrea Weiler

FLORA—The two-year-old daughter of Andrea Weiler is in need of items following the death of her mother over the weekend.

Little Lillian Jones was spending a regular visitation weekend with her father, Zeph Jones, in Flora when the accident that took the life of her mother, Andrea Weiler, happened in neighboring Jasper County.

Now, Zeph Jones is a full-time father instead of just every-other-weekend, and friends of his are reporting that he’s in need of some assistance. Jones works construction and things have been slow, so becoming a full-time parent has put a strain on his finances. Friends are in the process of helping him get through this very trying time following the death of his ex, by collecting clothing, items, groceries, etc., for him and for baby Lillian, age 2, until he can get back on his feet.

Currently, the little girl wears 3T clothing and size 8 shoes. She loves princess-type items as well as Strawberry Shortcake-themed items. Besides clothing, she’s in need of socks and pull-up diaper pants. She and her dad are also in need of a potty chair for training. And they are presently in immediate need of extra food and items to get by during the grieving period following Andrea’s death; friends are telling us he’s “a mess” and that the baby is asking for her mommy.

If you can help in any way, contact Erin Workman at 618-676-7283. Erin is organizing the items drive, and can come pick things up from you if you have anything you can donate, or can direct you on where to take items if you have them.

Tyler McQueen, last fall. He was always happy to see Jade, so he was always grinning when he stepped off the elevator.

LAWRENCE CO.—A young man is on trial for murder in Lawrence County beginning tomorrow, April 22, 2013.

Tyler McQueen, 21, was arrested a little over a year ago and charged with the murder of elderly Bob Westall, who was staying at his sister’s apartment a Lawrenceville’s United Methodist Village facility. Westall was found dead in the apartment on the morning of Sunday, March 25, 2012. The investigation lead to McQueen’s arrest about a week later, as well as the arrest of Westall’s niece, Helen Marie Westall. Both have been held since their arrests, unable to post bond on enormous bail. Speculation as to why this whole thing happened has boiled down to this: Authorities state that Helen Marie (who has been described as being “not quite right“) offered McQueen $10,000 cash (ostensibly from an inheritance she’d receive when Bob was gone) and an old car if McQueen would do the deed.

But the question we anticipate will be raised is: DID he do it?

There have been problems right up to the wire with this case, particularly back when former prosecutor Lisa Wade was still in office. Despite the presence of Special Prosecutor Michael Vujovich from the Springfield office, they couldn’t negotiate a plea with McQueen, even after one was scheduled to go down last fall. Right up until the plea, there were scramblings going on in the investigation, including a massive search for what was supposed to be the murder weapon, months after the crime took place. When McQueen withdrew his plea and reissued his demand for a jury trial, things changed considerably. While Vujovich still has the lead in the case, Wade’s no longer in the picture; it’s Chris Quick, new prosecutor in Lawrence, who, unlike Wade, has had experience in serious trials. McQueen’s attorneys, George Woodcock and Bill Hudson, bowed out, and Fairfield’s Matt Vaughn—whom, we hear, is really doing an amazing job at defense—has taken over.

What exactly the defense will be may lie in what the DNA evidence shows. Whether it’s unequivocal or circumstantial remains to be seen. We’re going to bring it all to you with our usual intensive murder trial coverage (John C. Curtis Jr., Terry Payton, Ricky Turner), which will include posts, newsblasts, and evening podcasts. We likely will also be trying out some video if all goes well…so stay glued to the site here, mark your feeds, watch the Facebook page and Twitter for alerts, and you’ll have a front-row seat for this trial in Lawrence County.

LAWRENCEVILLE—It’s been a kind of strange morning for jury selection in the First Degree Murder trial of Tyler McQueen.

McQueen, 21, is the man accused of killing Bob Westall, 78, in the late-night hours of Saturday, March 24, 2012. McQueen is said by authorities to have done the deed at the behest of Westall’s niece, Helen Marie Westall (who is charged with multiple counts of Solicitation to Commit Murder for Hire in the case).

Tyler McQueen’s first mugshot

The jury selection started off typically this morning, with a selection of 14 chosen to sit through voir dire (questioning from the attorneys in the case: for the state, Michael Vujovich of the state’s Special Prosecutor’s office, and Lawrence County State’s Attorney Chris Quick, and for the defense, Matt Vaughn of Fairfield) as is usually the case, with probing questions about whether a person had been through a crime before, had a good or bad opinion of the outcome, had family who had been through such a thing, friends or family in law enforcement, etc.

