State Briefs: 11/03/07 and weekend

Seeking ID for body

ROCKFORD - Winnebago County Sheriff's deputies are still trying to identify a woman wearing pink fingernail polish and a cheetah-print blouse who was found dead alongside a secluded Winnebago County road early this morning.

She's white, wearing green Route 66 jeans, a matching green belt with a brass buckle and about 40 years old, police said. Authorities say she could be the county's sixth homicide victim of the year.

Her body was spotted by passing motorists about 5:45 a.m. in a patch of grass along the 6100 block of Valley Trail Road, Deputy Chief Dominic Iasparro said.

"There's trauma to her body," he said. "It appears as though she's a victim of a murder." An autopsy this afternoon should reveal more information about the woman and how she died.

Neighbors in homes, which are tucked away from the road, said they heard nothing out of the ordinary this morning, until sheriff's deputies knocked on their doors and told them of the finding.

They said the neighborhood, near the Blackhawk Valley campground, is normally a peaceful place where residents keep to themselves.

Cop facing charges resigns

BLOOMINGTON - A Bloomington police sergeant accused of raping four women

and stalking a fifth resigned from the department this week after

spending more than a year in jail while still collecting his $81,000

salary.

Jeff Pelo submitted his resignation in a letter to the city of

Bloomington earlier this week, according to Emily Bell, the city's human

resources director.

Bell declined to elaborate on the exact date the letter was received or

its contents. The Bloomington Police Department, through spokesman Duane

Moss, also declined to comment.

Pelo was arrested in June 2006 for allegedly stalking and trying to

break into a Bloomington woman's home. He later was charged with nearly

three dozen counts related to the rapes of four women between December

2002 and January 2005.

He has been on paid administrative leave from the Bloomington Police

Department for more than a year, collecting his $81,000 salary while

behind bars on $1 million bond.

Pelo has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him and is

tentatively scheduled for a jury trial in January.

Jack Daniel statue stolen by bar patrons

PEORIA - Police have narrowed the time that someone stole a 6-foot

fiberglass statue of legendary Tennessee whiskey-maker Jack Daniel from

inside the front doors of a downtown bar.

It happened between 11:06 p.m. on October 14 to 11:07 p.m., one minute

later.

The precision of the timing is because the theft was recorded by

security cameras inside Sully's Restaurant and Pub at 119 SW Adams

Street. The theft two weeks ago was reported to police Wednesday by pub

manager Keith Weinstein.

The security cameras recorded an unknown male wrapping his arms around

the statue "as if he was seeing how much it weighed," according to the

police report. The man went back to his table at Sully's and rejoined

three drinking companions.

A couple of minutes later, the man returned to the statue, picked it up

and walked out the front door with it, followed by a man from the table.

The two returned to the bar in a few minutes, without Jack Daniel, and

continued drinking. The man who walked out behind the man with the

statue later paid his bar bill with a credit card.

Police are looking for the man with the credit card in connection with

the theft.

The statue was described as a 6-foot fiberglass rendering of Jack

Daniel, dressed in Civil War-era clothing with a blue hat and a red

beard.

Weinstein said the bar had displayed the statue of the venerable

distiller of Tennessee sipping whiskey for about three years. He did not

know its value but estimated it at about $1,000.

Plans for Lincoln Land

ROCKFORD - Work should begin in the spring to spruce up a swath of land once owned by Abraham Lincoln that now belongs to a local businessman.

Dan Arnold, owner of the Road Ranger chain of convenience stores, bought the four-acre farm near Lerna for $1.25 million. He wants to use the property to help charities, promote Lincoln's character virtues and bring people and tourist dollars to the state.

First, though, some housekeeping. Arnold said he will renovate and restore a cabin on the land. He's talking to several restoration companies about the project, which he anticipates will take most of 2008.

He's aiming to have the work done by February 2009, in time for the celebration of Lincoln's 200th birthday.

County yanks license of late-hours bar

ILLIOPOLIS - JD's Lounge may have seen its last party - and its last fight.

Citing 17 reports of fights, disturbances, weapon violations, mob action and various

other alleged crimes at the bar, Sangamon County Liquor Control Commissioner Ted

Buecker on Wednesday ordered JD's immediately closed and yanked its liquor license.

The bar's owners will get a chance to argue for re-opening at a hearing scheduled

for Tuesday. But owner Donyal Banning said she's not sure she will even bring a

lawyer.

