Articles labeled: illinois

A 7-year-old in Joliet, Illinois caught caught in the middle of an apparent shootout.

Joliet police were on the scene of a shooting where three people, including a 7-year-old boy, were shot early Wednesday evening, police said.

About 5:55 p.m., police got a call regarding the shooting in the 300 block of South Water Street, said Deputy Chief Pat Kerr. He said it was unclear how serious the victims were injured, or whether there were any fatalities.

Wow, it’s big awards day for medical malpractice lawsuits. A woman in Aurora, Illinois has reached a $15.35 million settlement with a hospital and doctor. She had sued because six years ago, her son suffered brain damage during delivery.

Vanessa Jenkins gave birth to her son, Cody Smithey, at Valley West Community Hospital in Sandwich in October 2001.

Attorneys for Jenkins in Tuesday’s settlement say the boy suffered cerebral palsy and mental retardation after the doctor unsuccessfully used a vacuum extractor device during his birth.

A pastor at a Baptist church in northern Illinois has been arrested for allegedly having some inappropriate contact with a young parishioner.

Forty-year-old Jonathon Christopher Powell faces two counts of criminal sexual assault of a victim between 13 and 17 years old.

According to the church’s Web site, Powell is a senior pastor at New Hope Baptist Church in the village of Machesney Park.

A telephone message left at the church after business hours Monday was not immediately returned. No telephone listing for Jonathon Christopher Powell could be found.

In what appears to be an escalated domestic disturbance, a man in Romeoville, Illinois stabbed himself and an infant.

[The police] found a 25-year-old man with a self-inflicted stab wound to his stomach, police said. Next to him was a 1-month-old boy with “two superficial stab wounds” to the chest. Both were taken to Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital and are expected to make a full recovery.

The incident was under investigation early Monday and details of what led to the stabbings were not immediately released.

If we had to teach high school in Waukegan, Illinois, we might have to take a few bong hits ourselves.

A math teacher at Waukegan High School was arrested earlier this week on marijuana charges after she was caught smoking pot in a staff washroom.

Police say Deborah Logan, 46 was smoking in a teacher’s lounge bathroom when security officers confronted her. School security confiscated about one gram of marijuana from Logan, said Waukegan Police Cmdr. Wayne Walles.

There is no indication that Logan, of Evanston, was selling or buying drugs from students, Walles said.

A cheerleading coach in Naperville, Illinois has been charged with multiple counts of sexual assault to a girl he was coaching in 2006, who was 13 at the time.

Bradley Abrahams, 28, of the 4000 block of Gabrielle Drive, Aurora, is charged with five counts of criminal sexual assault. Abrahams surrendered to Naperville police Monday and was released after posting $100,000 bail, police said.

He is co-owner of ICE Athletics Cheer and Dance on Ambassador Drive in Naperville, where the alleged incidents occurred. A spokesman for the gym said Abrahams has had no contact with children at the gym since the girl’s parents reported the allegations to police in July.

A school bus driver in Huntley, Illinois was taken into custody. Police say that she deliberately slammed on the brakes, sending kids flying everywhere. The children on the bus were elementary school age, ranging from 5 to 10 years old.

Julieta Clinton, 37, of 9 Savoy Court, Lake in the Hills, was taken into custody at the school district transportation office 650 Academic Drive, Algonquin, at 1:30 p.m. She was charged with 19 counts of reckless conduct, a Class A misdemeanor, and 19 counts of child endangerment, a Class A misdemeanor.

Clinton posted bond and was released. She is scheduled to appear in McHenry County Court at 8:30 a.m. May 22.

Huntley police said they were called about 8:25 a.m. to Leggee Elementary School, 13723 Harmony Road, to assist the Huntley Fire Department on a report of several injured juveniles on a school bus. Police said it initially was reported that the school bus made an abrupt stop in the school parking lot, causing injury to the pupils.

A mom as well as five others were arrested on Chicago’s South Side after they allegedly got into a tangle with police who had converged on the woman’s home. What makes the story even more interesting is that one of the people arrested was a part of the whole Ryan Harris murder mess from several years ago.

Sonya Crawford, 41, is charged with aggravated battery of a police officer for her alleged actions Tuesday night.

Police arrested six people, including two juveniles, at the Crawford home. At least one other person will face felony charges, Bond said. One of the people arrested, 18-year-old Elijah Henderson, has a difficult history with police.

As an 8-year-old, Henderson and a then-7-year-old friend were arrested and charged with killing 11-year-old Ryan Harris — charges that were later dropped.

In the end, Henderson’s family agreed to a $6.2 million settlement with the City of Chicago.

Sounds like the Hendersons haven’t received that check yet…

Jessica Pope, an 18-year-old who attends Glenbard East High School in Chicago’s western suburbs, was allowed to bring her 21-year-old boyfriend to prom last weekend. The catch? They were only able to be there for ten minutes. School officials were concerned because they didn’t want someone in attendance that can legally buy booze for other students.

[Pope’s boyfriend Francisco] Velasco, a Marine stationed at Fort Lee, Va., received permission from his superiors to fly to Chicago for the weekend just for the dance.

