Newsmakers

Over my four decades as a journalist, I spent countless days and some late nights waiting for juries to return their verdicts.

If the vigil held all the excitement of a dripping faucet for me, I could only imagine the tedious nature of the deliberations. My assumption of what jurors experienced changed over the years as I took greater notice of the jurors’ demeanor as they entered and exited the courtroom at the end of their daily meetings.

What was it like to be closed in a room with eleven strangers, tasked with reaching a unanimous decision on something as serious as a murder charge, I wondered? Jurors are often reluctant to speak to reporters after a verdict, their decision to remain silent part of a pact reached before they go their separate ways.

In the spring, a letter arrived from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois that raised my hopes of learning firsthand about jury deliberations. I was asked to complete a questionnaire to determine if I might be placed in the jury pool for federal court.

My work as a journalist who covered state and federal courts and a wide range of legal issues would likely give attorneys ample reason to dismiss me from jury service, but I was eager to forge ahead with the process. In late June I was summoned to the federal courthouse along with about thirty other residents of the 16-county area that serves as a source for jurors for federal cases in Springfield.

Our diverse group assembled in jury quarters down the hall from the courtroom where we filled out tax forms for the wages and mileage we would earn as potential and actual jurors. A jury coordinator let us know that eight would be selected for the case. I was among the first group of 18 escorted into the courtroom for vous dire, the process that allows a judge and attorneys to determine if a jury candidate can be fair and impartial.

Magistrate Judge Karen L. McNaught explained that the case involved an employment dispute between a former worker for Springfield’s city-owned utility and Jim Langfelder, the city ex-mayor, based on a discrimination claim. The trial would last two days, she said.

Each of us was asked to respond to twenty-seven questions provided to us after we took assigned seats. If not the exact questions, the inquiries were very similar to those we answered on the previous survey.

The judge and lawyers wanted to know about our work, families, jobs, and hobbies. There were questions on the source of our news, newspaper and magazine subscriptions and internet use. And what was printed on any bumper sticks on our vehicles.

Had we ever been sued, served on a jury, or served in the miliary? Did we have close friends or relatives in law enforcement or the legal profession?

The round of questioning was completed in a little more than an hour, a short timeframe given the number of questions. Most responses were brief, a word or two or a simple yes or no.

Through their tone of voice, more than a handful of people let their feelings be known on certain subjects. “I don’t watch the news. Ever,” said one potential juror. Facebook was the major source of information for some. Few people read magazines and even fewer took a newspaper.

Inquiries on involvement in community organizations, public office and memberships in professional organizations were widely dismissed.

My responses were lengthier as the judge asked follow-up questions on my work and involvement in several lawsuits related to legal challenges filed by the news organizations that employed me. I also serve on several community boards that required some explanation.

The judge put everyone at ease, with a friendly manner of soliciting more details from people without being intrusive. She explained the jury process, with an emphasis on the absolute necessity of having citizens willing to serve.

At the end of the question-and-answer session, we waited for 20 minutes in an adjoining room stocked with refreshments for a decision on who would serve. Many with crossed fingers were looking for a swift trip home.

With no explanation and her sincere thanks, the judge dismissed me along with most of my group. A second round of vous dire would be held to finish the selection process.

My rejection, while fully anticipated for myriad reasons, was still disappointing. The sense of tension, negotiation and occasional friendships jury duty evokes between citizens continues to elude me. But the time in the federal jury box, albeit brief, afforded me a small taste of what it’s like to answer the call for jury service. And I was paid $115 for the privilege.

My research after the trial showed a verdict in favor of the employee and against the former mayor. The jury awarded the plaintiff $1 in damages. Oh, to be in the room for those discussions.

Dr. Sarah Bonner and the Heyworth school district went their separate ways last month after she became the target of a social media frenzy over a book in her eighth grade English classroom.

The book is titled “This Book Is Gay” and explores topics teens encounter as they navigate the road to adulthood: dating, sex and safe sex practices. The debate over “This Book Is Gay” went viral after a student pulled the book from a shelf and images of certain pages were posted on social media.

More than 80 people attended the school board meeting the night Bonner’s “involuntary resignation” was accepted. The reactions to the book expressed during the meeting ranged from views that the book was inappropriate to concerns that limiting students to heterosexual sex education is akin to “institutional homophobia.”

Bonner had a chance to address the board, behind closed doors, after the public session.  The educator who also teaches teachers at Illinois State University explained how and why the book came to be in her classroom. Over 100 different books were recommended by sources including the American Library Association, for Bonner’s class project. “Given the nature of the lesson compressed with a heavy list of responsibilities, vetting each and every single text for explicit details was impossible,” she explained.

Bonner goes on to say, “Should the book in question be available to students? Yes. However, should this specific book have been part of the 100 choices during this class activity? No.”

The book is part of the ALA Rainbow Reading Awardee List, picked by Bonner with a few others “because I knew students in my class had interests.”  Her intention, she said, was never to make students or their families “feel unsafe.”

The Heyworth teacher expressed sadness but not surprise for the way things played out. “Being an innovator in teaching means that boundaries, perspectives, and ideas need to be pushed.”

