Tag Archives: Illinois

The Baptist Press reports: A pastor from McLeansboro, Ill., was arrested Jan. 5 on two counts of grooming minors for sexual purposes. Garrett Biggerstaff was charged after a four-month investigation that included the seizure of his electronic devices and collection of evidence at his home. Biggerstaff was taken into custody and booked at the Jefferson County Jail. His bond was …

The Chicago Sun-Times reports: Assault weapons can no longer be sold in Illinois. The state immediately banned the sale of the military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines Tuesday evening, with Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature on a bill the House had passed just hours earlier. “Today, we made history, becoming the ninth state to institute an assault weapons ban —and one of …

CBS News reports: The father of an Illinois man charged with killing seven people in a mass shooting at a July 4 parade in a Chicago suburb has been charged with seven felony counts of reckless conduct, prosecutors announced Friday. Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said Robert Crimo Jr. surrendered to police on Friday and will have a bond …

Religion News Service reports: Mark Rivera, a former lay pastor at the center of several sexual abuse allegations in a conservative Anglican denomination, was found guilty of five counts of felony child sexual abuse and assault on Thursday morning. Judge John Barsanti of Illinois’ 16th Judicial Circuit Court in Kane County found Rivera guilty of two counts of predatory sexual …

Shaw Local reports: Nearly eight years after he was charged with disseminating child pornography, three lawyers and scrapped trial dates later, DeKalb pastor Corey D. Butler will spend more than a decade in prison after he pleaded guilty Wednesday in front of a DeKalb County judge. Butler, now 42, was indicted on April 29, 2015, with dissemination of child pornography, …

The Baptist Press reports: A former staff member of the Baptist Children’s Home and Family Services was sentenced to 22 years in prison Nov. 3 in White County Circuit Court. Daniel W. Lanning pled guilty to two counts of criminal sexual assault of a minor ages 13-17. He was arrested in April on four counts involving a teenager in his …

The Associated Press reports: Gov. J.B. Pritzker sailed to reelection over challenger Darren Bailey in a race characterized by near-constant acrimony and outsized spending. Pritzker, a Democrat who hadn’t held political office before his gubernatorial victory in 2018, won a second term buoyed by a campaign on fiscal stability and taxpayer relief. Bailey, 56, has made crime in Chicago a …

Reuters reports: The firearms industry knew this was coming: On Wednesday, an unprecedented coalition of big-name law firms, from both the defense and plaintiffs’ bars, teamed up with anti-gun violence nonprofits to accuse Smith & Wesson Brands Inc of responsibility for a mass shooting at a July 4 parade in Highland Park, Illinois, that left seven dead and dozens wounded. …

The Chicago Tribune reports: While running for a downstate school board seat five years ago, Republican Illinois attorney general candidate Thomas DeVore complained in a Facebook post about students who struggled to make correct change at a concession stand during a basketball game. “Lord help us with the window lickers, I mean special children,” DeVore, a civil attorney from Sorento, …

The Chicago Sun-Times reports: Republican gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey on Tuesday tried to minimize comments he made five years ago in which he said the Holocaust “doesn’t even compare” to abortion — remarks that have enflamed the Jewish community and the state’s Jewish governor, J.B. Pritzker. “In no way was I attempting to diminish the atrocities of the Holocaust and …

The Jewish Forward reports: Darren Bailey, the Republican nominee for Illinois governor, said in a video posted to Facebook in 2017 that the Holocaust “doesn’t even compare” to abortion on the scale of human atrocities. “I believe that abortion is one of the greatest atrocities of our day and I believe it’s one of the greatest atrocities probably forever,” Bailey …

Politico reports: A group of Republican state legislators who support former President Donald Trump have called on the Illinois GOP to censure Congressman Adam Kinzinger for “incendiary language, wild exaggeration and personal opinions” during the House select committee’s hearings investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. But GOP governor candidate Darren Bailey, who’s backed by Trump, and Illinois Republican Party President …

Chicago’s ABC affiliate reports: A man has been arrested after UpRising Bakery was vandalized and its family-friendly drag show, set for Saturday, was canceled, Lake in the Hills police said. A the northwest suburban bakery’s owner said she canceled the event after someone broke the business’ windows and spray-painted slurs on its walls overnight Saturday. An Algonquin police sergeant saw …

ABC News reports: The father of the alleged Highland Park parade shooter has told ABC News that he is not culpable in the Independence Day attack, in spite of having signed a consent form for his son to apply for gun ownership. “I had no — not an inkling, warning — that this was going to happen,” Bobby Crimo Jr. …

The Associated Press reports: The man charged with killing seven people when he unleashed a hail of bullets on an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago confessed to police that he fired on the crowd, a prosecutor said Wednesday. An Illinois judge ordered that the suspected gunman be held without bail. Police found the shells of 83 bullets and three …

NBC News reports: Police reported Tuesday that in April 2019 they were notified after Crimo threatened to take his own life. They also received reports in September 2019 from family members saying, “Crimo was going to kill everyone.” “At that time, there was no probable cause” to arrest Crimo, said Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli of the Highland Park Police Department. …

Chicago’s CBS News affiliate reports: A 7th victim has died after the mass shooting at the July 4th parade in Highland Park on Monday, police confirmed Tuesday. No further details were immediately available about that victim. Among the victims who died were Jacki Sundheim, a teacher at North Shore Congregation Israel synagogue, and Nicolas Toledo, a grandfather in his late …

The Independent reports: The Highland Park shooting suspect “planned his attack for several weeks” and dressed in women’s clothes as a disguise so that he could slip under the radar as he fled the scene of the mass shooting, according to law enforcement. Robert Crimo III, 21, was arrested on Monday evening following an eight-hour manhunt, when he was spotted …

CNN reports: Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said while she didn’t know where the gun used in Monday’s mass shooting in her city came from, she told NBC, “I do know that it was legally obtained.” Rotering said she had known the shooting suspect, Robert E. Crimo III, as a child. “I know him as somebody who was a Cub …

The Insider reports: A Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate in Illinois has apologized for telling people to “move on” just hours after Monday’s mass shooting in Chicago’s Highland Park suburb. Bailey later released a statement apologizing for some of his comments during the live stream. “My intent was to pray for the victims and those affected by today’s tragedy and for the …