A trial for two Western Illinois Correctional Facility guards facing conspiracy and deprivation of civil rights charges in the beating of an inmate had their jury trial pushed back to March early this month due to issues with COVID-19.

A prosecuting attorney in the case says a possible resolution of the case might come sooner than that. Attorney Jon Erickson of Chicago, who is representing the family of inmate Larry Earvin, who died from injuries sustained in a deadly beating allegedly at the hands of prison guards Alex Banta, Willie Hedden, and Todd Scheffler, says that the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois in Springfield has notified him of a potential settlement hearing: “The Earvin Family has been seeking justice in this case for years. They deserve justice. There is an opportunity here for them to get justice. The state has agreed to participate in a settlement conference, and the Earvin family is optimistic and remains hopeful that the state will take responsibility for this heinous murder at the hands of Illinois Department of Corrections employees. We’ll remain optimistic that justice will prevail.”

Hedden pleaded guilty in March of last year to conspiracy to deprive civil rights, deprivation of civil rights, and conspiracy to engage in misleading conduct in connection with the death of the 65 year old Earvin, who was serving a six-year sentence for a robbery conviction in Cook County. Hedden will be sentenced on April 11th and could face up to life in prison.

Banta and Scheffler are due back in court on March 28th after their attorneys asked for a continuance at a hearing held two weeks ago. Jury selection was delayed to March 28th, with the two to three-week trial starting after that. Banta’s attorney asked for the delay, saying that Banta is still suffering after a recent bout with COVID-19.

Erickson says that prosecutors in the case were going to highlight various other lawsuits by other inmates as well as a report by WBEZ and the John Howard Group, a prison watchdog group, about the lack of oversight at the prison and its history of allegedly beating inmates out of the site of surveillance cameras. The Illinois Department of Corrections says it has now fixed the “blind spot” in the prison with video surveillance. Erickson says that the federal government’s prosecution intends to demonstrate that there is a “prevailing culture” of beatings that occurred at the facility. WBEZ says that Governor J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Director of Prisons Rob Jeffreys have declined multiple requests for comments and interviews about staff abuse and accountability through the state’s prison system, and specifically about this case.

Erickson could not reveal any details of a potential settlement in the case, but remained optimistic that justice would be done for the Earvin family. Erickson says in the meantime he is working with 8th District State Representative LaShawn Ford of Chicago on changing laws on indemnification and closing a loophole of liability: “The Attorney General [Kwame Raoul] is relying on what’s titled and referred to as the ‘State Employee Indemnification Act,’ which states that the Attorney General is precluded from indemnifying a judgement or a settlement in a lawsuit if it’s determined that the conduct of the state employee willful, wanton, and intentional. The problem with that is that he is relying on that section of this statute in only this case and only in this case was it pertaining to just 4 of the murderers. Although it is clear that multiple people participated in the actual murder or assisted the officers that did the actual murder and then participated in the conspiracy to cover it up. Those people are all still liable. What this legislation is designed to do is to take away this block that the Attorney General is claiming prohibits him from indemnifying the four core perpetrators, at least the 3 that have been indicted in the federal criminal case. We know that he is using this statute arbitrarily because the State of Illinois settled hundreds of civil rights violation cases from the Illinois Department of Corrections. In each and every one of them, the burden of proof that a plaintiff must demonstrate is that the conduct was willful, wanton, or intentional. That’s the burden of proof, so he’s cherry-picking this case to apply this statute. Representative Ford’s legislation takes away that language so that the Attorney General is no longer in a position to capriciously or arbitrarily or based on financial decisions to deny justice to families whenever he feels like it.”

Erickson says Ford’s legislation has nothing to do with qualified immunity for state employees on the job: “This is absolutely, 100% not in any way related to qualified immunity. It’s a wholly, completely different idea. Qualified immunity has to do with a defense to the actual conduct and the litigation as to the liability for the conduct. It has nothing to do with funding in the judgment, should there be one. Qualified immunity is a defense that officers can put forth. This indemnification comes into play after they have already been found guilty or liable, and the question is, ‘Where does the money come from to pay for the judgment that the jury imposes?’ Representative Ford’s bill would in no way touch upon, even remotely, qualified immunity at all.”

Ford’s House Bill 4119 currently is in committee in the Illinois General Assembly and awaits a call to the floor for a debate.

The settlement conference between the federal government with Banta and Scheffler in the Illinois federal court has not yet been announced.

Greene County may have its Motor Fuel Tax Funds placed on hold unless they can hire a county engineer.