However, things quickly went downhill when a couple of the potential jurors began issuing their opinions on whether or not they had preconceived notions about McQueen’s guilt or innocence. It started with two gentlemen, and rapidly spread to just about every potential juror on the panel. It actually went as far as to impact the potentials’ presumption of innocence, with many stating openly that they couldn’t hold on to the presumption of innocence (“innocent until proven guilty” as per the Fifth Amendment), stating that they could not or would not be able to keep the presumption through the trial.

This excluded many right off the bat. Through more questioning, it was discovered that several on the panel had known Westall personally and had hard feelings about the case, thus ruling out at least six of the panel definitively. When it was all said and done, only two of the 14 were kept…and the selection was moved to the small courtroom without explanation. And subsequent potential jurors were brought in one by one, not in a group. Whether this was in an effort to avoid a “group think” mentality, as it appeared was going on in the first panel, remains unknown at this time. The two that the court had time to move through the process between 11:30 and lunch were both kept. So four of 14 have been chosen. We could be here doing this until Wednesday…which is what happened a year ago this week in Richland County with the jury trial of Brandon Jenkins.

We reconvene at 1:20, but there’s no telling how late this will go on. Be watching for further updates, and a likely podcast tonight to familiarize you with the case if you don’t already know about it.

LAWRENCE CO.—Sheriff Russell Adams advised today that there are several people out walking the levees tonight in east Lawrence County, as heavy rains up north are causing the Wabash River to rise.

Adams said the Embarrass River isn’t the problem going down through the center of Lawrenceville and to the southeast (although it’s got a backwater problem, with trash-filled water coming up in Kiwanis Park and on both sides of Route 50 outside of town); our rains, while saturating, haven’t been that bad, but what’s happened to the north of us between Illinois and Indiana, and have caused the Wabash to rise steadily, could pose a problem.

So just like in the floods of 2011 and 2008 (the latter of which taught some hard lessons for Lawrence County), volunteers are walking the levees to keep an eye out. Adams told us, at the close of jury selection today for the murder trial of Tyler McQueen, that the volunteers were meeting at 5 p.m. at different points along the levees and fanning out, looking for weak points, the likes of which gave way during the floods two years ago this month and again five years ago in early June.

We drove over to Vincennes and shot the Wabash from the Indiana side. We captured one rhino-type ATV out atop the levee at Westport, but it was unclear whether that was someone in an official or unofficial capacity (for the record, people aren’t supposed to be out on the levees at all if they’re not out there on business; there’s a county ordinance that was passed in 2009 to that effect, and you can get your butt busted over it, just as a reminder…) So we hope that was an official patrol. The water is really high at the Memorial Bridge there between Westport-Vincennes, but so far so good.

Here are the shots we got, beginning with the rhino ATV. We’ll keep you posted if anything else arises from the flooding situation.

The now-infamous four-wheeler

Water almost to the levee

At least it was a pretty sunset

Tyler McQueen, leaving the small courtroom in Lawrence County’s courthouse today, 4.22.13, with Deputy Danny Ash behind him.

LAWRENCE CO.—Here’s a newsblast about the first day of jury selection in the First Degree Murder trial of Tyler McQueen in Lawrenceville, and, by request from previous trials, we will include below the transcript of the newsblast (be watching for updates to the Terry Payton newsblasts as we will be adding transcripts to those as well).

Disclosure NewsMagazine/DisclosureNewsOnline newsblast for Monday, April 22, 2013, day one of the First Degree Murder trial of Tyler McQueen. McQueen is the young man who was living in Mt. Carmel a little over a year ago when, authorities say, he killed 78-year-old Bob Westall at Westall’s sister’s apartment at the United Methodist Village in Lawrenceville, on the night of March 24, 2012. This was allegedly at the behest of Westall’s niece, Helen Marie Westall, who offered McQueen money and a car if he would kill her uncle; Helen Marie is on the witness list and her trial is scheduled to go May 13…but in the meantime, McQueen’s is in jury selection right now, which isn’t going very fast. In fact, at this afternoon’s session of selection, Judge Robert Hopkins made note to the attorneys handling the case of his dismay that only four jurors of 14 had been empaneled so far. This morning’s session had the usual seating of 14—12 jurors and two alternates—but it appeared that the group setting led to problems when it came to a sort of “group mentality,” as it seemed that when one juror expressed an opinion or concern that could keep him or her off the jury, a whole row of jurors expressed the same concern…so that of 14 after nearly two hours, only two were selected. So rather than hold voir dire in groups, Hopkins opted to take it to the small courtroom, and one potential juror at a time was questioned. While this took significantly longer, it was successful in weeding out those who had real problems with serving on a jury, and ultimately, four women were selected at the end of the day, about 4:30.