Children grow up and leave their small-town existence. Bonner realized years ago that preparing students for what they would encounter outside rural communities would require her to push the boundaries of the classroom.

“I knew I needed to disrupt traditional learning practices to embody the needs of today’s world. Our kids deserve learning experiences that prepare them for our world and not just our town,” she told the school board.

Bonner realizes “being a changemaker often comes with a cost….especially if you’re one of the only ones willing to take risks and think differently.”

The cost to Bonner was her job at Heyworth. The cost to her students was the loss of a gifted teacher who will no doubt use the unfortunate experience to educate future teachers. The irony that Bonner’s forced resignation came the same week Illinois legislators voted to withhold funding from public schools and libraries that ban books cannot be overlooked.

Here’s the text of Bonner’s statement to the school board in which she quotes Ted Lasso and Walt Whitman:

Thank you to the Heyworth Board and Administrative team for allowing me to speak this evening. If you know anything about me as a professional, you know that this is not the way I would have chosen to be here tonight. Twenty years ago when I was given the keys to my very first classroom, I knew teaching was my calling. And, while I’ve taught in previous school districts over the years, Heyworth was the place that allowed me to become the professional I was meant to be.

Throughout my time here, I earned both my Masters and Doctorate degrees with the help of district tuition waivers. I became the National Council of Teachers of English (or NCTE) Media Literacy Teacher of the Year in 2018 along with the national Outstanding Middle Level Educator award the following year. I wrote and published a book through Teachers College Press to further the teaching field. Additionally, I hosted and supported numerous future teachers from Illinois State University as they began their journey into the classroom. Lastly – most importantly – I had the opportunity to connect with the best kids I’ve ever worked with in my career.

Our community – or even our nation – may never know the gravity of what teachers bear on a regular basis. For me, I not only worked tirelessly on designing and cultivating meaningful learning experiences for my students, but I also worked hard to maintain healthy relationships with students and families, upheld weekly and transparent communication among all shareholders, contributed regularly to the junior high teacher team, worked a second teaching job at Illinois State University to better support my family, served as the Middle Level Section Steering Committee Chairperson for NCTE, wrote a doctoral dissertation, published a book for teachers, along with being a partner, a mother, and a human wrestling with being newly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

With all of this weighing heavily on my plate, I depended on national communities like the American Library Association and NCTE as well as reading communities like Goodreads to help generate texts that engage all readers with a vast collection of interests. The activity my students and I participated in last week was made up of close to 100 different books recommended from these spaces. Given the nature of the lesson compressed with a heavy list of responsibilities, vetting each and every single text for explicit details was impossible. Should the book in question be available to students? Yes. However, should this specific book have been a part of the 100 choices during this class activity? No. Simply put, the title was on the ALA Rainbow Reading Awardee list and I picked it along with a few others because I knew students in my class had interests. To make students, families, community members feel unsafe was never the intention of my decision making.

While I’m saddened by how the events have played out over the last week, there’s a piece of me that isn’t surprised. Being an innovator in teaching means that boundaries, perspectives, and ideas need to be pushed. When I realized years ago that our kids who would receive these amazing scholarships to these Big 10 schools were coming back the following year because they couldn’t adjust to life outside of a rural small town, I knew I needed to do something. I knew I needed to disrupt traditional learning practices to embody the needs of today’s world. Our kids deserve learning experiences that prepare them for our world and not just our town. However, being a changemaker often comes with a cost…especially if you’re one of the only ones willing to take risks and think differently.

London’s favorite soccer coach, Ted Lasso – the man who makes us all believe in the power of believe – said it best ”You know, people have underestimated me my entire life. And for years, I never understood why. It used to really bother me. But then one day, I saw this quote by Walt Whitman. It said, “Be curious, not judgmental.” All of a sudden it hits me. Of all those that used to belittle me, not a single one of them was curious. They thought they had everything all figured out. So they judged everything, and they judged everyone. And I realized that their underestimating me… who I was had nothing to do with it. ‘Cause if they were curious, they would’ve asked questions.”
As I leave here tonight, I hope you will remember a few things:

1. Sometimes things need to break in order to rebuild it stronger. Encourage
   As you enter a space of healing, I hope the district and Heyworth community can find a place to listen and understand that you all want the best for our kids. Our teachers especially deserve to be heard and questioned in responsible ways.
2. Remember to support your teachers moving forward. If I were them at this point, I would feel scared, unsafe, and paralyzed knowing that I could be next. Our teacher community needs reassurance that innovation is still supported and protected as time moves on.
3. And, remember the good I brought to our kids and community by taking innovative risks in Language Arts. While I’ve been here, I have witnessed students stand up for other students with disabilities, fight against racism, organize trash clean ups, create documentaries that tell the untold stories of their community, advocate for safe spaces, strengthen their own beliefs, shape their own personal identities, and critically think about the world around them. With the work I’ve been able to do with students, I’m reminded on a daily basis that our kids will be the hope our future needs.

Monkey stories have made headlines recently with tales of monkeys disappearing from the zoo and a new Stephen Colbert segment on “Monkey Mysteries.” But left unexamined is the story of “a good little monkey” known by generations of young readers as Curious George.

