An individual involved in what would become a high-speed chase with a U-Haul out of Beardstown pleaded guilty to criminal damage to property and drug charges in Cass County Court yesterday.

30-year old Tyler J. Cottingham of Petersburg pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine and criminal damage to property over $500 yesterday in Cass County Circuit Court.

According to a Cass County Sheriff’s report on February 12^th, deputies received information on a theft that had occurred from a residence in the City of Virginia. An observant citizen witnessed part or all of the acts and pursued the offending occupants until they were able to disable his vehicle – a U-Haul truck that had taken an ATV and trailer. The trailer at one point became unhitched and ended up in a yard of a residence in Beardstown.

Cass County Sheriff Devron Ohrn said at the time that the observant resident then got into n altercation with the driver of the U-Haul – later identified as Cottingham. According to Cass County State’s Attorney Craig Miller, Cottingham screamed at the other resident at the intersection of Arenzville and Buck School Roads, before pulling a knife and slashing two of the tires on the civilian’s truck. A Cass County Sheriff’s deputy located the the U-Haul later and was able to take Cottingham into custody in Beardstown. A passenger in the U-Haul, later identified as 40-year old Shauna R. Ashby, slipped into the driver’s seat while Cottingham was being apprehended and took off in the U-Haul from Beardstown. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office then issued an ISP bulletin on the vehicle. A pursuit on the vehicle ensued and Ashby was captured several hours later with the help of a K-9 officer, east of Litchfield. Ashby remains held at the Menard County Jail awaiting further progress in her case.

Cottingham was sentenced by Judge Timothy J. Wessel yesterday to 2 years of adult probation, ordered to pay fines, fees, and costs as well as full restitution for the criminal damage. He was given credit for 41 days served in the Menard County Jail.

A Beardstown man who has been locked behind bars for the past two years is now officially heading to the Illinois Department of Corrections.

25-year old Jordan M. Horrer pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine between 5-15 grams and methamphetamine delivery between 15-100 grams in Cass County Circuit Court. Charges of aggravated domestic battery, domestic battery, unlawful possession of cannabis by a driver, disregarding a stop sign, and leaving the scene of a traffic crash were all dismissed per the plea agreement.

The charges all stem from arrests and complaints filed between January and April of last year.

Horrer has spent the better part of two years in the Schuyler County Jail off and on after being arrested by U.S. Marshals in Springfield in July 2022 along with two other men for an alleged home invasion and mob action case. Horrer was on mandatory supervised released at the time of the 2022 arrest from a 2020 conviction.

Cass County Circuit Judge Timothy J. Wessel sentenced Horrer yesterday to a total of 10 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections followed by 3 years of Mandatory Supervised Release. He was fined $5000 and ordered to pay court assessments. Horrer was given credit for 308 days served in jail. Under Illinois law, Horrer is eligible for day-for-day sentencing.

Horrer still has a remaining court case in Morgan County for a January 17, 2024 traffic stop for possession of a controlled substance. No court date for that outstanding matter has been set.

Culbertson Clinics announced on Thursday they have opened a walk-in clinic in Beardstown.

Sarah D. Culbertson Memorial Hospital expanded its healthcare offerings starting today by opening a Walk-In Clinic located inside Elmer Hugh Taylor Clinic in Beardstown, located at 100 West 15^th Street. Heidi Greer, FNP-C will provide convenient treatment for acute, minor illnesses and injuries for patients of all ages on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday from 7:00 am until 7:00 pm with no appointments needed.

Patients of all ages are welcome at the new clinic. Gregg Snyder, Executive Director of Sarah D. Culbertson Memorial Hospital said in a press release that they are proud to add this general healthcare walk-in option to the existing primary care and outpatient specialty clinic services that they already provide. He says the new walk-in services are available to all residents, not just existing Culbertson Clinic patients.

Greer will continue to see her current patients at the Taylor Clinic, to schedule an appointment with her please call (217) 323-2245.

Jacksonville School District 117 officials lost $3 million in expected revenue in February month, putting the district’s finances on alert.

Superintendent Steve Ptacek says the answer lies with Personal Property Replacement Tax (PPRT) paid by the Illinois Department of Revenue: “We are looking at maybe getting 60% of what we got last year, and that’s $2.5 million. Plus, when you do throw in some other reductions in some transportation reimbursements – MCATs this year went from 80% normally to 70% – that’s reimbursables, special education reimbursables. When you throw all of that together, we are talking about a revenue loss of nearly $3 million, and if you add in a property tax revenue gain, it’s approximately $2.5 million. That’s concerning to have that big of a revenue loss at a time when CPI has been pretty high, so our salaries were increasing to match an increasing CPI and cost of living. Fortunately, we are in a very strong position with a very strong fund balance to weather the storm.”

Ptacek says the revenue loss will not affect the district moving forward on the new Murrayville-Woodson project.

PPRT had seen record aggregate revenues for school districts across the state in 2022 and 2023according to the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. Projections for last year showed a funding gap coming according to the state’s Evidence Base Funding Formula. Then, the Illinois Department of Revenue discovered it had miscalculated payments and now all school districts across the state are paying back a penalty due to the state’s own error.