Among questions the potential jurors are being asked, some focus on graphic autopsy photos of the stabbed Bob Westall, but many focus on the presumption of innocence until the state could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that McQueen is guilty. Sadly, a number of people in the first panel told attorneys that they could not remain fair and impartial, and had already made up their minds on the matter. The case has had a fair amount of media coverage, but apparently nothing like what’s getting geared up for when the matter actually begins with testimony…something that’s expected to occur perhaps Wednesday afternoon, and which will run not only the rest of this week, but well into next week as well, with 68 people listed as witnesses on either the state’s or defense’s case. The people are being represented by Lawrence prosecutor Chris Quick and special prosecutor Mike Vujovich; the defense has Fairfield attorney Matt Vaughn in its corner; and all seem to be doing a great job so far. Be checking the website frequently for updates as this trial progresses.

WAYNE CO.—The Illinois State Police worked a traffic accident today at Illinois 15 and Wayne County Road 1625 East (aka Petroleum Boulevard), Fairfield; here are the details:

At 4:29 p.m. this afternoon (April 22, 2013), a collision occurred on Petroleum Blvd. and IL 15 involving a silver Yamaha motorcycle operated by Chester R. Totten, 40, of Fairfield, traveling westbound on 15 approaching Petroleum Blvd., and a red Chevy pickup, being driven by Robbie L. Bullard, 46, of Fairfield.

Bullard was northbound on Petroleum Blvd; after crossing the eastbound lanes of 15, Bullard approached the yield intersection at 15 westbound. He reported he didn’t see the approaching motorcycle and began to cross the westbound lanes of 15. His truck traveled into the path of the motorcycle and the cycle struck the passenger side of the pickup.

Totten sustained major injuries in the crash and was initially transported by the Wayne County Ambulance Service to Fairfield Memorial Hospital. He was later airlifted to St. Mary’s HOspital in Evansville. Bullard wasn’t injured in the crash.

Bullard was cited for Failure to Yield at a Yield intersection and Failure to Wear Seat Belt. The state police continue to investigate the accident.

OLNEY—At the Olney City Council last night (04.22.13), town pest Brian James O’Neill didn’t make any more sense than usual, but his topics are getting more ridiculous. See for yourself:

Note how everybody on the council is ignoring him. If only someone would lock him up for his own good. (And for the record, we’ve never said he has a disability. We’ve said he’s evil, and stupid, and should be shut down.)

LAWRENCE CO.—Here’s your newsblast of day two of the First Degree Murder trial of Tyler McQueen, followed by transcript below:

McQueen is the young man who was living in Mt. Carmel a little over a year ago when, authorities say, he killed 78-year-old Bob Westall at Westall’s sister’s apartment at the United Methodist Village in Lawrenceville, on the night of March 24, 2012.

Jury selection started off slow this morning, with both the large and small courtrooms being occupied, one with court appearances and the other with today’s jury panel.

In an effort to continue to move the process forward, Judge Robert Hopkins took the remainder of yesterday’s holdovers into the jury room where there was not enough room for media and conducted interviews there.

Judge Hopkins has assured the public will know if any jurors are selected from that brief interview process.

At the close of yesterday’s questioning of potential jurors 4 of 14 were selected.

Thus far today 6 prospective jurors have been interviewed, with only 2 being dismissed.

The defense is being lead by Wayne County attorney Matt Vaughan while the prosecution is being lead by state’s attorney Chris Quick and appellate prosecutor Michael Vujovich.

Quick has opted to let Vujovich handle the questioning of prospective jurors thus far and Vaughan has done well holding his own for the defense.

One interesting note:…. with as much distain as Disclosure has had for the likes of appellate prosecutor David Rands for the better part of a decade, thus far Vujovich has proven to be professional and tenacious with a knack for cutting through the legalese crap so often confusing to prospective jurors.

Court broke for lunch at approximately 12:15 and is expected back to continue the jury selection process at 1:15.

LAWRENCE CO.—A fire earlier this morning has claimed the life of a Sumner-area boy.

According to sources in Sumner, a fire broke out at about 4 a.m. at a location known as the “old Noble Webster place” approximately five miles south of Sumner and east off the Sumner-Lancaster blacktop about a mile. Residing there were Noble Webster’s son Matt and his family. The house has been described by all sources this morning as “not in very good shape” with old electrical wiring, and that it had experienced a fire before, so speculation has it that that was the likely start of the fire.