My youngest grandson is a big fan of the curious little monkey. The struggles faced by the under-age primate – struggles modern society would deem appalling—go unnoticed by the five-year-old and other eager readers.

The story starts innocently enough in Africa with a monkey-nabbing by a friendly man in a big yellow hat. George nearly drowns on the boat ride to the big city. After dinner, he smokes a pipe before going to bed. The next day the little guy is taken into custody after making a phony 911 call. He is taken to a prison but manages to escape through a window by crisscrossing the overhead power lines.

A life-threatening balloon lift ends with George’s rescue by his captor. With George in the back seat, the man speeds off in his blue convertible to the local zoo, George’s new home. George’s fate improves in subsequent books by H.A. and Margret Rey after George leaves the zoo and goes to live with the man who becomes his best friend. The two have many happy adventures.

The original book published in 1941 and the series that followed has been in continuous print since the husband-and-wife team and illustrator Alan J. Shalleck created the popular and curious little monkey. Some monkey stories withstand the test of time, critiques by criminal justice reporters and kids who just want to see a good little monkey have a good time.

Brandon P. Fleming is founder of the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project, nationally recognized for its success in introducing minority students to the Ivy League institution’s debate team. He should not be where he is today.

In his recently published memoir Miseducated, Fleming shares all the reasons for his unlikely success, beginning with an abusive upbringing laid out in all its painful detail. But Fleming overcame the odds by surviving the awful childhood, drugs and stupid mistakes that could have landed him behind bars, the missed dream of an athletic scholarship, and an intimate dance with death following a suicide attempt.

“I want him out of this school.” Fleming heard the words of the middle principal fed up with the 13-year-old menace. He walked a thin line between academic eligibility to play basketball and his side hustle of selling drugs.

For all the teachers and adults who failed him, there were a handful of others who stepped up to the challenge of a rowdy Black child and saw the potential overlooked by everyone else, most notably Fleming himself.

An injury ended his career as a Division 1 college athlete and forced him to leave Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. A gift from his mother, a veteran with newly acquired GI Bill benefits, put Fleming back into the classroom where he discovered the concept of renaissance. He studied every renaissance he could find and reflected on what the great philosophers had to offer a poor Black student who admitted to his teacher he had never read a book.

And he developed a love of debate.

Along the way, he learned about education and the school system that had failed him and many of his peers. When the door to the world opened, things began to make sense:

“I realized that my approach to debate was wrong. My approach to education in general was wrong. I had been debating with facts and information that I could regurgitate but did not understand. Like a child trying to walk before he crawls, I was trying to argue before I learned how to question….I realized that traditional education focuses mainly on the status quo, on the surface of the soil-which allows the seeds of injustice to lie quiescent, until they sprout into weeds of social and political inequality. The aphorism attributed to Socrates started to make sense: weak minds discuss people; average minds discuss events; but strong minds discuss ideas.”

Armed with new mental strength, Fleming gathered students around Lynchburg who needed a mentor, someone to care about them, and peel back the layers of their potential. The climb was sometimes steep and difficult, but Fleming’s scholars absorbed the lessons of the Harlem Renaissance with the same enthusiasm that had altered the course of his life.

In the current debate over what students should learn about the history of race in our country, the narratives of Black students like Fleming provide the best lessons. Miseducated takes us to dark places no child should endure on the way to a future few can imagine. His memoir is an inspiration for parents, educators and students who think they know how much a child can achieve.

It was a long three weeks of trial and an even longer three days waiting for a jury to return its decision in the People of Wisconsin v Kyle Rittenhouse. On Friday afternoon, the waiting was over.

The panel unanimously agreed that the 18-year-old is not guilty of murder in the shooting deaths of two men and serious injury of a third victim during protests last year in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Looking at Kyle Rittenhouse, with his baby-faced cheeks, dressed in his Sunday best in court every day, it would be easy to imagine him in his first semester of community college. Maybe the captain of the baseball team.

It’s an open question, whether Rittenhouse will ever live such a life, or if it’s been lost in the shadows of the favorable verdict so generously awarded by jurors who swore to listen to the evidence and follow the law. Theirs was unenviable job.

The divisive nature of our country’s debate over gun laws will not be lessened by the lack of consequences this young man will face as a result of his decision to pull the trigger on the deadliest of deadly weapons.

Those who believe his actions were justified will point to his acquittal as proof that it is legally permissible to walk the streets with assault-style weapons draped across their bodies and fire if a serious threat arises. People worried that allowing Rittenhouse to go free will make the streets more dangerous are more worried tonight.

For the families of the victims, the courtroom battle and acquittal does not look or feel like justice. Surely the taking of human life–death by the crack of close- range gunfire caught on video–begs for recompense, the families must believe. Is serious reflection on how this tragedy occurred and the next one may be avoided too much to hope for?

And what lies ahead for Kyle Rittenhouse?

During the second day of jury deliberations, Congressman Matt Gaetz extended an invitation for an internship to the defendant. While the congressman faces accusations that Rittenhouse would be advised to avoid, the offer illustrates how people in certain political camps would like to use the teenager for their own gain.