The Greene Prairie Press reports that the Greene County Board received a letter of final notice from the Illinois Department of Transportation on December 13^th that they have until March 25^th to hire a county engineer or their MFT funds will be suspended until they find one.

MFT funds are often used for annual road maintenance projects in townships, salt and chemical purchases for winter maintenance, or simple road patch and asphalt to fix potholes.

The county had selected Nathan Bullard to fill the position back in March, but Bullard informed the board he had taken a different position in Alexander County.

The county engineer position has been vacant for more than a year, after long-time county engineer retired on December 31, 2020 to take a job with Volkert. The Prairie Press reports that the Greene County Board has contracted with Volkert in the near term to fulfill any emergency engineering requirements for the county’s roads.

Under state statute, the county had 100 days to fill the county engineer position, but was granted an extension by IDOT to October 15^th. The new March 25^th date is yet another 100 day extension to get the position filled. IDOT warned in their December 13^th letter that if the position remains unfilled, no motor fuel tax money would be allocated to the county.

A sexual assault conviction that was thrown out by a now-removed Adams County Judge may get a rehearing in the near future. Adams County State’s Attorney Gary Farha says he is taking steps to put the Drew Clinton sexual assault case back on the docket after speaking with the State Appellate Prosecutor’s Office, according to Muddy River News.

Farha says he is exploring a mechanism to get the 18 year old Clinton’s reversed conviction back in front of a judge, after Adams County Judge Robert Adrian threw his initial conviction of Clinton out on January 3^rd. Adrian and the decision to throw out the October 15^th conviction drew national ire and criticism, eventually causing Adrian to be removed from criminal trials and cases in the 8^th Judicial Circuit.

Farha also speculated that the Illinois Supreme Court may act on the case. According to the report, chief deputy director at the State’s Attorney’s Appellate Prosecutor’s Office in Springfield David Robinson has spoken with Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul about the case.

According to the report, Adrian has not returned to the Adams County Courthouse since Chief Judge of the 8^th Circuit, J. Frank McCartney issued an order that Adrian would no longer hear criminal cases moving forward. McCartney issued the order after Adrian threw Josh Jones, lead trial attorney for the Adams County State’s Attorney’s office, out of his courtroom on January 12^th for a “comment” Jones recently made on social media on a Facebook post made by the Quincy Area Network Against Domestic Abuse.

In an open letter published Tuesday, Quanada’s Executive Director Megan Duesterhaus called for the Illinois Eight Circuit Court to remove Judge Robert Adrian from the criminal docket and demanded his resignation from the bench. An online petition asking for Adrian’s censure, suspension, and/or removal from his position in the 8^th Circuit has now garnered over 28,000 signatures.

Illinois Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin along with 17^th District Congresswoman Cheri Bustos announced today that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have allocated $829.1 million in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act towards major projects on the Upper Mississippi River in Pike and Calhoun counties.

The Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program will use the funding to complete the modernization of Lock & Dam 25 in western Pike County, which includes the construction of a new 1,200 foot lock. The funding also includes an allocation for n environmental restoration project at Lock & Dam 22 and other small-scale ecosystem and navigation projects in southern Calhoun County.

The Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program has been waiting on the funding since its authorization in 2007. The entire program is expected to create 50 million man hours of living wage construction jobs, and could potentially inject $72 billion into the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.

The Upper Mississippi River System transports more than 60% of America’s corn and soybeans, is home to 25% of North America’s fish species, and is a globally important flyway for 40% of North America’s migratory waterfowl and shorebirds.

According to the press release, Durbin secured $45.1 million in the Fiscal Year 2022 energy & water appropriations bill for restoration projects at Lock & Dam 25.

The Morgan County Coroner’s Office has confirmed the identity of a man found dead in a swimming pool at a Jacksonville fitness complex on Friday.

82 year old Gerald L. Glaus of Jacksonville was found deceased in a swimming pool at Fitness World Health Complex at 1:30PM on Friday.

Patterson says a cause of death is pending the final autopsy report. She says due to COVID-19, it take about 6 weeks to get toxicology reports to confirm a cause of death.

She says her office is unwilling to provide preliminary results in a case like this where there is an accidental and/or natural cause of death likely.

Patterson says she will provide an update once its available.

Morgan County Coroner Marcy Patterson released 2021’s death statistics for the county on Monday.

In 2021, there were 429 deaths reported in the county.

15 were accidental deaths, with 5 deaths each from falls, motor vehicle/all-terrain vehicle crashes, and overdoses.

