RICKY WHITE
RICHLAND CO., Ill. - For all the hand-wringing glee fans of the increasingly-more-repulsive ISP "special agent" Rick White might be going through with the fact that HE made public yesterday (despite the fact that the decision was by that time a week old) on HIS media buddies' radio station, the whole matter hasn't been disclosed...and it's not quite what everybody's making it out to be.
The mascot for the Rick White Fan Club
Contrary to the comments of the ill-informed, White was not "found not guilty" in the recent case against him filed in June after the indictment of same, issued in late January, was returned. White instead a little over a week ago had a charge of Perjury against him dismissed by the prosecutor in Richland County, Brad Vaughn, for very specific reasons, which reasons haven't been disseminated by the mainstream press because frankly, it's too complicated for them to understand and issue a statement on in a few words.
And because they've TRIED to boil down this very complicated matter to just a few words, the plebes just aren't getting it.
We'll try to keep it as simple as possible here, but since we're the only media who has covered this matter since the outset, your best bet is to use our search field for Rick White, which can be found at this link.
White began targeting certain former ISP employees, particularly, former supervisors of his, namely, two: Jim Hinkle and Kelly Henby, in 2010. He used others at ISP, including Greg Hanisch, to try to get us to help in the targeting, early 2011. Being that we smelled a rat, we opted to check with all parties before proceeding, and stumbled upon the truth of the matter in that way. Hanisch was reprimanded for his part in it (for contacting media about an ISP matter that wasn't public yet); White was not.
Kelly Henby
Henby, who was working for a downstate private investigator at the time, was called upon to assist Hinkle in getting to the truth of the matter of the sex abuse allegations. Before Henby interviewed the child - Hinkle's stepdaughter - the girl had already confessed to a police officer in Charleston, Illinois, that she'd made up the entire thing. In the process of his questioning of the child, Henby became a target of White who was busy nitpicking the whole thing (because his case against Hinkle was down the tubes with the child now telling the truth), and White saw that Henby's employer had placed wording wrong on Henby's business card, calling him a "private detective," which he was not; he was just an employee of the detective agency. But Henby was reported to the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation, and a complaint was made, as well as a charge in Coles County.
Jim Hinkle, former Wayne County Sheriff
Hinkle filed a federal lawsuit against White for what the pissy little agent did to him (falsely accusing him of being a child molester, and allowing others outside of ISP to hear him say it, which harmed Hinkle's reputation in Wayne County); Henby got fed up with White following both him and his wife Donna around and in early 2013, ultimately filed a civil Stalking/No-Contact Order against White in Richland County.
Depositions were taken in Hinkle's case. Then in Henby's case in February 2013, White was called to the stand to explain why he was allegedly stalking Henby. Within minutes, White gave a different answer to a question than he'd given in his deposition in Hinkle's case. From that, the perjury allegation stemmed, because you can't lie in a deposition, and you can't lie on the stand under oath. Henby lost the OP in early 2013 because he couldn't cite two separate instances of White stalking him (this according to the judge; we were there, and he clearly cited several). So Henby took it to the appeals court.
The appellate court made a decision on the matter a few weeks ago, and upheld the local court's decision - there were not two instances clearly delineated/cited of White stalking Henby; only one. But because the local case of Perjury against White was based in large part on that OP case, the prosecutor, Brad Vaughn, was now faced with a problem...and he needed to validate what he was stating against White in the charge with everything that lead up to it. Adding to that distinctive problem was the fact that ISP had refused to provide documentation on the reports of complaint against White when Vaughn's predecessor, David Hyde, had been requesting them. And in failing to provide that information, that lead to what Vaughn's calling a "materiality" issue: Were the complaints made against White by others in the past the same "material" issues as raised in the deposition/stalking-no contact order..? In other words, is there a pattern of "materiality" in Rick White lying under oath/on the stand?
Had Vaughn been able to see all these requested documents, he might have been able to follow through with the charge, which went from an indictment to an information (a complaint signed by Henby) back in June (and which the Rick White fan club spun as "dismissed," which is hilarious, actually, because NOW they're saying "dismissed" as well...there weren't two dismissals, RWFC.) But because ISP wouldn't provide EVERYTHING requested, he didn't have any choice, and so, he dismissed the charge on information, on September 13. We didn't know anything about it, however, until yesterday (Sept. 23), when the RWFC piped up and began trying to post crappy things on our Facebook page (they can't; all outside posts are moderated, and this is why). Naturally, they're misled. They're proclaiming he was "found not guilty" and all that garbage. That's highly inaccurate. The charge was dismissed. Not because White didn't lie on the stand...but because in the course of collecting stuff for the prosecution on information, ISP wouldn't cough up what the state needed in order to substantiate materiality (ie: whether the lie White told in either the dep or in the stalking hearing was "material" to the whole matter), and Vaughn in turn couldn't make a case on it.
Neat, huh?
If every crim out there charged with a crime had a state agency stonewalling the prosecution like this, nobody would be charged with anything; a prosecutor would have nothing to go on, ultimately. But no one gets this preferential treatment except one of their own. And ISP must've done some shucking and jiving...because there are many, many other cases in Zone 7 investigations in which White has either told blatant lies in the course of the investigative process, lied on the stand, or lied as a follow up in order to cover up after the fact. And this case would likely have been the beginning of those complaints; but now, people who fear the unbridled power ISP has gained over the past ten or so years (since the federalization of the police has been being pushed toward reality) won't speak out. All because one low-functioning, foul-mouthed, narcissist, instead of being the beginning of the topple, was upheld by his employers and justice was stymied by their interference.
Many, many people have suffered because of Rick White. Among that number, we discovered earlier this year, was us. We know that by writing the truth about this, we effectively paint a target on our backs. We know the risks; but we're not going to sugar-coat anything. We don't owe Rick White an apology, like one whiner said; we don't take back anything we've published about it. Rick White is a problem. There's something seriously wrong with him. And in turn, there's something seriously wrong with the state police and everyone who covered for him.
And when that happens, there IS no justice, and we are all sunk.