Ptacek says IDOR has been less than transparent on the amount of penalty owed, when the penalty payments will stop, or even when the penalty payments began. He says the reduction in PPRT may be a new norm for school district revenue projections moving forward: “The entire CPPRT funds were overpaid. They didn’t tell us exactly how much. They said they were going to have to take some out to pay back that payment to put it into the proper fund where it was supposed to go. We have been asking for what percentage of our regular expected payments are going to be paid out to that [debt], what’s the length of time of the payment, and more. We have received no confirmation of any of our questions. No answers. In just this last week, to the Department of Revenue…this isn’t ISBE…this is the actual Department of Revenue who is in charge of CPPRT – we asked the question if they had any heads up or thoughts on what’s going to be happening for next year was our first question. Our second question was ‘Can you update us on the status of this repayment that we’ve been paying?’ All we got back from them was ‘We have no idea of what’s happening until August.’ There’s a major funding source for us that we won’t have any idea of what’s happening to it. The rumor mills are that they could get cut another 20%. We don’t know if that’s 20% on top of what we are regularly supposed to get and they’ve been taking out the penalty or whether that’s 20% of what we got this year. We have no idea.”

PPRT payments is allocated in accordance with a school district’s respective collections of Tangible Personal Property Tax revenue in either 1976 or 1977. The allocation formula has never been updated and is no longer representative of where businesses exist geographically in Illinois.

Members of the Morgan County Highway Department opened bids on March 7 for materials on the county’s Motor Fuel Tax Maintenance program.

County Highway Engineer Matt Coultas told the Morgan County Commissioners in late February that the highway department and road districts are mostly focusing on maintenance of the county’s roads this year rather than major projects. With the renewed focus on maintenance, Coultas said he would be doubling the size of the MFT program material requests.

Coultas announced the winners of the lowest bids on the projects on March 10th at the Commissioners’ meeting: “Oil and chip work which is 1A and 1B went to Illinois Road Contractors in the total amount of $830,720. Group 6 went to Asphalt Sales, which is our durapatch oil and chip people that we pick up down in Meredosia at the plant there, at $25,500. Groups 2 & 3 both to Beelman Logistics. Group 2 is the trap rock for the oil & chip work, and Group 3 is the FA6 is the slag finds that we mix with our salt for snow and ice removal. For those two items, it’s $404,151. Group 5 to Callendar Construction is our CA6 or shoulder and base rock for a total of $28,000. Group 7 was Varsity Striping to do our pavement markings. I think we’ve got around 450,000 feet of pavement marking work to do this summer. The total bid was $54,000. The total in all groups was $1,341,921 for maintenance materials.”

Coultas previously said that some bridge work remains to be completed to expend the remaining amount of the county’s Rebuild Illinois funds from the last 5-year period.

An A-C Central High School senior has received top honors in FFA.

Tara Taft was named as the State FFA Proficiency Winner in Equine Science Entrepreneurship. Taft is the president of the A-C Central FFA Chapter of the Illinois Association FFA.  Illinois FFA recognizes students in forty-eight different areas based on their work-based learning, also known as Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE). 

FFA members who demonstrate outstanding agricultural skills and competencies through record keeping, leadership, and scholastic achievement may be considered for this award.  SAEs allow students to learn by doing by either owning and operating an agricultural business, working or serving an internship at an agriculture-based business, or conducting an agriculture-based scientific experiment and reporting results.

Taft was selected as the State Winner by a committee of agriculture teachers, industry friends, parents and volunteers knowledgeable in this work-based area, who reviewed their records online and then conducted interviews at Mt Zion High School on Saturday.

Tara is the daughter of Mike & Tracy Taft of Springfield.

Receiving this honor now makes Taft eligible to compete in the National FFA Awards Selection process in July.  Taft was previously chosen as the Chapter, Section, and District awardee in this area.  

Taft will receive a plaque for her accomplishments and be celebrated for the achievement at the 97th Illinois FFA State Convention in June.  These plaques are made possible by gifts by individuals, businesses, corporations, and organizations through the Illinois Foundation FFA.

The Menard County Sheriff’s Office has announced the arrest of a Springfield man after a high speed chase through the Capital City’s west end on Saturday.

According to a press release, at approximately 9:37PM on Saturday, a Menard County Sheriff’s deputy on patrol traveling on IL-123, east of Petersburg observed a vehicle rapidly approaching him from the rear. The deputy activated his in-car speed radar system and locked the vehicle’s speed at 80mph in a 50mph speed zone. The deputy pulled over, allowed the vehicle to pass him, and then attempted to initiate a traffic stop on the vehicle. The driver of the vehicle refused to stop, and a pursuit ensued.

The driver continued to flee and refused to pull over, traveling at times at speeds in excess of 115mph. The pursuit continued southbound on IL-29 to Andrew Road and then eastbound from Andrew Road to Sherman. In Sherman, the driver turned south on Business Interstate 55 and continued into the City of Springfield. The vehicle continued south on Peoria Road to Veterans Parkway. Near the area of Veterans Parkway and J. David Jones Parkway, the pursuit was terminated by a Menard County Sheriff’s Office supervisor.

