When Jose Jeronimo Guardian showed up at a Spanish language traffic court last week, he didn’t expect to be detained and face expulsion from a country he’d lived in for more than two decades. Guardian, 48, was scheduled to appear Oct. 27 in a courtroom where a county-provided translator would aid communication with about a […]
Beth Hundsdorfer,
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Inside the harrowing 100-mile police chase in Sangamon County
When Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Jonathan Pearce saw a white pickup spotted outside a motorcycle shop that had been burglarized earlier that night, he punched the gas and chased the fleeing truck, reaching race car speeds and screeching his tires through hairpin turns. Sgt. James Hayes, his supervisor, asked whether he had enough gas. “I […]
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Sangamon County target of DOJ investigation
The Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office is under investigation by the U. S. Department of Justice for civil rights violations, but the probe may go beyond the fatal shooting of Sonya Massey. The U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights probe will investigate the sheriff’s department, but also Sangamon County Central Dispatch and the county itself. The […]
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Sheriff’s department hiring under scrutiny
Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell came under fire for his hiring practices after he employed a deputy with two DUI convictions, who is now accused of the murder of an unarmed Black woman in her kitchen. But it wasn’t the first time he chose to hire someone accused of drunk driving and repeated misconduct. In […]
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Governor names new DCFS director
The troubled state agency charged with the protection of abused and neglected children will have new leadership in the new year. Gov. JB Pritzker announced Jan. 3 that Department of Juvenile Justice Director Heidi Mueller will take over the embattled Department of Children and Family Services starting Feb. 1. “The work Director Mueller has done […]
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Funeral home failures
State regulators allowed a Carlinville funeral director to operate for months despite a complaint filed by a local coroner who found a decomposing body in his funeral home and alleged the care of the remains was “unacceptable and criminal in nature.” While trying to assist a local family with retrieving cremated remains in March, Morgan […]
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DCFS, director face federal lawsuit filed on behalf of jailed wards
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services on Jan. 19 was named in a federal class-action lawsuit on behalf of children in state care who have been held in juvenile detention centers after a judge ordered their release. Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert is a plaintiff in the 32-page lawsuit in the Northern […]
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Brutal beatings, abuse plague state-run mental health facility, investigation reveals
As Blaine Reichard rose from a breakfast table at the Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in southern Illinois, a worker ordered him to pull up his sagging pants. A 24-year-old man with autism and developmental disabilities, Reichard didn’t obey. “I’m a gangsta! This is how we do it where I am from!” responded Reichard, […]
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FOID, red flags and restraining orders: How state laws regulate firearm purchases
A mass shooting in Highland Park at a Fourth of July parade prompted questions about how the suspect was able to obtain a gun in a state with some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. Law enforcement officials have said that the Highland Park shooting suspect, Robert Crimo III, 21, legally purchased and […]
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Found: Death certificates of 5 killed in East St. Louis riots
It was a tale told by older generations to the younger generations, of men shot and killed and their bodies tossed into a creek during one of the fiercest race riots in the country. That tale was carried across the Mississippi River by those trying to escape the violence and through the generations of African […]
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DCFS keeps teenager locked in psych ward
Leah is a 13-year-old girl under Department of Children and Family Services care who lives in a psychiatric ward in a Chicago hospital. Capitol News Illinois is using a pseudonym to protect her identity, but has confirmed she’s been held for months behind locked doors, despite a doctor saying she was well enough to leave […]
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DCFS director held in contempt for 7th time in 10 weeks
For the seventh time in 10 weeks, a Cook County judge found Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith in contempt for failing to comply with a court order. DCFS was ordered by a judge in March 2021 to move a 16-year-old boy who has low intellectual functioning and cognitive delays from […]
