Next year, unless state legislators change a law linking marijuana and driving, Illinois prosecutors can continue to brand innocent people as criminals and put them in prison with no proof of guilt. That's not a claim but a sad fact, said one area defense attorney who's finding more around the state rallying to his cause. They're raising their flag now around the case of Scott Shirey, a north suburban Chicago man whose 10-year-old son was killed and twin son badly injured when a pickup truck broadsided his car at an intersection. [continues 591 words]
Prosecutors say marijuana, and in one case its synthetic form as well, impaired two drivers whose unrelated accidents killed two passengers last fall. With charges filed recently in those cases, three men now stand accused in Tazewell County of causing death by driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. One case likely marks the first time in the county that synthetic marijuana, or so-called K2, has been cited as a contributing cause in a fatal crash. Details emerged in that case from a coroner's inquest Thursday into the death of Brandon Haley, 19, of Pekin. He died instantly last Oct. 21 when Brock Meerseman drove off Hickory Grove Road and struck a utility pole guy-wire after failing to heed two signs warning the road's end was ahead. [continues 343 words]
Peoria, Tazewell counties see drug-related deaths double PEKIN - The number of deaths attributed to drug overdoses in Tazewell and Peoria counties more than doubled over the past two years. Synthetic drugs have captured the area's most recent attention in the ongoing battle against the crime and danger to life posed by illegal drugs. Misused prescription medicines have hit the radar screen. Meth remains a frightening scourge. But among all the poisons and combinations of them that killed 87 people in the two counties in 2010-11, heroin remains the single deadliest. [continues 976 words]
All Students Involved In Extracurricular Activities To Be Subject To Screenings EAST PEORIA - Local high school officials will send a message this summer to the school's students: If you plan to join the chess club, be prepared to take a drug test. The same goes for football players, cheerleaders and every other East Peoria Community High School student who will participate in any extracurricular activity beginning with the 2006-07 school year. The school will use saliva strips to test for the presence of alcohol and urine tests to screen for illegal drugs on a random basis "as a deterrent" and to nip "some increases" in drug and alcohol use among the school's nearly 1,300 students, District 309 Board President Garth Knobeloch said Tuesday. [continues 389 words]
Chief Hopes To Bolster Public's Confidence After Arrest Of Officer EAST PEORIA - Every officer and citizen employee of the city's police department has volunteered for testing for illegal drugs in their systems that will begin today, Police Chief Ed Papis said Tuesday. "I'll try to be the first one" to submit to the test in an effort "to show this community that what happened was an absolute anomaly" within the department, Papis said. He was referring to the arrest in September of Officer Ron Beeney, an 11-year department veteran, for allegedly possessing more than 28 grams of cocaine and other drugs. [continues 220 words]
Union Chief Says Officers Wonder Why Policy Wasn't Implemented Years Ago EAST PEORIA - City police officers will not only welcome a new department policy requiring they undergo random drug-testing, they wonder why the policy wasn't installed years ago, their union president said Wednesday. That attitude should ease the way for random testing to soon become a fact of life within the 39-officer department, either through an addition to the recently signed four-year contract with the union or simply as part of "department protocol," said City Administrator Tom Brimberry. [continues 340 words]
MEG Probe Yields Possession Charges EAST PEORIA - While Ron Beeney thought he was building on his 11-year career as a city police officer, drug investigators built a case that culminated Friday in the discovery of a large cache of illegal drugs and his arrest. Beeney, 36, and Julie Lynn Harris, 28, a member of the Police Department's auxiliary force, were jailed within hours after police found drugs including cocaine and anabolic steroids at their listed residence at 100 Ridge Lane, police Chief Ed Papis said Saturday. [continues 375 words]
Attorney General, Local Lawmakers Team To Double Penalties PEORIA - Responsible parents shudder at the thought of their children coming into contact with household cleaning products that can burn, poison and even kill. It's "an absolute nightmare," however, to think of a child toddling through a kitchen or sitting in a car where ingredients for the powerful, illegal drug methamphetamine are mixed or stored, the state's top law enforcer said Monday. Yet, "Tragically, it happens here in Illinois - and it happens too often," said Attorney General Lisa Madigan. [continues 377 words]