Apparently there was no telephone at the location, so when the family became aware of the fire, official sources tell us Matt Webster left to go to a neighbor’s to call it in. Our initial sources advised that he apparently believed his family was out of the house; conflicting reports have it that he did not leave to call from a neighbor’s (this according to bad-tempered family members, who remain evidently confused about what happened, as they have given conflicting reports to us by phone). As it turned out, his wife Shelly was already at work so she wasn’t in the house; their 14-year-old daughter was already out. Their 11-year-old son Parker, however, had not escaped, and family says Webster tried to get Parker out but to no avail. It’s been reported to us that a fireman attempted to enter the house as well, but the flames were too intense; the house was a total loss, and Parker perished in the fire.

Donations for the family are being accepted at the Free Methodist Church in Sumner at 602 Dubois (corner of West Cherry and Dubois). We have a few sizes needed: for the daughter and mother, size 6 pants, size 9 1/2 shoes, and L-XL shirts; for the father, 34 X 30 pants, size large shirts, size 10 shoes, and of course household items. It’s unclear where the Websters are being housed currently.

Sadly, our sources are telling us that there’s a long-distance relationship between the Websters and the family who experienced a tragic fire four years ago, the Fletchers up in Chauncey. Matt Webster’s brother Mark, we’re told, was married to a sister of Rhonda Littlejohn Fletcher at one point, Mary Littlejohn. Regular readers will recall that the Fletcher fire killed Rhonda and three of her children, including an infant son, in early 2009, so sadly, now cousins have perished in a similar manner.

The Illinois State Fire Marshal has been called to investigate the Webster fire as a matter of course; when we learn more, we’ll pass it along.

LAWRENCE CO.—Here’s your newsblast for the day’s end portion of day 2, Tyler McQueen murder trial in Lawrence County.

Defense attorney for Tyler McQueen, Matt Vaughn of Fairfield, who has tried a number of high-profile cases including murder cases such as this one.

We have just wrapped up our second day of jury selection in the Tyler McQueen murder trial.

McQueen is charged with three counts of First Degree Murder in the March 24, 2012 stabbing death of 78-year-old Bob Westall in Westall’s sister’s apartment in United Methodist Village in Lawrenceville.

After interviewing 14 potential jurors today, four were actually selected to be on the jury, one man and three women.

Of the 14, seven were released by agreement and one during a challenge by defense attorney Matt Vaughn of Wayne County.

Reasons for releasing the seven ranged from an area farmer who said he would need to get into his fields if the weather cooperated to one man who said he knew the Westall family, went to school with one of Westall’s sons and would have a problem with a murder case, and even to a woman who said she was originally from Chicago and said: “You don’t take jury duty up there. Someone could get out and you could get hurt.”

The juror who was released on the challenge by defense attorney Vaughn was a female who testified that she knew Bob Westall and that her mother was friends with some of the first people on the scene following his death.

The four selected to be on the jury at the end of today’s interviews included two from yesterday’s list.

We now have eight of the 12 jurors selected and need another six, including two alternates to complete the field.

There are three prospective jurors remaining from today’s interviews who will be considered in the first group tomorrow when the attorneys on both sides weed out their final selections after lunch.

Judge Robert Hopkins has made it clear he expects to seat a jury sometime after lunch tomorrow.

The trial could begin in earnest with opening arguments early as tomorrow afternoon.

LAWRENCE CO.—Apparently the flood threat has gotten significant in Lawrence County.

According to Lawrence County Sheriff Russell Adams, due to rising flood waters, voluntary evacuations began last night, April 23, 2013, at 5 p.m. in the northeast part of the county in the Russellville and Lake Lawrence areas.

Adams told Disclosure he is receiving updates on the situation every couple of hours throughout the day.

Check back here and at the Facebook page for the latest updates.

The flooding as of Monday, 04.22.13, from the Vincennes side

LAWRENCE CO.–According to authorities, due to high water, part of Illinois Rte. 33 has been closed from Heathsville to West Port until further notice. Lawrence County Sheriff Russell Adams said he is receiving frequent updates on the conditions. Activity in the area includes moving semi trailers being brought in and frequent checks by all terrain vehicles.

LAWRENCE CO.—Here’s your newsblast, with transcript following, of today’s afternoon events in the jury selection of the murder trial of Tyler McQueen in Lawrence County.

Tyler McQueen, exiting the courtroom

McQueen, 21, is charged with three counts of first degree murder in the March 24, 2012 stabbing death of 78-year-old Bob Westall in Westall’s sister’s apartment in United Methodist Village in Lawrenceville.

At the end of THIS, the third day of jury selection, both the prosecution, represented by Lawrence County State’s Attorney Chris Quick and special prosecutor Michael Vujovich, and the defense represented by Fairfield attorney Matt Vaughn, have selected the panel of 12 who will hear the evidence and ultimately deliberate on the fate of young Mr. McQueen.

