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Tuesday, June 4, 2013 •
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MENTAL HEALTH SOLUTIONS: A SPECIAL REPORT
FINDING LIGHT
75 CENTS
Conviction will stand on 3rd try McHenry restaurant murder verdict upheld By CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com
Illustration by Caleb West – cwest@shawmedia.com
Mental health success starts with early intervention By LAWERENCE SYNETT lsynett@shawmedia.com
I
t took hitting rock bottom before James Carpenter knew he needed long-term professional help with his mental illness. He was charged with a misdemeanor in June 2007 and faced possible legal punishment. But there was another option: try to graduate from the 22nd Judicial Circuit of McHenry County Mental Health Court. “Things were pretty bad for me, and my mental health symptoms were overwhelming,” said Carpen-
ter, 34, who declined to elaborate on his condition. “Something had to be done. I knew it would benefit my life and get things going in a positive direction.” He completed the program designed for nonviolent defendants with a mental illness in less than two years, and prosecutors dropped the charge. He underwent social and rehabilitation at Pioneer Center for Human Services, as well as vocational training programs. He now helps others as a recovery specialist at Pioneer Center. Despite declining state funding
and what pending health care reform will mean for their agencies, area service providers agree that mental health success stories such as Carpenter’s are common. Their top priority, they said, is to find ways to provide solutions and push early intervention, because professionals say it is the most important step in coping with mental illness.
Early intervention Area service providers work with parents and local schools to
See SUCCESS, page A5
ONLINE • One issue facing the mental health community is finding psychiatrists who will help those in need. • View video of local mental health care professionals discussing solutions at NWHerald. com. • View this series at nwherald.com/ mental-health.
Mental illness – my life’s blessing, not curse I don’t remember when my mental health slid into mental illness. It wasn’t as if a fever broke out and a thermometer verified it. The slip into mental illnesses was gradual, something I was not aware of initially. I experienced the highs of mania, when I could work for weeks on multiple projects, when creativity accelerated, when I needed little sleep. Who couldn’t like that?
VIEWS Dick Peterson I also experienced the depths of what only could be called depression, when the smallest tasks seemed impossible, when despair slowed me to a crawl and I couldn’t sleep enough. Life became a hopeless nightmare. How
could I live like that? I couldn’t, and suicide became the only option. Fortunately, I survived four attempts. I cannot put a date on a diagnosis – most everything is a fog – but I would guess the mental illnesses began to show themselves about 15 years ago. And I live today with a form of bipolar disorder, major depression and gen-
WOODSTOCK – Three separate juries found a man guilty of murdering a McHenry business owner. Twice, the man’s convictions were overturned on appeal. But not the third. Illinois 2nd District Appellate Court justices upheld Kenneth E. Smith’s most recent conviction for the 2001 murder of Raul Briseño outside the former Burrito Express restaurant in McHenry. With each guilty verdict – first in 2003 and again in 2008 – Smith was sentenced to 67 years in prison, but successful appeals sent the case back to McHenry County court. Smith, 37, again was found guilty in 2012, more than a decade after Briseño’s murder. He again was sentenced to 67 years.
eralized anxiety disorder. One washes over the other, the lines of distinction blur. Depression and anxiety are predominant. They are chronic illnesses, not unlike those that affect physical health. Only the symptoms differ. And people with mental illnesses lead productive, successful, full lives.
See PETERSON, page A5
Kenneth E. Smith
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See GUILTY, page A6
Court: Police can take DNA from arrestees “Your DNA can be taken and entered into a national database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason.”
By JESSE J. HOLLAND The Associated Press WASHINGTON – A sharply divided Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for police to take a DNA swab from anyone they arrest for a serious crime, endorsing a practice now followed by more than half the states as well as the federal government. The justices differed strikingly on how big a step that was. “Taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court’s five-justice majority.
Justice Antonin Scalia
See DNA, page A6
LOCALLY SPEAKING Jacobs’ Reilly Peltier
McCULLOM LAKE
CRYSTAL LAKE
BRAIN CANCER APPEAL RULING MAY BE SOON
REACTIONS VARY ON SEVERED SCOUT TIES
A clarification ordered Friday by a Pennsylvania appellate court signals that a ruling about whether to overturn the verdict in the first McCullom Lake brain cancer lawsuit could be forthcoming soon. The Superior Court asked the lower court to justify its decision to throw out a claim of strict liability. For more,
Local religious leaders had mixed reactions on the recent decision by a Crystal Lake church to sever its ties with a Boy Scout troop. The Rev. Brian Grady, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, wrote a letter to Troop 550 saying he was saddened by the Boy Scouts of America’s decision to allow gay members. For more, see page B1.
see page B1.
Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
ALGONQUIN: Jacobs eliminated by St. Charles East in a Class 4A supersectional. Sports, C1
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