Saturday, January 19, 2013
White power leader Brian Moudry's may be off Joliet's Reed Street for as long as 10 years.
JOLIET, IL -- A local white supremacist pleaded guilty Friday to torching the home of a black family living down the street from his house. Brian Moudry, 36, faces up to 10 years in federal prison when he is sentenced on April 26. He pleaded to using fire to interfere with the housing rights on the basis of race. Moudry admitted to pouring gasoline on the home of a black family and setting fire to the house in June 2007. The family of eight children and one adult was asleep inside but escaped the blaze without injury. According to the plea agreement, Moudry was upset that a black family was renting a house on the same block as his own on Joliet's South Reed Street. He set the fire in hopes of driving them out and to intimidate the owner of…
Friday, January 11, 2013
The FBI and Chicago police have not responded to subpoenas for evidence in the Margarita Hernandez sex case.
Lawyers for the Joliet woman charged with setting up a sex date with a teenage boy are still waiting on the FBI and Chicago police to hand over reports. The attorneys for Margarita Hernandez subpoenaed the reports but have yet to receive them. The lawyers, Steve Landis and Dan Locallo, also submitted a motion Friday asking for evidence related to the cell phones Hernandez and the teen allegedly used to send messages prior to the tryst. Hernandez is free on bond. She faces up to 21 years in prison for allegedly having sex with the teen after he traveled to her home from Chicago in July. The boy's mother went to the Chicago police and accused Hernandez of having sex with her son. The Chicago police passed the case off to the Joliet police …
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Shorewood IT guy Christopher Kice pleaded guilty to both producing and possessing child pornography.
After nearly a year and a half in jail, a Shorewood IT guy copped a plea to child pornography charges. The guilty plea made by 42-year-old Christopher Kice in federal court was not part of an agreement by prosecutors. He may still be hit with the maximum 30-year prison term when he is sentenced May 8. FBI agents and Shorewood police officers took Kice into custody at his Callaway Drive home after his employer, a Chicago-area law firm, tipped the feds to the possibility he was possessing of child pornography. A forensic investigation of Kice's computer equipment turned up pornographic images of young girls, according to an affidavit penned by an FBI agent. Some of the photographs were taken in Kice's home, according to the affidavit, and …
Friday, December 21, 2012
The judge in 32-year-old Margarita Hernandez's teenage sex case is going to review some of the alleged evidence against her and then decide if her lawyer can have it.
The feds, the Chicago cops, the Joliet Police Department and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services all probed the alleged teenage sexcapades of 32-year-old Margarita Hernandez, and the Joliet woman's lawyer wants to see what they supposedly have on her. "When I don't see stuff done as a matter of routine protocol, I get very suspicious," attorney Steve Landis said during a Friday morning hearing in Will County court. But Assistant State's Attorney Sara Shutts told Judge Edward Burmila that Landis is looking for stuff she doesn't possess. Landis countered that once Shutts' office decided to prosecute Hernandez, they were responsible for turning all evidence over to him. Landis—and the Joliet police—have said the case …
Thursday, December 13, 2012
The lawyer for a Joliet woman charged with setting up a sex date with a teenage boy in the home she shares with her 76-year-old boyfriend is still waiting on prosecutors to turn over evidence.
Prosecutor have yet to provide the discovery evidence requested by the lawyer for a Joliet woman charged with setting up a sex date with a teenage boy in the home she shares with her 76-year-old boyfriend. The woman, 32-year-old Margarita Hernandez, appeared in court with attorney Steve Landis Thursday morning and was told by Judge Edward Burmila that prosecutors will get another five days to either come up with the evidence that has been asked for else argue why they shouldn't have to. Hernandez was arrested Oct. 4 after an alleged July tryst with a 15-year-old Chicago boy. Hernandez's elderly live-in boyfriend, veteran weekly newspaperman John Gabriel, has claimed his much-younger girlfriend has been framed by the enemies he made over …
Thursday, December 6, 2012
The attorneys for the woman charged setting up a sex date with a teenage boy want the police and FBI to turn over the evidence against her.
Lawyers for the Joliet woman charged with setting up a sex date with a teenage boy in the house she shares with her septuagenarian boyfriend want the cops and FBI to hand over whatever it is they got on her. "We've received the state's initial response, it's our opinion it's incomplete," said Steve Landis, one of two attorneys defending Margarita Hernandez against charges she orchestrated a sex romp with a 15-year-old Chicago boy. Landis and attorney Daniel Locallo filed a motion asking for discovery from the Joliet and Chicago police departments, as well as from the FBI. Hernandez, 32, was arrested in October. She and her live-in boyfriend, 76-year-old veteran weekly newspaperman John Gabriel, are both precinct committeemen for the Troy …
Monday, November 12, 2012
Patch has created a searchable database of the FBI's recently released 2011 stats on violent crimes and property crimes.
The FBI recently released its 2011 Uniform Crime Report, which compiles information from local law enforcement about violent crimes and property crimes in their communities. Use the pull-down menu to find your city or town. Violent crimes and property crimes are listed as totals, and are then broken down into several categories. Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault are all categories of violent crimes. Burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson are all categories of property crimes. For more crime data or a further explanation of the types of crimes listed, you can visit the FBI's website.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Federal agents and Illinois State Police were back at it again in the Shorewood forest preserve Thursday.
For a supposedly routine search, the FBI and Illinois State Police are sure investing a lot of time, effort and money. A couple dozen federal agents and state troopers spent a fourth full day in Shorewood's Hammel Woods, poking around the park for some sign of missing mom Stacy Peterson. A state police source close to the five-year-old Stacy Peterson case said on Monday the operation was just one of numerous searches conducted periodically in locations investigators believe Stacy's body may have been left. But the agents and troopers—along with high-tech equipment and cadaver dogs—returned the next day, and then came back again Wednesday and Thursday, leaving many wondering just what exactly has been happening in Hammel Woods. Cable news …
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
The FBI and the Illinois State Police spent a third straight day looking for Stacy Peterson in Shorewood's Hammel Woods Wednesday.
The search for Stacy Peterson in Shorewood's Hammel Woods entered its third day as federal agents and state troopers used a dog to hunt for the missing mother. The brown and white dog led a group of a half dozen FBI agents and state troopers—some armed with shovels—through the Shorewood park. The search party headed in the direction of the Hammel Woods dog park off Black Road. A state police source said on Monday that the search effort was nothing more than a routine operation. The agency conducts such searches periodically, the source said, and there was no tip or clue that prompted this week's endeavor. But when FBI agents and troopers returned for a second day Tuesday, and then once again today, some close to the case were wondering if …
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
The FBI and Illinois State Police have spent two days in Hammel Woods looking for Stacy Peterson while missing mom Linda Fellenbaum has been gone for more than two weeks.
While FBI agents and state troopers spent a second straight day scouring Hammel Woods for some sign of missing mom Stacy Peterson, there was no one to be found in a Joliet cul-de-sac just six miles away, the one where another mother was supposedly seen running off barefoot, never to be seen again. That mother, Linda Fellenbaum, 33, disappeared Oct. 21, leaving her cell phone, shoes and Toyota Camry at the home of the Joliet man she moved in with only two months before. Fellenbaum and her Joliet boyfriend, Donald Wolak, 40, had met on the Internet, police said, and their short relationship was made out to be a stormy one. Wolak told police Fellenbaum took off on him five days before disappeared for good. And when she absconded on Oct. 16, …
William Tanz
11:11 pm on Thursday, February 7, 2013
Oh, one more note...he had a black lawyer represent him. What a hypocrite. more ›