Now the task of the attorneys is to select at least two but possibly as many as four alternates who will fill in should one or more of the selected jurors be unable to continue. There has been some speculation that the common practice of two alternates is being bumped to four because of concerns over flood conditions in the area

It is nearly a certainty that opening statements will begin tomorrow and if that happens, the first witness could very well take the stand for the prosecution sometime after lunch.

Court is scheduled to resume tomorrow morning at 9 a.m.

LAWRENCE CO.—Here’s your newsblast to keep you updated on the latest development in the McQueen trial; looks like we’ll get a long-weekend break:

Lawrence County State’s Attorney Chris Quick, left, takes a brief moment with Judge Robert Hopkins to look over a document, more than likely a list of prospective jurors, outside the courtroom during jury selection Monday.

Disclosure NewsMagazine/DisclosureNewsOnline Thursday, April 25, 2013 morning news blast coverage of the murder trial of Tyler McQueen.

Sources close to the case have confirmed that the much anticipated beginning of the trial will have to wait another three days.

Disclosure was told that attorneys Chris Quick and Mike Vujovich for the prosecution and defense attorney Matt Vaughn have agreed to select the remaining three alternate juror today and then recess until Monday morning at which time opening arguments will take place and testimony will begin.

Jury selection has not been an easy task for either side with both McQueen and the victim in the case 78-year-old Robert Westall being fairly well known in the community.

The first panel of prospective jurors on Monday appeared to be suffering from what some jury selection watchers call “Herd Mentality” in which those not really wanting to be on the jury could hear and then mimic the response from others who were excused.

Judge Robert Hopkins and attorneys then switched the questioning process to focus one prospective juror at a time which, although it created a space issue when it came to keeping one panel of prospective jurors and hold overs from the day before separate, arguably sped things up considerably.

At the end of yesterday’s questioning 12 jurors and one alternate had been selected leaving three alternates to be chosen today.

Sources indicate that the usual two alternates have been bumped to four due to the complexity of the case and out of concern for rising flood waters and what effect, if any, it may have on jurors ability to get to the courthouse.

“It is merely out of an over abundance of caution,” said one source.

McQueen, 21, is charged with three counts of first degree murder in the March 24, 2012 stabbing death Westall in Westall’s sisters apartment in United Methodist Village in Lawrenceville.

Again, sources have confirmed that the jury selection will wrap up today but that opening arguments and testimony in the Tyler McQueen murder trial will not begin until Monday morning.

Keep checking this page and our website for the latest updates and further coverage.

This has been Jack Howser with a Disclosure NewsMagazine/Disclosure NewsOnline Newsblast.

McQueen murder trial set to recess today with testimony beginning Monday

LAWRENCE CO.—Here’s your newsblast for the morning session of Day 4 of jury selection in the murder trial of Tyler McQueen in Lawrenceville:

Lawrence County prosecutor Chris Quick

Disclosure NewsMagazine/DisclosureNewsOnline Thursday, April 25, 2013 news blast coverage of the murder trial of Tyler McQueen.

McQueen, 21, is charged with three counts of first degree murder in the March 24, 2012 stabbing death of 78-year-old Bob Westall in Westall’s sister’s apartment in United Methodist Village in Lawrenceville.

With only three alternate jurors to be selected, out of six questioned only one has been chosen.

This morning’s questioning was punctuated by one young woman sobbing uncontrollably even as she entered the courtroom and could barely speak once she got on the stand.

Judge Robert Hopkins asked if something had happened and she said no.

He asked if there was some kind of a personal problem and she said no.

And finally he asked if it was the nature of this case… being one of First Degree Murder, to which she shook her head and said, barely understandable through tears, yes.

Neither the defense nor the prosecution had any objections to the young woman being dismissed.

Then just before lunch break another woman, who was nearly through with questioning, broke down and began crying on the stand saying, “I don’t know if I can do this.”

She too was dismissed without objection.

In this very emotionally-charged case, of the six prospective alternate jurors, the state and defense both exercised their right to exempt one potential alternate, two were dismissed after crying on the stand and one man was excused after he said he didn’t feel he could be impartial.

Court is expected to resume at 1:20 as both sides struggle to pick the remaining two alternate jurors.

There have been some grumblings jury selection may run into tomorrow, but that is highly unlikely.

Unless selection runs into tomorrow, Judge Robert Hopkins is giving both sides Friday off for final preparations of their cases with opening arguments and testimony expected to begin Monday morning.

Keep checking here and on the website for the latest updates.