Beth Bentley - now it's 51 weeks she has been gone

In last Thursday’s Daily Herald the Round Lake Park police explained the details surrounding the death of Melissa Best, 34, a town resident who disappeared on a Friday and whose body was found ten days later in her vehicle in an apartment community’s parking lot.

The full story is at http://dailyherald.com/article/20110512/news/705129897/

Best had driven to the Waukegan motel residence of her brother-in-law and his wife, who allegedly gave Best heroin that she injected into an arm. Best died of morphine intoxication. Round Lake Park Police Chief George Filenko said that morphine intoxication would be consistent for someone who used heroin.

Melissa Best’s brother-in-law, Charles Best, and his wife, Sherry, have been arrested and charged with concealing a homicide.

Why is all this important in Woodstock? There have been rumors of drug use floating around in regard to Beth Bentley’s disappearance. Let’s say she OD’ed right here in Woodstock and never left Woodstock on Thursday night. Where is her body?

In Gary, Indiana, a boy’s body was recently found in concrete poured in a carport.

Or let’s say she did make it to Mount Vernon and died during some partying there. Again, where’s the body?

Concealment of a homicide is a felony. Somebody knows what happened to Beth. Should he (or she) decide to try to save his (her) own neck? Eventually someone is going to say what happened. Are there some who have heard what happened but who weren’t directly involved? Could they be charged with conspiracy to conceal a death?

Where's the outrage?

Friday morning a truck driver drove around the lowered crossing gates and into the path of an inbound Metra train. No doubt numerous Woodstock residents were on the train. Only the truck driver was killed.

Supposedly 59-year-old truck driver Kazimierz Karasek had racked up more than 50 traffic violations, including a DUI arrest. And supposedly he had a valid driver's license. Why?!!!

A truck driver has to have a CDL - Commercial Driver's License. It's harder to get than a "regular" driver's license, and it's harder to keep. Drivers convicted of traffic violations can lose their CDL's.

How did Karasek happen to have his license after 50 violations?

Wouldn't it be interesting to see a spreadsheet of his driving history? Dates? Locations? Type of Violation? Court outcome? Fines, court costs, fees. Any supervision? How many violations did he have that never got reported to the Secretary of State? Who were the judges in the traffic courts? Did he have a lawyer? More than one?

When are judges going to start hammering repeat violators?

ABC TV-7 carried a story about the "many violations" but wimped out in terms of listing them. ABC-TV also revealed that the Metra crossing involved in Friday's crash has been the site of many other crashes. Regardless of sight-lines, if the gates are down and bells & lights are flashing, you have to be just plain stupid to drive across the tracks. If you have to stop and block traffic, so be it. But to drive around gates and across tracks? Not a good idea!

Spring Grove P.D. application racket

The Spring Grove (Ill.) Police Department for a full-time police officer. The ad is running right now in local papers. Minimum age is 21 (by 6/4/2011) with educational requirements of a high school diploma or G.E.D., 60 college credit hours or an associate's degree, be a U.S. citizen and have a valid driver's license.

Oh, and you have to have $25. The P.D. requires a $25 non-refundable fee to receive an application.

They don't say how many officers they plan to hire. To charge $25 for an application is a racket, pure and simple. An application and an instruction sheet might require two pieces of paper. At a dime a copy, that's 20¢. To mail it out, add 44¢. And, say, 5¢ for an envelope. If they wanted to save that 49¢, they could ask interested parties to send in a stamped, self-addressed envelope for an application.

They are going to hire, probably, one officer or maybe just create an eligibility list for a future hire. How many applications might they get? 300? 400? Why should they rake in $7,500-10,000 just for mailing out application forms?

Do they really need to test hundreds to fill one $41,500/year position?

Years ago I was interested in a job as executive director of a Chamber of Commerce in eastern Oregon. I was asked if I would pay my own expenses to get there from Kansas City for an interview. I asked how many candidates they expected to interview. "About ten," was the answer. I suggested they ask candidates to "interview" by videotape and answer a set of questions. If I were one of two candidates to make the cut, then I might have considered footing the bill for an interview.

Jack Franks supports concealed carry

Rep. Jack Franks became a co-sponsor of, and voted for, HB 0148 a week ago, when the bill (to allow concealed carry of loaded guns) came up in the Illinois House of Representatives for a vote.

To read Jack's letter to constituents, click on the letter to enlarge it. Then click on the Back button on your browser to come back here. You may have received a copy of this letter by email from Jack's office. Although I've been in contact with Jack's office for more than five years about concealed carry, I did not; I got my copy at this month's meeting of the McHenry County Right to Carry Association (MCR2CA).

The next meeting of the MCR2CA will be Thursday, June 9, at 7:00PM at the Woodstock VFW. Meetings are the second Thursday of the month. Please join us. Women, young adults and students are especially invited.

Although the bill was pulled for future consideration, it's not DOA. Sixty-five Representatives voted for it. The goal was 71 votes, to make it bullet-proof against home-rule city tampering and Gov. Quinn's promised veto.

Prof. John Lott's book offers many statistical reasons for concealed carry. It's not the easiest read, but the title says it all, and then backs it up. More Guns, Less Crime.

Suzanne Gratia Hupp's book, From Luby's to the Legislature, offers the emotional reason for concealed carry. Her parents, along with 20 other customers, were gunned down in a Luby's restaurant in Texas in 1991. She was a trained marksman, but her gun, in accordance with Texas law at the time, was in her car, not in her purse.

Like to borrow either book? Just contact me. There is a one-week check-out (from "Gus's Library"), plus a deposit equal to the price of a new copy (just in case you don't return it on time).