Rittenhouse’s lawyers may have convinced a jury of his innocence according to  standards set by Wisconsin law, but the country will judge him on how he conducts himself tomorrow and the days that follow his exit from the courtroom. The teenager who took two lives may best prove his innocence and intentions by laying down the weapons and becoming a man he can be proud of when he looks into the mirror.

He could start by saying he’s sorry.

Bart McNeil was in prison a dozen years when a newspaper clipping that renewed hope for his exoneration arrived in the mail.

With decades yet to go on his 100-year sentence in the murder of his 3-year-old daughter Christina, hope was a dim light at the end of a dark tunnel.

From the day he found his daughter’s lifeless body in her bed in 1998, McNeil pleaded with Bloomington police to investigate his former girlfriend Misook Nowlin’s possible involvement in the child’s death.  Authorities instead charged McNeil with smothering his daughter. The motive: alleged sexual abuse of the child by her father, an accusation he has denied.

In 2011, Nowlin was charged with killing her-in-law.  For McNeil, the charges against Nowlin opened the door to new scrutiny of his case by a team of lawyers with the Illinois Innocence Project. A petition filed earlier this year is a road map to the complex web of circumstances that potentially links Nowlin to the child’s death and the new evidence that challenges assumptions made about by police.

And speaking of webs, spiders also play a supporting role in this story.  Did Nowlin disturb their web when she allegedly accessed the girl’s bedroom through a window? That’s just one of the questions raised by the defense team.

Nowlin’s case has been a topic for several true crime shows over the years. But for the first time, a production team has examined the possible connection between the McNeil and Nowlin cases.  The Sept.25 two-hour season premier of Snapped on the Oxygen Network features  interviews with McNeil and Nowlin and a detailed look at McNeil’s innocence claim.

McNeil’s family has arranged for the show to be aired at the Normal Theatre in Normal on Oct. 5.  The 7 p.m. event includes a panel discussion afterwards with journalists who have covered the story (Scott Reeder and myself), forensic analysts and Chris Ross, McNeil’s cousin.  Admission is free but seating is limited so early arrival is advised.

McNeil’s post-conviction process is in its early stages.  His lawyers point to Misook as a viable suspect ignored by police. It is not necessary for the defense to prove Misook was involved in Christina’s death; they succeed if they persuade the judge that enough doubt and new evidence exists to justify a new trial.

With millions of true crime enthusiasts now aware of the questions surrounding McNeil’s conviction, the case has moved to the court of public opinion where the smallest details often matter most in the big picture.

Here’s a link to my story on WGLT on what’s happening with the McNeil case:

https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2021-08-27/judge-allows-bart-mcneil-to-take-next-step-in-quest-for-new-murder-trial

There are some developments in criminal cases that leave you shaking your head.  Things that fall under the You Can’t Make This Stuff Up category.

This week, a judge ordered the state to turn over about 8,000 pages of police reports to lawyers for Jamie Snow, who has been challenging his murder conviction since he went to prison 21 years ago. All the players are new to this case: the judge, the prosecutor and Snow’s legal team were not involved in Snow’s trial or the years of post-conviction efforts.

What puts the recent developments in the category of the bizarre is the circumstance leading to the thousands of pages of records.  Snow’s original legal team included a lawyer who later went to prison on criminal charges and a second attorney who died, leaving Snow’s attorneys with The Exoneration Project with no access to the records that may or may not have been turned over during the discovery process. No one knows for sure.

Five years ago, a judge approved a subpoena to the Illinois State Police and Bloomington police for records related to fingerprint evidence the defense wanted for its motion for DNA testing. In response, Bloomington police dumped thousands of pages of reports that far exceeded the information requested by the police. Snow’s new lawyers said some of the material was new to them and could be considered exculpatory.

Previous efforts by the defense to obtain records from police through the Freedom of Information Act were met with black pages of heavily redacted information.

But for the mountain of information inadvertently released by Bloomington police, the defense would not have had access to materials that may impact Snow’s future post-conviction petitions.

The state balked at turning over the materials. A prosecutor told the judge Snow’s lawyers are only entitled to the materials that fit the narrow scope of the original subpoena. The judge disagreed and ordered the documents released to the defense.

It is common for the most uncommon circumstances to be the game changer in post-conviction cases.  You can’t make these things up but when they occur, they can open new doors for people with innocence claims.

Here’s a link to a story I authored for WGLT on Snow’s recent hearing:

https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2021-09-08/judge-rules-in-jamie-snows-favor-for-records-access

Soon Alan Beaman will mark 30 years since he was wrongly accused of killing his girlfriend.

The Illinois Supreme Court reversed his murder conviction in 2008 and later he was pardoned by the governor. The state awarded him a certificate of innocence.  But Beaman has never had his day in court to ask a jury if they believe the Normal police and the prosecutors handling the case at the time deliberately ignored other suspects and evidence pointing to his innocence. The Illinois Supreme Court cleared the way this week for just such a trial.

The court ruled that Beaman is entitled to a trial on his claims that three former Normal police offices conspired with prosecutors to frame him for the murder of Jennifer Lockmiller.