Pope said that after dropping off friends at the Signature Room in Woodridge on Saturday and stopping briefly inside to say hello, school officials backed off and allowed the couple inside — if only for a few minutes.

School Principal Robert McBride shook Velasco’s hand “and went out of his way to say he wasn’t getting let in not because of any disrespect for the military,” Pope said. “It was just policy. Then another dean told us we could come inside for a bit and have some fun. I figured we would get a half-hour.”

But Pope said that within 10 or 15 minutes, McBride and several other school officials were at her table urging the couple to leave the banquet hall immediately while they were in the middle of dinner.

A Chicago mother is being held on $700,000 bail after she was charged last weekend in the death of her infant daughter. She allegedly starved and dehydrated the baby, and just overall neglected her, not even bothering to change the child’s diaper.

Chicean Crosby, 25, of the 7200 block of South Winchester Avenue wept at the hearing before Circuit Judge Raymond Myles at the Cook County Criminal Courts Building.

Crosby’s daughter, also named Chicean, was found dead Oct. 13 by paramedics responding to a call that the child was unresponsive. After the child’s death was ruled a homicide by the Cook County medical examiner’s office on April 10, Crosby was arrested and charged on Saturday.

Though police said in October that the death did not appear to be the result of criminal activity, no cause of death was given by the medical examiner’s office at the time pending further investigation.

Side note: Why did the autopsy take so long? Have we been watching too much CSI?

A man in Aurora, Illinois who was previously convicted in 1999 on aggravated criminal sexual abuse has been sentenced back to prison for 13 years after police found an incredibly large stash of child pornography in his home. One perv down, one million to go.

Steven J. Ruby, 44, must serve about half his sentence before he is eligible for parole again, and also receives credit for 1,094 days in the Kane County jail, prosecutors said.

Ruby, formerly of the 200 block of South LaSalle Street, was convicted Feb. 22 of two counts of possession of child pornography.

On April 27, 2005, parole officers on a check at Ruby’s home found several sexually explicit photos of children in his bedroom and inside aluminum cooking trays in the refrigerator, prosecutors said.

A search of Ruby’s computer and compact discs also revealed about 3,500 additional images and more than 100 movies, several of children and infants engaged in sex acts, prosecutors said.

A young man in Hoffman Estates, Illinois was hit by a train last weekend and died. The Cook County coroner has ruled the death a suicide.

A 14-year-old boy who was struck and killed by a freight train last weekend committed suicide, an autopsy has found.

Emergency personnel responded about 12:50 p.m. Sunday to a report of a pedestrian struck by a train near the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway Company (EJ&E) tracks about 500 feet north of Columbine Boulevard near Pratum Avenue.

Michael A. Cecala, of 5297 Elliott Drive, was dead at the scene. He died of multiple injuries, and his death was ruled a suicide, according to an autopsy report issued Monday by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

A young boy was struck by an off duty ambulance and thrown from his bike. What are the chances?

MT certainly hopes he pulls through.

A 7-year-old boy suffered life-threatening injuries Saturday night after being struck by an ambulance on North 11th Street.

The boy was riding his bicycle on Phillips Street about 8:30 p.m. and was struck by the ambulance as he tried to cross the street near the intersection, according to police. He was thrown from the bike.

The same ambulance that struck the child took him to St. John’s Hospital. Police did not release the name of the ambulance company.

Ugh. And this “father” didn’t call an ambulance until 5 hours as he punched his infant over and over again the stomach - even though she immediately had difficulty breathing after the beating.

How anybody could think that sucker punching an infant repeatedly is a good idea is beyond us.

Larnell Mace told police he punched 4-month-old Jasmine Mace in the stomach five to six times because she wouldn’t stop crying. His confession followed several other stories he told officers, including a claim that he accidentally stepped on his daughter and an admission to smoking marijuana the afternoon she died, said Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Steve Scheller.

As unfortunate as this case is, the mix-up lasted approximately 90 minutes when two infants were accidentally switched while being circumsized. In fact, it only lasted a few hours.

Now the parents are suing the hospital for $50,000. MT is skeptical and isn’t sure if an hour or two of holding someone else’s baby is worth $50,000. The parents claim they’re doing it so that the hospital puts policies in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again. This was an honest, one in a million(s) mistake and the hospital took quick measures to right the situation. MT thinks this may just have presented itself as an opportunity for these parents to make a little cash.

But in fact, hospital workers had inadvertently switched the babies.

They sent Bathon home with Hopkins’ son, leaving 17-year-old Hopkins in her hospital room, worried about her son’s whereabouts, attorney John Womick said Friday after suing on the women’s behalf in Williamson County Court.

“Kassie, she’s having trouble communicating how she feels,” Womick said Friday. “All she can do pretty much is cry. She’s now paranoid. She’s very concerned about something happening to her baby.”

The hospital realized the mix-up and called Bathon at home the same day, March 28, and left a message on her answering machine asking her to return to Marion to retrieve her real son, Womick said.

Womick said he wants the court to require the hospital to investigate what led to the switch and take steps to make sure it does not happen again. The lawsuits seek monetary damages of more than $50,000 for each woman and a jury trial.