Monday, February 27, 2012

Fight story edited without comment

The Woodstock Police released information to the press, and the Northwest Herald quickly published, about police calls to a Woodstock apartment early Sunday morning. And then, early Monday morning, the Northwest Herald revised the story and removed details. What's up?

About 3:00AM today the online story reported that a 23-year-old woman, identified by name as the renter of Apartment 1 at 436 Washington St., Woodstock, reportedly answered the door when police arrived on a loud music complaint at 2:45AM Sunday. The story said she told police that the music would be turned down.

Shortly after that, Woodstock police returned and she told police that the visitors would be leaving. And, a few minutes after that, police returned again and, upon over-hearing conversation that someone was seriously injured, they entered ("forced their way into", according to the article) the apartment and found three injured men.

One arrest was made, and seventeen people, including three minor girls (hello.... curfew violation??? Oh, wait; they were with adults... duh....) were transported to Woodstock PD and later released without charges.

Investigation continues. Will charges follow?

Police Chief Robert Lowen was quoted in the early-morning online article before it was sanitized. Why was his comment removed?

Now, be calm, everyone. We all know there is no gang activity in Woodstock. Just because the most seriously-injured man is a documented gang member. So, who pounded on him enough to require a ride to the hospital and a Flight-for-Life ride to a second hospital? Does he have insurance or money to pay for that?

More importantly, why did the Northwest Herald replace story content without any comment about correction or revision? Normally, it updates stories but does not totally change content without saying so.

Did anyone else read the same online version earlier this morning?

Thanks to the Woodstock Police for quickly releasing information to the press.

2 comments:

Franker said...

I believe one name I read in the article was Omar Manriquez. Do me a favor and look him up in the McHenry County Circuit Clerks Office Case information and you'll see what types of crimes he has committed and if you search on-line you'll notice he was involved with shootings in Woodstock. He's a real peach!!!

Gus said...

Anyone who is interested in the McHenry County court system record of criminal history can go to www.mchenrycircuitclerk.org

Click on Case Information Search, then By Party Name. Hint: you don't have to spell out the entire name. In fact, doing so will eliminate some pertinent results, if the name is misspelled in the online court record.