In its 42-page decision, the court ruled 4 to 2 to reverse a Fourth District appellate Court decision that let stand a lower court ruling dismissing Beaman’s lawsuit against the town of Normal and now-retired officers Frank Zayas, Tim Freesmeyer and Dave Warner.  The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case in January.

Beaman was convicted in 1994 of strangling his former girlfriend, Jennifer Lockmiller, whose body was found in her apartment near the ISU campus. He served 13 years of a 50-year sentence before the state Supreme Court reversed his conviction. The state dropped the murder charges and Beaman was later granted a certificate of innocence and a pardon from the state.

The detectives, working with former McLean County State’s Attorney Charles Reynard and former prosecutor James Souk, ignored viable suspects and focused on Beaman during the early stages of their investigation, Beaman argued in his lawsuit. To support his claim, Beaman points to the history of drug use and domestic violence by another man who also had a sexual relationship with Lockmiller.

The lower courts erred when they determined that Beaman failed to prove that authorities lacked probable cause to prosecute him for the murder, said the Supreme Court ruling.

“That determination must – and can only—be resolved by a trier of fact, and the lower courts erred in finding otherwise,” the court ruled.

In the 2008 Supreme Court decision that Beaman’s jury trial had been tainted by the state’s withholding of evidence, the court found that Beaman’s lawyers were not told of another potential suspect’s failure to complete a polygraph test, his drug use and violence against his girlfriend.

“The fact that four separate pieces of evidence, acquired by the detectives at different times during the investigation, were admittedly withheld from Beaman could support a finding of incompetence, mistake or malice,” the court said in its recent ruling.

The court expressed skepticism about the state’s theory that Beaman killed Lockmiller weeks after the two had ended their relationship and he had moved back home to Rockford. The NPD timeline of the killing required Beaman to drive his older vehicle a steady 75 miles per hour from Rockford to Normal, strangle and stab Lockmiller within a 15-minute timeframe, and return home, again driving the high rate of speed.

Beaman also points to time trials performed by Freesmeyer that supported Beaman’s alibi that he was in Rockford at the time Lockmiller was killed, which were not turned over to the defense during the murder trial.

Former NPD Detective Tony Daniels voiced concerns about charging Beaman but was rebuffed by Reynard and Souk, who said at the time, “I think we’ve got our guy. We went as far as we can with this case,” the justices noted.

Comments by Souk about Freesmeyer’s work on the case support Beaman’s contention that the officers influenced prosecutors’ decision to charge Beaman, according to the ruling. In a letter to the NPD chief after Beaman’s conviction, Souk said the officer’s effort was “all the more remarkable considering his youth and inexperience. Beyond any question in my mind, this case would not have been won without Tim Freesmeyer.”

Souk’s letter is one element of Beaman’s argument that NPD engaged in a bad-faith investigation.

“As to Freesmeyer in particular, Beaman asserts that a juror could determine that he was motivated by a desire to advance his career,” said the Supreme court ruling.

Souk and Reynard went on to serve as circuit judges. Both are retired.

In their review of the dismissal of the lawsuit, the Supreme Court concluded that “when the reasonable inferences are drawn in favor Beaman, as they must be when reviewing a grant of summary judgement, a rational juror could find that defendants intentionally ignored, shaped, interpreted, or created evidence to support their conclusion that Beaman was guilty.”

Justice Michael J. Burke filed a dissenting opinion, which was joined by Justice Rita Garman.

Burke opined that Beaman failed to prove police lacked probable cause to charged him with murder. Such a failure is a defense against allegations of malicious prosecution, said Burke.

Beaman’s lawsuit now goes back to the Sixth Judicial Court and Judge Richard L. Broch who was appointed to hear the case because of judicial conflicts in the 11^th Circuit were the case originated.

Beaman now lives in Rockford with his wife and two children.

Defense lawyer Curtis Lovelace has a special bond with his clients during the nerve-racking moments that precede the delivery of a verdict.

“I’ve been in that seat and I’ve been in that jail. I know what it’s like to sit and wait for a verdict,” Lovelace told me recently in a phone call on his way to meet a client at the McLean County jail.

Lovelace was thrown into the arena of the criminal justice system when he was charged with murder eight years after the death of his wife, Cory. Lovelace found her dead in the family home in Quincy in 2006.

News of the charges gained greater oxygen because Lovelace, the father of four, was lead prosecutor for Adams County at the time.  The first trial ended in a hung jury and a second trial in 2017 brought an acquittal. With assistance from the University of Chicago’s Exoneration Project, Lovelace was able to prove that his wife’s death was due to natural causes.

Love and his new wife, Christine, opened the Lovelace Center for Criminal Defense in Urbana after his acquittal. The couple moved the practice to Chicago last year after spending much of their time traveling Illinois highways defending some of the toughest cases.

On Saturday, Lovelace’s client James K. Day was found not guilty of murder by a Woodford County jury in the death of his mother. Unable to post bail, Day waited in jail for four years for his trial date. Day’s case was a difficult one, Lovelace acknowledged, because of the scientific evidence involved in showing Day did not set fire to the home he shared with his mother after allegedly killing her.

But Lovelace is attracted to difficult cases.

