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Recent Blog Posts
College Student Convicted of Hate Crime
An Elmhurst College student has been convicted on charges that he carved racial epithets into the window sill of another student’s dorm room. Myles Burton, 21, had been arrested and charged in December with a felony hate crime connected to the property damage. He was indicted by a grand jury in January.
According to a report in Patch, Burton, from Libertyville, is accused of carving the words “KKK,” “Negro” and “I hate black people” into the stone window sill of the school’s only African-American dorm supervisor. He was found guilty after a two hour bench trial. Prosecutors told the court that Burton was intoxicated and angry when he committed the crime.
Burton told police that he was angry at his basketball coach for calling him a ‘racist’ and only vandalized the building to show “what a real racist does”. In a recorded police interview, he admitted that he knew that those words would be frightening to any black person. It was that interview that the judge cited when handing down his verdict. Burton’s attorney had tried arguing that Burton didn’t know the home he was damaging belonged to an African-American.
DNA Testing on Alleged Murder Weapon Allowed
The Naperville Sun is reporting that a DuPont County judge is allowing DNA testing on a knife that prosecutors say Daniel Olaska, 28, used to kill Shaun Wild in a nightclub confrontation in February. Prosecutors claim they need two blood stains that were found on the knife tested in order to confirm that the knife was the actual murder weapon that killed Wild, a schoolteacher from Naperville.
The stabbing occurred at Frankie’s Blue Room in downtown Naperville. According to prosecutors, one of Wild’s friends, William Hayes, began arguing with the defendant over Olaska drinking beer out of a wine glass. Olaska stood up and stabbed Hayes, 22, with a folding knife. When Wild interceded on his friend’s behalf, he was stabbed in the chest. A nightclub employee, Rafael Castenada, was also wounded.
Olaska was held at the club and arrested as he tried to leave. Security cameras caught the stabbings, and there were witnesses to the event. Those are the reasons that Olaska’s attorney didn’t object to the DNA testing. “I don’t think the results will be relevant. It’s not who-done-it,” said Brian Telander, who has indicated he may argue the stabbings occurred in self-defense during an altercation.
Feds Criminally Charge Chicago Commodities Trader for Operating $8 Million Ponzi Scheme
According to the Chicago Tribune, a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois charges 36-year-old Bradley Scott Schiller of Chicago with solicitation fraud, misappropriation of investment funds, and issuance of false investment statements.
The Commodity Future Trading Commission (CFTC) alleges that between 2008 and 2012, Schiller used false account statements showing his success as a trader to solicit more than $7.8 million from six investors for trading commodity futures in managed accounts. Schiller then used funds from newly solicited investors to pay off funds owed to old investors, thus creating a complex Ponzi scheme. He was able to gain new investors by lying about his successes and providing them with false account statements he had created.
Meanwhile, Schiller allegedly deposited only $3.7 million of the funds to be invested in actual trading accounts, later losing $1.6 million in trading and then withdrawing $2.1 million from the accounts. This left the accounts with balances near zero. It is alleged that Schiller used the money to fund his expensive automobiles, a high-rise condominium, and pay other personal expenses.
Woman Steals Ambulance from Hospital
The Chicago Tribune reports that a woman who stole a Chicago Fire Department ambulance from St. Bernard Hospital in the Englewood neighborhood was arrested after she crashed the ambulance several blocks from the hospital. Law enforcement authorities stated that 30-year-old Cassie Weathersby was not injured after she stole the ambulance for unknown reasons and soon crashed it into another vehicle. Weathersby is being held on $25,000 bond for criminal charges of vehicle theft, driving on a suspended license, and driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI).
There are a variety of situations that might lead to a driver’s license suspension, including DUI, failure to provide proof of vehicle insurance as requested, and excessive traffic citations. When your driver’s license is already suspended and you are caught driving, you undoubtedly face an additional suspension period if convicted of this crime. Furthermore, a DUI conviction results in a driver’s license suspension period, as well. As a result, Weathersby would do well to immediately contact an experienced DUI attorney for assistance with her case, as she is facing a potentially lengthy period without her driver’s license, as well as other serious penalties.
Lake Forest Woman Avoids Jail Sentence in DUI Case
According to the Naperville Sun, 39-year-old Karuna Talwar of Lake Forest has pleaded guilty to a charge of Driving Under the Influence (DUI) in the DuPage County Circuit Court. Talwar is the founder of Pay it Forward Foundation of Gurnee, IL, a local charitable foundation.
Talwar stopped her vehicle last winter on a busy street in downtown Naperville in order to exchange text messages with her husband. An officer who noticed her stopped car in the northbound lane of Washington Street approached Talwar’s vehicle and arrested her on DUI charges and other infractions, including operating a motor vehicle while using an electronic communications device.