Illinois sued over gun ban

From a press release of the National Rifle Association. ISRA is the Illinois State Rifle Association. Some people think that the Illinois legislators who are blocking concealed carry (or open carry) ought to be sued. I wonder if that's next.

NRA & ISRA File Suit Against Illinois' Ban on Carrying Firearms for Self-Defense

Fairfax, Va. -- The National Rifle Association is funding and supporting a lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of Illinois' complete and total ban on carrying firearms for self-defense outside the home. The case, filed today in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, is Shepard v. Madigan. The lead plaintiff is church treasurer Mary Shepard; joining her as co-plaintiff is the Illinois State Rifle Association, the NRA's state affiliate. Mary Shepard is an Illinois resident and a trained gun owner with no criminal record, who is licensed to carry a concealed handgun in two other states. Because Illinois remains the only state that completely prohibits all law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms for self-defense outside the home, Mary Shepard also became a crime victim. While working as the treasurer of her church, Mrs. Shepard and an 83-year-old co-worker were viciously attacked and beaten by a six-foot-three-inch, 245-pound man with a violent past and a criminal record. Mrs. Shepard and her co-worker were lucky to survive, as each of them suffered major injuries to the head, neck and upper body. Mrs. Shepard's injuries required extensive surgery and physical therapy. "Mary Shepard isn't just a victim of the violent criminal who attacked her," said Chris W. Cox, executive director of NRA's Institute for Legislative Action. "She is also a victim of anti self-defense activists in the Illinois legislature who have consistently refused to recognize that good people have the right to protect themselves when they go about their everyday business. We're pleased that the legislature has come closer this year than ever before to changing the law, but close isn't good enough for Mary Shepard and the thousands of other Illinois residents who are prohibited by statute from defending themselves outside the home." Because Illinois statutes prohibit the right to keep and bear arms and the ability to carry handguns in Illinois, they infringe on the right of the people, including Mrs. Shepard, members of the ISRA and other law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and are thus null and void. Cox concluded: "In its historic Heller and McDonald decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court made clear that the Second Amendment protects a fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms. Mary Shepard's story highlights the need for law-abiding citizens to be able to fully exercise their Second Amendment rights. Whether through the legislature or through the courts, we won't rest until that happens."

75 cases (tickets) dwindle to 2

Last Tuesday Judge Condon arranged for the clerks in the courthouse to breathe a great sigh of relief, when he disposed of most of the 75 charges filed against Seth Pedersen from last September's chase. Remember that one? Wauconda Police apparently asked Island Lake Police to stop a driver who may have been at his ex-wife's house.

An Island Lake officer stopped Pedersen, but Pedersen drove away and the Island Lake cop gave chase. The cop later said he had chased Pedersen at 70MPH through a couple of "active" school zones (meaning, during school hours) and all the way to McCullom Lake before getting him stopped.

Originally reported as 55 tickets, the list grew to 75 cases. Probably the clerks were complaining about tired fingers, carpal tunnel and broken fingernails from having to update cases after many continuances (some of the cases had already been closed), and Judge Condon nolle prossed all the remaining charges but two on May 10. He held a 402 Conference, and Pedersen will be back in court on July 8 for sentencing on only two charges: Aggravated fleeing from police (21MPH over) and Aggravated DUI.

What types of charges were dropped? Improper passing on the left, including in no-passing zones; speeding 26-30 and 40 over the limit; reckless driving; DUI; transporting alcohol; uninsured vehicle; fleeing or attempting to elude; and disregarding stop signs and traffic signals.

Tickets were issued in the following jurisdictions (and dropped): Island Lake, Algonquin, Prairie Grove and McCullom Lake.

Were there any "lessons learned" at the Island Lake P.D.? Several officers have told me that chase should have been abandoned. The driver was known to police. The pursuing officer should have backed off and shut down his emergency equipment. Students and other drivers were lucky - very lucky - not to be involved in a serious crash.

Who shot down the right-to-carry bill?

On May 5, 2010, the Illinois House of Representatives voted on HB 0148. The vote was 65-52-1, and the bill was pulled for future consideration in order to avoid being flushed down the drain completely. Pulling it meant the vote wasn't recorded - officially. But you can see a photo of the vote board on this blog and in other places on the web. The goal was 71 votes, to prevent tampering by home-rule cities and a veto by Gov. Quinn.

What’s interesting is the following:

Three Republicans voted against the bill.

Fifty Democrats voted against it.

Of the 53 House Districts voting against the bill, only nine (9) were not in Cook County! Forty-three (43) Representatives – from Cook County – voted against this bill.

More Whites voted against this bill than all other races combined.

The NO vote was divided almost evenly between men and women in the House.

The vast majority of NO votes came from those who became Representatives since 2000.

Illinois legislators are, for the most part, a pretty well educated bunch – on paper. What I wonder is why, when 48 other states trust their law-abiding citizens to use firearms responsibility, do they stick their heads in the sand and fall back on “We don’t want the Wild, Wild West here.” What? They’d rather have men, women and kids being killed almost every day in Chicago? In Cook County?

It’s the elected representatives of the people who are being killed who are preventing the passage of this bill.

Retiring Mayor Richard Daley is apparently afraid to live in his own city without armed police protection. He wants three police officers assigned to him for his safety after he retires. What’s that going to cost? $300,000 or more a year? If he lives 20 years, that’s $6,000,000 (without adjustment for increases). Gee, now who would want to harm Daley? But he wants the protection (and he’ll probably get it).

Did Daley, Emanuel and Madigan put the screws to the legislators to prevent them from representing their own voters? How did they do that? House Representatives should not be controlled by the Democratic bloc in Chicago politics, but it sure looks like they were. And are. Or is it “only” a coincidence?