“We take cases where people insist they’re innocent and not interested in a plea deal,” he said.

As the trial date inched closer, Day’s family reached out to Lovelace in hopes he would take the case. The lawyer was impressed with Day’s claim of innocence.

“I believed him,” Lovelace told me. The commitment to serve as Day’s lawyer came before Lovelace had seen any of the evidence the state intended to use at trial.

People waiting months and sometimes years for their cases to be resolved often become impatient and despondent.  Having spent two years in jail during his wrongful prosecution, Lovelace knows what it feels like to wait behind bars.

“My experience gives me a level of empathy I wouldn’t have without going through what I went through,” he said.  As a lawyer, he understands that delays are often a necessary part of trial preparation.

Day, however, “was unbelievably patient for a person who ended up spending four years in a county jail,” said Lovelace.

In a year of COVID-19 when trials were few and far between in most counties, Lovelace handled four jury trials. Two of those cases were in Adams County where he won one case and lost another.  Being back in the courthouse where he once served as chief prosecutor was difficult, he admitted. “There’s a lot of memories there, not good memories.”

More needs to be done to raise awareness of wrongful prosecutions and convictions, said Lovelace. Innocence projects in Springfield and Chicago comprise a small circle of dedicated lawyers who handle the most difficult cases, including those that require an unraveling of mistakes made decades earlier by police and prosecutors.

“We do need more people involved because there’s a lot of people in our prisons whose cases need review. It’s one thing to get people out but it’s another to identify the issues that led to the wrongful conviction,” said Lovelace.

During my years as a newspaper reporter, I wrote countless stories about crime and the people accused of committing those offenses.

While some misdeeds were severe and ended with a senseless death, others involved a brief lapse in judgement. People accepted their punishment and moved on.  But the internet has changed how stories are circulated, leaving ex-offenders with a virtual criminal record that reflects little or nothing of their efforts to correct a mistake.

An initiative undertaken by The Boston Globe takes a serious look at how crime is reported and the consequences of putting every defendant in the same spotlight. The “Fresh Start” program gives people the chance to ask the newspaper to update the story or anonymize past coverage online. Each case will be reviewed individually for potential removal from Google search results or anonymizing names in the past stories.

It was not uncommon for an ex-offender to contact me and other reporters about stories with a shelf life so long it disrupted a job search or another opportunity in a person’s life. An easy solution did not exist at the time of those requests.

The arguments made by The Boston Globe that newspapers need to revisit their standards for crime coverage are worthy of serious consideration by the media.  The thorny issues of who is most impacted by crime reporting are part of the Boston debate.  I think “The Fresh Start” initiative is worthy of a conversation in newsrooms across the globe.

Here’s a link to a story reported on NPR’s “Here and Now” about The Boston Globe program:

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/02/01/crime-reporting-journalism

This year will long be remembered as the year of the pandemic, a time when the entire world struggled to fight off a killer virus that left hundreds of thousands of deaths in its wake.

The stories from past plagues that have ravaged our planet were captured in newspaper accounts and family histories, passed along by generations of survivors.  Many details of the destructive virus were left untold.

The history of COVID-19 has been recorded far more completely.

The visual and electronic storytelling techniques have allowed us to save photographs and recordings of the firsthand experiences that break our hearts every time they are shared. Soon we will all know people who have overcome or succumbed to the virus.

A conversation with a friend recently made me think about how the youngest among us will carry their memories of the pandemic.

A mother of three young children, my friend told me how she has taken photos of life during the pandemic. Photos of her masked offspring, instructional signs in public places and the mostly deserted landscape are a few of the images she has captured and saved for her children.

I wonder what type of scrapbook – virtual or otherwise – children will put together as they grow older and the pandemic of 2020 grows dimmer in their minds. They will surely have their own vivid recollections of the months when life stood still. The day school ended in a building and shifted to the dining room table. Halloween parties at home and Thanksgiving without grandparents.

I have a photograph of my grand daughter on her special First Communion day. Her beautiful white lace dress and veil are obscured by the mask shielding her face.  Her twinkling eyes peering from behind the face covering clearly show she was still smiling broadly.

Those of us who have survived the virus so far will have stories to tell not only of the killer pandemic but a political war that raged simultaneously in our country. That battle has been laboriously chronicled for future generations, too.

Children are resilient and will recover their lives with friends, relatives and the activities that kept them occupied before the door to our world slammed shut. But the scrapbooks they compile for their children and grandchildren will provide the full measure of what the pandemic of 2020 really meant to them.  And how they survived.

Christine Roush will be behind bars for 40 years for killing her mother, Teresa Poehlman in July 2017 in a violent encounter that played out in the wooden area around Funks Grove just south of Bloomington, Illinois.  Her friend Matt Isbell is doing a 12-year sentence for his role in the murder.

Christine was 22 when she was convicted. Matt was 24.

The Poehlman murder was featured in a recent episode of Snapped, a series produced for the Oxygen Network. I was interviewed about the case that leaves behind lingering questions for those closet to Christine and the victim, who was her biological mother.  The McLean County Sheriff Jon Sandage and his department’s investigative team, along with Christine’s friends, also shared their recollections.