In return for her guilty plea to DUI, the other infractions were dropped, and Talwar received a sentence of one year of supervision, $1,500 in fines and costs, Level 2 DUI monitoring, and mandatory attendance at a drunk driving victim impact panel. Her sentence included no jail time to be served.
Lottery Ticket Isn’t a Winner After All
Leandria Williams showed up at the Des Plaines lottery claim office on April 4 with what appeared to be a winning ticket for the record $656 million Mega Millions lottery that was drawn March 30. But instead of walking away with millions, Williams ended up posting $10,000 for bail.
Even though the ticket had all the winning numbers, records showed that none of the three winning tickets were purchased in the Chicago area. Williams lives in Elgin. Lottery records show that Willams’ ticket was purchased shortly after 10:00 p.m.on March 30; eight minutes after the winning numbers were drawn. She also turned in a false email receipt, altered to make it appear that the ticket had been purchased prior to the drawing.
Officials with the lottery told Williams she would need to fill out a claim form that would need to be sent to Springfield for verification. According to a report in the Chicago Tribune, once Williams filled out the form and submitted her documents, an investigator from the lottery department contacted the Cook County sheriff’s office.
Hoffman Estates Man to Serve 35 Years for Sexual Assault
According to Triblocal, a 45 year old man from Hoffman Estates was sent to jail on Monday May, 21. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison on charges of sexually assaulting numerous boys. He was also charged with videotaping many boys.
John Agresta appeared in the Cook County Circuit Court in Rolling Meadows for his hearing. He was charged not only with criminal sexual assault but with aggravated child pornography, as well. According to reports, this is not the only time Agresta has been charged with sexual crimes. He is also facing charges very similar to these in Kendall County.
According to the 4 boys Agresta sexually assaulted and videotaped, most of the sexual acts took place in Agresta’s house. He got away with his crimes for years until one of his victims finally spoke up. A 12 year old boy that Agresta had sexually assaulted and had videotaped told police what had been occurring with Agresta. Police forces then received a warrant to search his home and what they found may surprise many people. Hidden in his house at least 75 DVDs. Each of these DVDS contained sexual images of young boys. Along with these DVDs was footage from a hidden camera that Agresta had placed in his bathroom.
Teen Charged with Aggravated Arson in Schaumburg High School Fire
The Chicago Tribune reported that on May 11, 2012, Schaumburg High School was evacuated after a fire began in a storage area of the school’s woodshop. A school custodian was able to put out the fire using a fire extinguisher before fire crews arrived on the scene. There were no injuries, and students returned to classes after about 30 minutes.
Fire officials estimate the damage to be less than $2,000. Officials also confirmed that the fire was intentionally set, and at the time of the article, were continuing to investigate the matter. All repairs were finished in time for students to return to class the following Monday morning.
According to the Tribune in a related story three days later, a 15-year-old Hanover Park boy was charged with aggravated arson in a Cook County juvenile court. Authorities have released no motive for the boy setting the fire, or details about how it might have been started.
Elk Grove Village Man Pleads Guilty to Theft by Deception and Fraud
The Chicago Tribune recently reported that a former money manager who is already serving an eight-year sentence for securities fraud pled guilty in a DuPage County court to theft by deception over $500,000, mail fraud, wire fraud, and securities fraud. Kevin Carney operated a Ponzi scheme from January, 2007 to October, 2008, in which he obtained over $17 million from investors by promising them a 20% monthly return on their investments. The victims collectively lost over $10 million in the scheme, as Carney paid off earlier investors with money invested by later victims.
As a result of his guilty plea, Carney received a 13-year sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections and was ordered to pay $10.2 million in restitution to over 300 victims of his fraudulent money management scheme.
Child Killed in Skokie Traffic Tragedy
One Skokie family will never be the same. Nhu Vo remembered his son, Carter Vo, while standing in front of the memorial erected to mourn his death. The 8-year-old was killed at the corner of Main Street and St. Louis Avenue as a result of a chain reaction accident on Monday afternoon. The accident ended with a vehicle striking the boy on the sidewalk.
Carter was a very smart second grade student that attended Madison Elementary School in Skokie. He aspired to be an engineer and had even recently thought of being a fighter pilot, according to his father.
Carter was pronounced dead about four hours after the accident. He died of multiple trauma to the head and his death was ruled an accident by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
The intersection is controlled by two-way stop signs and according to police, village engineers are going to review possible safety issues at the intersection. Residents have complained about the danger of the stretch of road between Crawford Avenue and McCormick Boulevard for several years. The area of issue is about one mile long and the speed limit is 30 miles per hour. Many residents report that the speed limit is not followed most times.
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