FRIDAY
Ja n u ar y 29, 2016 • $1 .0 0
DAILY CHRONICLE EXPERIENCE COUNTS
Sycamore girls basketball team will take on DeKalb in the First National Challenge / B1 HIGH
31 28 Complete forecast on page A8
daily-chronicle.com
SERVING DEKALB COUNTY SINCE 1879
LOW
Facebook.com/dailychronicle
@dailychronicle
Hastert’s federal sentencing postponed
SYCAMORE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE’S ANNUAL MEETING
By MICHAEL TARM The Associated Press
Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Michael Larson speaks after accepting the Clifford Danielson Outstanding Citizen Award during the 101st Sycamore Chamber Annual Meeting on Thursday at Memorial Hall of St. Mary’s Church in Sycamore.
Outstanding Citizen Award goes to Michael Larson Sycamore business leaders honored at chamber luncheon By KATIE SMITH
ksmith@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – About 375 businesses leaders and community members gathered Thursday to recap 2015 and honor some of the people and businesses who contributed to last year’s success. The Sycamore Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual meeting Thursday at St. Mary’s Memorial Hall, where four businesses were presented with awards for their role in the Sycamore business community. The business organization also gave this year’s Clifford Danielson Outstanding Citizen Award to Michael Larson. DeKalb County Circuit Clerk Maureen Josh nominated Larson for the award, saying he “epitomizes the very essence” of an outstanding citizen. Larson, who has served a number of organizations including the
Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Joyce Mathey, president of Pay It Forward House, celebrates as she walks up to accept the Sycamore Chamber of Commerce “Spirit of Sycamore” award Thursday. DeKalb Chamber of Commerce and the DeKalb County Builders and Developers Association, didn’t be-
come a model citizen by accident, he said. He has lived by a set of self-prescribed rules that demand he im-
prove upon everything he touches. “I’m stunned, and appreciative of getting the award,” Larson said. “The people who were there before me are fantastic people, and I’m just glad to be on the list.” At this time last year, the Sycamore Chamber was celebrating 100 years and a mission to empower people to follow their dreams, 2015 Chamber President Karen Pletsch said. “Today, a year later, we continue to empower our members and we continue to advocate our chamber mission to help businesses succeed, to strengthen our community and to help grow our local economy,” said Pletsch, who is publisher of the Daily Chronicle. The DeKalb County Community Foundation was given the Discover Diamond award for helping redevelop the historic vacant train
See AWARDS, page A5
CHICAGO – A federal judge agreed Thursday to delay Dennis Hastert’s sentencing in a hush-money case after his attorney said the former U.S. House Speaker nearly died in November from severe sepsis just days after changing his plea to guilty. U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin set April 8 as the new sentencing date for the 74-year-old Illinois Republican, replacing Feb. 29, after a defense attorney said Hastert is now largely immobile. Six days after pleading guilty on Oct. 28 to violating bank laws in seeking to Dennis pay someone $3.5 million Hastert in hush money, Hastert was hospitalized for a blood infection that spread to his spine and “nearly died that week,” lawyer John Gallo said. Prosecutor Steven Block said at the hearing in U.S. District Court in Chicago that the government didn’t object to pushing back sentencing – at least this one time. But he said it shouldn’t be put off indefinitely. “There are victims in this case,” he said. “They deserve closure.” While Block used “victims” in the plural, he didn’t identify who he was referring to or how two or more people may have been victimized. Asked about the language later Thursday, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined comment. The May indictment only mentions an “Individual A” who the former Speaker allegedly sought to pay “to compensate for and conceal (Hastert’s) prior misconduct against Individual A.” The Associated Press and other media outlets, citing anonymous sources, have reported that Hastert wanted to hide claims that he sexually molested someone decades earlier. Hastert in October acknowledged in his plea agreement for the first time that he did seek to pay someone to hide misconduct dating back decades – to around the time he was a high school wrestling coach. But neither he nor prosecutors have offered details. In answer to repeated questions from the judge about Hastert’s mental health, Gallo said his client suffered what he called “a small stroke” in the hospital but is “lucid.” Prosecutors have said Hastert could qualify to serve up to six months in prison. Hastert’s lawyers are likely to cite deteriorating health as a reason for him to get probation. Hastert was a little-known Illinois lawmaker whose reputation for congeniality helped him ascend the ranks of Congress to become the longest-serving Republican speaker in U.S. history.
Police get special training for cold case investigations By KATIE SMITH
ksmith@shawmedia.com DeKALB – A Florida homicide detective gave local law enforcement agencies a crash course on cold case investigation procedures this week. Cold case homicide expert analyst Joseph Matthews worked as a detective sergeant of homicide for more than 30 years in Miami where he investigated some of the most
violent crimes in U.S. history, including the abduction and murder of Adam Walsh – a 1981 case that made national headlines. Officers from DeKalb, DeKalb County, Sycamore and Illinois State Police Departments attended the eight-hour class, which was an effective reminder for departments that don’t regularly investigate cold cases, DeKalb Police Community Relations Officer Chad
LOCAL NEWS
Unemployment rate
DeKalb County’s unemployment rate increased to 5.7 percent in December / A3
McNett said. “When you’re a community like ours, when you’re not getting called for homicides weekly or monthly then it’s a good thing,” McNett said. “For departments like us that aren’t a big, booming, metropolis with all that rampant crime, these reviews are essential.” Although Matthews’ visit was planned a year in advance as part of a regional training program, it came at an inter-
LOCAL NEWS
Supplies needed
D-428 will be hosting a school supply drive for local schools / A3
esting time for county investigators. It was in Sycamore that a judge convicted Jack McCullough of the 1957 kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Maria Ridulph, concluding the oldest cold case in U.S. history to be solved. Police also continue to get updates on the death Amy Todd Fleming, an Indian Creek middle school special education teacher who was found strangled at her home Jan. 11,
1996, McNett said. As technology continues to develop, it’s important that officers save and preserve every piece of evidence, DeKalb police Cmdr. Bob Redel said. “Something we would never think about testing today, 20 years from now that may be the best way of figuring who committed that crime,” he said. A point from Matthews’ course likely to stick with officers is to never give up on a
SPORTS
WHERE IT’S AT
DeKalb “needs to wrestle smarter” after loss to Hononegah / B1
Advice ................................ B6 Classified...................... B8-11 Comics ............................... B7 Local News.................... A3-5 Lottery................................ A2 Nation&World...................A2
Wrestling
lead, and always introduce the case to fresh eyes – no matter how old it is, McNett said. “There’s no statue of limitations on [murder]. It’s a never-give-up attitude, even on a cold case. The stance you have to take on those is you’re not going to give up,” McNett said. “It’s for the victim themselves; it’s for the family that’s left behind that needs closure; and you want the offender themselves to be brought to justice.”
Obituaries .........................A4 Opinion...............................A7 Puzzles ............................... B7 Sports..............................B1-5 State ...................................A4 Weather .............................A8