5 deaths were labeled as suicides, 1 labeled as a homicide, with 408 labeled as natural causes.

Patterson says that cardiac disease remained the number one cause of death in Morgan County last year, with COVID-19 related deaths coming in at 55.

The number of deaths are down from the previous year at 485, according to Illinois Department of Public Health Statistics. Accidental deaths are also down from 21 in 2020. Covid-19 deaths in 2020 were at 54.

A Cass County solar project is now under the management of one of the nation’s largest gasoline and oil suppliers.

Savion Energy and Shell New Energies U.S. LLC jointly announced on December 17^th that Savion had been purchased by Shell New Energies US LLC, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell – the fourth largest oil producer in the world according to Investopedia.

Savion will now become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shell, with continued operations under its existing brand within Shell’s Renewables & Energy Solutions business.

The acquisition of Savion will help expand Shell’s existing solar and energy storage business and contribute to the company’s goals to develop an integrated power business as it moves to become a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050, a goal Shell set in 2018.

According to the CDP Carbon Majors Report of 2017, when taking into account its scope of 3 major greenhouse gas emissions (emissions caused by the public and other companies using its products), Shell was the ninth-largest corporate producer of greenhouse gas emissions in the period of 1988-2015. Shell’s emissions were a part of a landmark environmental case in the Netherlands in which the company was ordered in May 2021 to reduce its global carbon emissions from its 2019 levels by 45% by 2030. It is considered to be the first major climate change litigation ruling against a major global corporation.

Shell has also announced an aim to sell more than 560 terawatt hours of power globally per year by 2030: double the amount of electricity it sells today.

Savion told the Journal Courier that all of the company’s current projects will move forward uninterrupted, including the 150-megawatt, 1,500 acre Beardstown solar farm to be constructed near Edgewood Drive.

The project is expected to begin construction late this year or early 2023.

A familiar face has stepped forward to run for the General Assembly seat that was likely to be Avery Bourne’s in November.

Bourne announced Monday that she is running for Lieutenant Governor alongside Republican gubernatorial candidate Richard Irvin, the current Mayor of Aurora.

Wayne Rosenthal of Morrisonville has announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the new 108^th District representative seat. The new district carved out of the old 95^th District covers all of Menard and portions of Christian, Macoupin, Montgomery, and Sangamon counties.

Rosenthal previously served in the General Assembly between 2011 until his resignation in January 2015 when former Governor Bruce Rauner named him as the director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Rosenthal had announced back in November that he was going to seek a State Senate seat and possibly primary fellow Republican Steve McClure in the newly drawn 54^th District.

In his announcement yesterday, Rosenthal says he’s already received endorsements from 87th District State Representative Tim Butler, Congressmen Rodney Davis, Darin LaHood, and Mike Bost, and former State Representative Mike Murphy.

Murphy resigned from the General Assembly at the end of November, refusing to primary against Bourne, a long-time friend. Murphy said at the time that he viewed Bourne as a leader in the Illinois GOP.

WCIA’s Mark Maxwell reports that he asked Murphy weeks ago if he was happy about his resignation, and Murphy said he was happy with his choice and wouldn’t re-enter the General Assembly if Bourne chose to seek a higher office.

The Village of Meredosia has a new interim police chief.

The Village Board of Trustees surprisingly named ordinance officer Rusty Richard was given the interim tag at this week’s board meeting.

According to the Journal Courier, no explanation was given as to why Richard was named the new chief, replacing Joshua Weber. According to the report, Weber has not given a formal letter of resignation or officially stepped down from the position.

Weber was named chief in October 2019 after serving several months as the village’s interim chief of police.

Jacksonville Police have made an arrest of a suspect in connection to an alleged armed robbery that occurred Thursday in Rolling Acres Subdivision on East Morton Avenue.

Jacksonville Police arrested 24 year old Lillian D. Gaines of the 600 block of South Church Street at 7:26 last night.

According to a press release from the Jacksonville Police Department on Friday morning, at approximately 10:19PM on Thursday, officers responded to a report of an armed robbery that had just occurred at 1042 East Morton Avenue inside the Rolling Acres Sudivision inside a vehicle.

3 suspects were allegedly involved in the robbery in which a handgun was brandished in front of the victim. The victim reported being robbed of U.S. Currency and other undisclosed items while inside of a vehicle located in the subdivision.

Two other suspects remain at large in the case. Gaines awaits a first appearance in court this morning. She is lodged at the Morgan County Jail.

Anyone with any further information is urged to contact the Jacksonville Police Department’s Investigative Division at (217) 479-4630.