Deputies were able to obtain the vehicle registration plate and address for the registered owners of the vehicle. The pursuing deputy went to the registered owner’s address in Springfield and upon his arrival he observed a male subject standing by the suspect vehicle which was parked in the driveway. The individual standing by the vehicle saw the deputy, immediately entered the vehicle, and pulled it into an attached garage. The deputy pulled his squad car into the driveway immediately behind the vehicle parked in the garage to prevent the driver from leaving and from closing the garage door. The deputy approached the vehicle and ordered the driver multiple times to exit the vehicle, yet the driver refused. The driver continuously attempted to close the garage door on the deputy’s squad car. The driver was verbally resistive, refused to follow the deputy’s commands, and became physically resistive. A short time later, a second Menard County Sheriff’s deputy and the Menard County Sheriff Mark Oller arrived at the scene.

The driver, later identified as 54-year old Matthew S. Leonard of Springfield, was removed from the vehicle and taken into custody despite his resistance. Officers from the Springfield Police Department arrived at the scene to assist as well.

A subsequent search of the vehicle revealed a large quantity of suspected methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

Leonard currently remains lodged at the Menard County Jail awaiting a pretrial detention hearing. He has been cited for aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude police, possession of methamphetamine with attempt to deliver, possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting/obstructing a peace officer, 4 counts of speeding, failure to stop at a stop sign, improper lane usage, reckless driving, driving with a revoked license, and operating an uninsured motor vehicle.

An unidentified 35-year old New Berlin woman was hit and killed walking along Interstate 72 on Saturday in an alleged hit and run incident.

The Illinois State Police report that at approximately 11:13PM Saturday, troopers responded to milepost 82, just east of the eastbound New Berlin exit on I-72 after a reported two-unit, hit and run. Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon says a 35-year old New Berlin woman was pronounced deceased at the scene.

ISP reports say for an unknown reason, the pedestrian was walking eastbound on I-72 just east of the New Berlin Exit when they were struck. The pedestrian suffered life threatening injuries and succumbed to those injuries. Allmon says an autopsy has been scheduled for Monday.

The decedent’s name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. The eastbound lanes were shut down for an undetermined amount of time into Sunday morning while investigators worked the scene.

ISP says this is an ongoing investigation and there is no further information available at this time. If you have any information concerning this incident, contact the Illinois State Police or the Sangamon-Menard Crime Stoppers if you wish to remain anonymous.

The first of three men indicted by a federal jury in May 2021 for sexual exploitation of a child in Pike County has been sentenced to federal prison on drug distribution charges.

59-year old Michael J. Wallace of Nebo was sentenced by Federal Magistrate Judge Colleen Lawless on Thursday in Springfield to a term of 7 years in federal prison along with 3 years of mandatory supervised release and a $100 special assessment fee.

Wallace pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting distribution of a controlled substance in Pike County on November 18, 2024 in federal court. The charge was a part of a superseding indictment filed by federal prosecutors on November 6, 2024. According to the updated charges, Wallace distributed methamphetamine in Pike County in April 2021.

Wallace was originally arrested by the Pike County Sheriff’s Department on May 14, 2021 after deputies were dispatched to the 300 block of Park Street in Nebo for a domestic disturbance. The domestic disturbance led to the issuance of a court-authorized search warrant at the aforesaid residence and Wallace along with 41-year old Bobby J. Warner were arrested on a variety of charges ranging from domestic battery, criminal damage to property, possession of methamphetamine, and obstructing justice.

A day prior to Wallace and Warner’s arrest, 37-year old Anthony M. Westemeyer was arrested along with a juvenile at a home in the 600 block of Bridge Street in Nebo after a court-authorized search warrant was executed for unlawful possession of methamphetamine charges. The juvenile was placed in the custody of the Adams County Youth Home.

A follow up investigation followed into both incidents and all three men were arrested by federal authorities on charges of sexual exploitation of a child. All three were accused of causing a minor victim to engage in sexually explicit conduct, which was recorded and stored on a computer. Wallace was arrested in Nebo on September 10, 2021 and Warner was arrested in Pittsfield on September 13, 2021

Agencies participating in the investigation include U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations; the Illinois Attorney General’s Office; the Pike County Sheriff’s Office; and the Pike County State’s Attorney’s Office.

The sexual exploitation charges against Wallace were dropped per a change in plea on November 18, 2024 after the superseding indictment was filed. Wallace pleaded guilty to the drug distribution charges in exchange for the dropped sexual exploitation charges and was ultimately sentenced on Thursday. Wallace and Warner’s Pike County Circuit Court charges were dropped in deference to the federal case on February 25th.

Warner is next due in court for a plea and sentencing hearing on April 2nd. Westemeyer is next due in court for a plea and sentencing hearing on April 9th. Westemeyer still has pending Pike County Circuit Court charges for his arrests on possession of methamphetamine, predatory criminal sexual assault, traffic charges, domestic battery, and violation of an order of protection that remain pending a resolution.