"I don't know whether I'm going to call him in on this or not," Banning said.

The county closed down JD's, which had been open only on Friday and Saturday nights

from 9 p.m. until 3 a.m., one day after Illinois State Police trooper Brian McMillen

was buried. McMillen lost his life at closing time Sunday while rushing to help

sheriff's deputies quell a parking lot brawl at JDs. Police say he collided with two

allegedly drunken drivers.

"I understand the circumstances, and I understand the actions that they do have to

take," Banning said. "A trooper was killed. They have every right to take action

against me for what's happened."

Police say they received about 50 calls for service at JD's since Banning acquired

the bar in September 2006.

Cartoon attracts scrutiny from alderman

SPRINGFIELD - A four-year-old cartoon depicting a black Springfield public works

official as a monkey, coupled with accusations that black and white employees are treated

differently after traffic accidents in city vehicles, have gotten the attention of

Ward 2 Ald. Gail Simpson.

Simpson said public works employees, some of them black, made her aware of the

cartoon. Joe Greer, a black assistant superintendent, told her that the flyer was

posted in the pubic works garage when he went to work for the city sometime after

November 2003, Simpson said.

The cartoon shows a monkey sitting at a desk with a banana in one hand and a

telephone in the other. A thought bubble above the monkey's head says, "Which is the

phone!?!" The monkey has a nametag that says "Joe."

Ernie Slottag, a spokesman for Mayor Tim Davlin, said the first time director of

public works Mike Norris saw the cartoon was when Simpson presented it to him.

If Norris or the mayor had known about the incident, some sort of discipline would

have been meted out, Slottag said.

"Both Mike Norris and Tim Davlin don't put up with that," Slottag said.

Simpson said she is satisfied for now with Norris' response, but will continue to

monitor the situation.

"I've let him know there are concerns with black employees," Simpson said.

"Everybody wants to come to work and do a day's work for a day's pay and not have to

deal with this stuff."

2-year-old St. David girl dies

ST. DAVID - A 2-year-old St. David girl who died after getting ill on

the way home from trick-or-treating with her family Wednesday, likely

died of pneumonia, Fulton County Coroner Steve Hines said.

Taylor Hamm "had been running a slight fever" but was otherwise OK,

Hines said. She went to Lewistown with her family on Halloween night and

became short of breath on the way home. Her family rushed her to Graham

Hospital in Canton where she became unresponsive.

She was pronounced dead around 9 p.m. The toddler had not been

diagnosed with pneumonia, which was revealed by an autopsy Thursday,

Hines said.

Hines put to rest rumors that the girl died from Halloween candy she

ate.

"There's no sign that there was any tainted candy," he said.

Halloween decor catches ablaze at Dunlap home

DUNLAP - A candle left burning past midnight Thursday inside a metal

Halloween decoration ignited a decorative bale of straw on the front

porch of a Dunlap home.

No one was injured, but flames spread from the straw around the front

door and into the front room of the home at 11900 N. Hickory Grove Road,

then moved into the attic.

Terry and Sue Brady, their two teenage daughters and houseguests were

alerted to the fire at about 1 a.m. when the home's ADT fire alarm

sounded. They all left quickly through a back door.

Loss from fire and water damage is estimated to be $150,000. The

house is in a neighborhood of homes valued at more than $500,000.

Mine opponents to protest in Peoria

PEORIA - Opponents of a proposed strip mine in Fulton County plan to

protest Sunday, and a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official said this

week that the agency has concerns about the mine's impact on wetlands.

Capital Resources Development Co. first applied in 2001 for a permit to

mine a 643-acre tract near Banner. After several years of going back and

forth with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the company

this week was told its permit would be granted.

The company still needs permits from the Illinois Environmental

Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers before mining can

begin.

Marlyn Schafer, regulatory project manager for the Rock Island District

of the Army Corps of Engineers, however, said Capital Resources will

have a difficult time getting a permit from his agency.

"Because of the scope of what they're doing, the mining operation is

going to cause significant impact," he said.

It's not possible, he said, to mine the area without affecting the

wetlands.

Banner residents and Heart of Illinois Sierra Club members who oppose

the mine will protest the IDNR's decision and encourage the Corps to

deny a permit during a gathering Sunday at Liberty Park on the Peoria

Riverfront.

Contributing: Peoria Journal Star, Springfield State Journal Register, Rockford Register Star.