State Briefs 3/6/08

Threatening message found to be several years old

SPRINGFIELD - Police have determined that a threatening message reported a few days ago on the wall of a bathroom at Lincoln Land Community College is several years old.

The message, found in a women's bathroom in Menard Hall, read, "Everyone dies," and was followed by the number "15." The message was reported to police in late February.

Lincoln Land Community College police announced Thursday that they have determined the message was several years old.

Brad Gentry director of the college's police and security department, thanked the students who brought the message to his attention.

"We would like to thank all that came forward with information during this investigation, and would encourage everyone not to hesitate in reporting similar incidents or other suspicious activity to us in the future."

State Journal-Register

Ex-officer faces solicitation charge again

PEORIA - A Peoria County grand jury indicted a former police officer on weapons charges and for trying to pick up an undercover agent posing as a prostitute.

Henry Cherry, 32, originally had the misdemeanor charge of solicitation of a sex act against him dismissed. But the charge was reinstated Tuesday along with a single count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, a felony offense.

Prosecutors were able to change their mind because the solicitation charge was dismissed "without prejudice."

Investigators allege that on Oct. 4 Cherry, who resigned from the department in July 2005 after an investigation uncovered he was friends with a known drug dealer, solicited sex from an undercover female police officer posing as a prostitute.

During his arrest, Cherry was cooperative and told police he was in possession of a gun, an unloaded .32-caliber automatic pistol in his car's unlocked glove box, according to police reports. Gun magazines and a live bullet were found in a black bag behind the front seat.

Illinois gun law states in order to possess or carry a firearm, a gun has to be broken down in a nonfunctioning state and not immediately accessible. The apparent violation appears to stem from the fact that Cherry's glove box was unlocked.

Journal Star, Peoria

Firefighters earn Medal of Valor

MACOMB - Two Macomb firefighters will receive the state's second-highest honor in May for helping to save fellow firefighters during a June building fire.

Ryan Hotz and Steve Teslicka were chosen to receive the Medal of Valor from the State Fire Marshal's Firefighting Medal of Honor Committee.

Macomb Fire Chief Andy Taylor said he nominated the pair for their work saving two fellow firefighters, Dirk Raymer and Lt. Steve Welch, during a June fire in a West Jackson Street building that housed four businesses. The building is owned by Corinne Jones.

Raymer and Welch were backing out of the burning building when the ceiling collapsed and they became tangled in the building's wiring. Hotz and Teslicka helped pull them to safety.

Taylor said the award is given annually, with only two handed out last year.

Hotz and Teslicka were among five people honored by the Macomb Fire Department in August for actions during the same fire. During that ceremony Taylor called the pair "true heroes."

Both were given engraved antique brass fire hose nozzles.

Taylor said the official awards ceremony will be May 15 at the Fallen Firefighter Memorial Service in Springfield.

Journal Star, Peoria

Suit challenges constitutionality of state's smoking ban

PRINCETON - A Bureau County judge will begin untangling a case that could potentially snuff out Illinois' two-month-old ban on smoking in public places.

The case is against Karla Carrington, a bartender at The Family Tavern in Spring Valley, who was cited because she allegedly "knowingly allowed" a patron to smoke in the establishment early in February when an undercover Spring Valley police officer came into the bar.

But Carrington's lawyer, Peoria attorney Dan O'Day, claims in several motions filed late last week that multiple provisions of the Smoke-Free Illinois Act - from the signage requirements to the likelihood of illegal invasions of privacy and fines - are unenforceable at best, or even unconstitutional.

"I think what happened was they designed a statute that was more like a press release," O'Day said of the ban, which state lawmakers approved last summer and took effect at the beginning of the year. "They forgot to make it a law."

And if any provisions of the act, which prohibits smoking indoors in public places and within 15 feet of building entrances, are determined to be invalid, a quirk of a clause buried within its text could overturn the entire ban.

The specific language is known as a "severability clause," which is not unusual and most often aims to uphold all other provisions of a statute if one provision is struck down by a court or becomes otherwise ineffective.

But O'Day said the severability clause in the Smoke-Free Illinois Act contains a peculiarity that appears to do the opposite: invalidate the entire statute if one of its provisions becomes a courtroom casualty. O'Day summed up his opinion of the act succinctly: "The law's a dead duck that can't be enforced."

Journal Star, Peoria

Deputies use Craigslist to charge 6 with solicitation

ROCKFORD - Winnebago County sheriff's deputies used Craigslist.com to arrest six women who allegedly solicited sex on the popular classifieds Web site.

In the undercover sting, detectives contacted the women through the Web site and met them at a motel on Rockford's east side, officials said.

Arrested Wednesday were:

Kristin A. Harshbarger, 20, of Machesney Park, on prostitution charges.

Samantha Swan, 30, of Rockford, on prostitution charges.

Tiffany N. Wisely, 31, of Rockford, on prostitution and marijuana-possession charges.

Trina L. Behm, 38, of Beloit, Wis., on prostitution charges.

Kizia Brown, 21, of Rockford, on prostitution and battery charges.

Kristina J. Elswick, aka Kristina Jo Sholes, 42, of Rockford, on prostitution charges.

Rockford Register Star