Snapped producers were in McLean County several years ago to talk with me and others about another murder case involving Misook Nowlin.  In that case, the victim was the perpetrator’s mother-in-law, Linda Tyda.  As the show’s name implies, these are stories of people who “snapped” after a dispute reached the breaking point.

Here’s a link to the November 8 broadcast on the Roush case:

https://www.oxygen.com/snapped/season-28/episode-11/christine-roush

People forced to stay home during the months-long grip of COVID-19 are facing a second health challenge as anxiety, depression and stress take their toll.

A Bloomington counseling center which serves those with little or no health insurance has expanded its services to include children and minority residents – two groups that often have difficulties finding mental health services.

INtegRIty Counseling has seen its list of active clients increase from 85 before the pandemic hit in March, to more 170 in September.  Like most health care providers, INtegRIty was forced to change its plans for 2020 after the spread of COVID-19 forced the center to close its door to in-person visits.

The goal of expanding to 3,000 appointments in 2020 and reaching out to black and Hispanic residents seemed derailed by the pandemic, according to the center’s founder Luella Mahannah.

The volunteer counselors who staff INtegRIty continued to meet with clients through a new telehealth program. But in June after an electronic records program was put in place, the center opened its doors to those who wanted to meet in person.

“We are still doing telehealth visits but many clients and counselors prefer to meet in person. For some people, it’s more appropriate for them to come in,” said Mahannah, who manages the center with support from her husband, Don.

Despite the limitations of the pandemic, the ambitious goal to expand services moved forward.

The center’s base of 30 volunteers now includes a Spanish-speaking counselor, a translator and four bi-lingual helpers who will work as translators and front desk support.

Cultural sensitivity training will help volunteers understand the needs of minority clients, said Don Mahannah.  A higher number of minority clients have sought help in recent weeks, he said.

“We’re seeing people who went on thinking they would be ok.  What we’ve seen across the country is that people’s worlds are getting smaller and they often have relationship problems. The phones started ringing in June and by July, it just exploded,” said Don.

For Luella, the ability to hire a part-time counselor to work with children, is a major accomplishment as the center marks its sixth anniversary.  Stephanie Hueramo also has a private practice, Trust Without Borders Counseling.

Children with unmet mental health needs have “a double access problem,” said Don.

“There aren’t resources available and they couldn’t afford them if they were available,” he said.

The shortage of counseling and residential mental health care for youth was cited in the McLean County Board’s Mental Health Action Plan, released in 2015.  The lack of affordable, accessible care for children was one of four priorities outlined in the county plan.

Having a licensed counselor for youth has made a difference for families waiting for help, said Don.

“We’ve had calls from parents and grandparents the last few weeks saying they’ve been on waiting lists since March to get services for their children.  We can get them in the next week,” he said.

A parent support group, “How do we teach our kids” is led by parent educator Christie Velella. The group meets through secure video conferencing to help parents with a variety of issues from behavioral issues to the return to school this year.

INtegRIty is seeking financial support from the community to continue the expansion of its services.

The center “is working to raise an additional $25,000 in ongoing support in 2020 to support the expansion,” said Luella.

More information on INtegrITy Counseling is available at the center’s website integrityhelps.org.

Sad news spread across central Illinois recently with the identification of Todd Ledbetter as the latest homicide victim in Champaign County.

Todd also was the latest homeless person to be killed in Illinois.

I met Todd several years ago when he was living on the streets of Bloomington.  I was not aware he had moved on to Champaign. His behavior attracted media attention when someone covered his favorite bench in downtown Bloomington with a sticky, tar-like substance. Todd rightly surmised the meanness of the act was directed towards him and other homeless people who frequented the area.  The incident generated a community dialogue between downtown business owners and residents who live with the consequences of homelessness and people living on the street.

Anyone who knew Todd will admit he could be argumentative at times, a trait that made him more welcome in some places than others.  He spent time at Abundant Life in Christ Church where Pastor Charles Ahrends extends his generosity and open doors to everyone.

Todd was beaten and robbed by individuals who stole more than money. After his death, Todd’s friends held a memorial service to make sure he was not forgotten. He would have enjoyed the media coverage of their tribute.  May he rest in peace.

The list of persons wrongfully convicted in the U.S. continues to grow.  Our criminal justice system is among the best in the world but it is not perfect. Any system run by humans has its share of errors and the justice system is no exception.  The ability of the internet to share information has allowed defendants to bring their stories to the world. A judicial process that mostly takes places before a nearly empty courtroom is now detailed online — complete with supporting documents and testimony. Podcasts, websites and audio recordings from defendants arguing their cases from behind bars all tell the story of those with innocence claims. Criminal justice researchers consider the internet a game changer for many defendants.

I recently wrote a piece for WGLT on how the internet has impacted post-conviction cases.  Here’s a link to the story.  As always, feedback is welcome.

https://www.wglt.org/post/internet-opens-door-wrongful-conviction-cases

Over the past two months, coverage of most news has taken a backseat to what’s going on with COVID-19, the novel virus that has claimed thousands of lives across the globe.  News outlets are struggling to keep up with the work of sharing the most updated news with an anxious public.  I recently posted my thoughts on Facebook.  Here’s a link to why support of journalism is so important:

http://https://www.facebook.com/pg/edithbradylunny/posts/?ref=page_internal

The names and faces behind the nearly one million women, men and children on the nation’s sex offender registry represent untold stories of shattered lives left behind by the harm suffered by victims and their families as well as those whose crimes are posted for public display.

Women Against Registry is a St. Louis-area group of advocates who have taken on the task of supporting registrants — an unlikely cause in the minds of many people.  Last week I accompanied three members of the group to the Bloomington Police Department as they supported Charles Henderson, an 18-year registrant on the list, in his dispute with police.  His story illustrates the challenges of registrants as they navigate a world of assumptions by people who do not know their story.  To be clear, victims of sex crimes deserve justice and understanding.  But the devastation of such crimes often goes beyond the consequences to victims and their families.

Here’s a link to the story published on WGLT :

https://www.wglt.org/post/advocacy-group-challenges-sex-offender-rules

The Bloomington-Normal area reported more than 50 incidents of gunfire in 2019.

Teens and young adults were involved in many of those cases.  I recently interviewed local youth minister Andrew Held and McLean County Public Defender Carla Barnes about their work in assessing what’s gone wrong in the lives of these young people.  Both are involved in efforts to move would-be offenders of gun laws to a path away from the criminal justice system.

Here’s a link to WGLT’s Sound Ideas segment: https://www.wglt.org/post/glt-sound-ideas-012020#stream/0

The challenges facing women when they return home from jail and prison are complex and long lasting. An event sponsored recently by the Women’s Justice Initiative explored the reasons women find themselves behind bars and what can be done to help them start over.  Much is known about the differences between incarcerated men and women — nearly all women have suffered some form of sexual or physical abuse –but what can be done to deflect them from the pathway to prison is an ongoing challenge. Work by Deanne Benos and Alyssa Benedict, co-founders of the WJI, has educated players in the criminal justice system, women at risk of going to jail and the public about the root causes of the criminal activity that divides families and cripples a woman’s chance to succeed. Here’s a link to a story I authored for WGLT on the meeting:

Disrupting the pathway to prison

The story surrounding 8-year old Rica Rountree’s death continued this week wit the arrest of her father Richard Rountree.  He is charged with child endangerment to failing to protect her from the ongoing abuse he knew was being perpetrated on the child by his girlfriend Cindy Baker.  The arrest followed an emotional rally last week organized by Rica’s mother Ann Rountree, who clutched an urn holding Rica’s ashes as she spoke to supporters. Here’s a link to the story on Richard Rountree’s arrest authored by WGLT Content Editor Ryan Denham:

Richard Rountree arrested

Even the most seasoned crime reporters cannot escape the recurring memories of certain autopsy photos and the story that comes along with them.  When the images depict a child — abused and tortured to the point of death– the time between viewing and a lessening impact on the memory can be longer than usual.

Such was the recent case I covered for WGLT involving the January 2019 death of Rica Rountree. A jury convicted Cindy Baker, the girlfriend of the 8-year-old victim’s father, of murder, aggravated battery of a child and child endangerment. A decision is expected shortly on potential charges against the father, Richard Rountree, who is shown on cell phone videos forcing the child to stand on her head as part of the couple’s bizarre and ongoing corporal punishment.

Before the trial, I collaborated with WGLT’s digital content editor Ryan Denham on an investigative piece on how Rica came to be in such a bad and dangerous place that eventually turned deadly. Here are links to the initial story and some of the trial coverage.  Comments welcome.

www.wglt.org/post/girl-testifies-she-saw-her-mother-abusing-rica-rountree

www.wglt.org/post/failing-rica-b-n-girls-death-exposes-holes-states-child-protection-system#stream/0

after my June 2019 retirement from full-time journalism. Through my work as a correspondent with WGLT in Normal I have the opportunity to delve into those stories that make people think about how the system works and in some cases, fails.  The public’s knowledge of the courts and criminal justice system is often limited to what they know about a specific case, perhaps their own.  But beyond the day to day rulings and sentencings is a complex machine which never stops grinding and sifting the intricacies of the legal process.   Even the smallest tweak affects all layers of the legal system from how many people are arrested, who stays in jail and for how long to the size of the nation’s incarceration rate, still at a staggering two million inmates.

On October 23, Dr. David Olson presented a program to the Illinois Probation and Court Services Association on why data is an important tool in the work of probation officers.

Olsen’s news that arrests, crimes rates and the prison population are all down in Illinois seemed to surprise some probation officers in the room. Olson’s point?  When it comes to crime, the public’s perception is that things are getting worse, not better.  He included elected officials among those with that mistaken idea. Here’s a story I wrote for WGLT on the conference and Olson’s insightful research on what’s happening in the criminal justice arena in Illinois:

https://www.wglt.org/post/probation-officers-seek-new-tools-reduce-prison-numbers

Failing Rica is a story I co-authored with WGLT’s Digital Content Director Ryan Denham:

www.wglt.org/…/failing-rica-b-n-girls-death-exposes-holes-states-child -protection-system