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No bids; lots go to bank Bridges of Rivermist land sees no interest during sale By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com DeKALB – A swath of undeveloped land along Bethany Road will stay that way after a lack of interest in a sheriff’s sale pushed it to the bank that held mortgages on the property. The property is comprised of 85 undeveloped lots in DeKalb’s Bridges of Rivermist subdivision. Along with 20 lots scattered throughout the subdivision, they received no bids during a sheriff’s sale Dec. 4. A home at 447 Rutland Road in the subdivision also was up for sale at the same time, and it received two bids. Jenny Willis, an administrator at the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, said the winning bid came from DeKalb lawyer Russell Burns, who paid $181,000 for the home. According to court records, the outstanding amount on a mortgage and various court fees for the home was $151,851. No one bid on the empty lots, Willis said. In turn, American Midwest Bank now owns the property. Bank representatives and Burns did not respond to a request for comment. American Midwest Bank in January filed two foreclosure lawsuits against Rivermist Unit 5 LLC, local developer John Pappas, Park Ridge businessman Peter Iatredes, the Bridges of Rivermist Homeowners Association and tenants of the property located near First Street and Bethany Road in DeKalb. In total, Rivermist Unit 5 LLC owed $735,000 in two unpaid mortgages and various court fees, according to court documents. They also owe the Bridges of Rivermist Homeowners Association more than $130,000 in unpaid dues, court filings show. The homeowners association did not stand to gain any of the proceeds from the sales. Jim Bryner, who has lived at a home on Owens Lane since 2003, said he’s most concerned about the unpaid association dues. The association uses dues to maintain common areas of the property. “I just hope the new owner would pick up and cover those assessments,” Bryner said. “If something major were to happen, nobody’s looking forward to that.”
Photos by Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Northern Illinois graduates listen during the commencement ceremony Saturday at the NIU Convocation Center.
‘End of an era’ Weekend ceremonies celebrate NIU graduates By KATIE FINLON news@daily-chronicle.com DeKALB – Ashley De La Paz originally didn’t want to walk in her graduation ceremony Sunday at Northern Illinois University’s Convocation Center. “My grandma said to me, ‘If you don’t walk, I’m gonna be upset,’ so I said, ‘Fine, I’ll do it. For you,’ ” De La Paz said. The ceremonies at 4 p.m. Saturday and at 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sunday began with the NIU Steel Band playing a calypso version of “Pomp and Circumstance” as the graduates filed into the arena at 1525 W. Lincoln Highway. They finished with a calypso “Alma
Mater,” followed by arrangements such as Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky.” During the ceremony, NIU President Douglas Baker gave a nod to the band during his remarks, calling it “world-renowned” and said it was the first American university steel band created and “remains one of the best.” Along with recognizing a few students with extraordinary stories, Baker also asked family members to stand and be recognized by the graduating students. They were met with a round of applause. De La Paz said she finished Amy Behling of Rockford pins on her cap before the Northern Illinois her psychology undergraduate Graduate School commencement ceremony Saturday at the NIU Con-
vocation Center. Behling received a master’s of science in education degree.
See GRADUATION, page A3
CIA report revives legal debate on interrogation WASHINGTON – When the CIA sought permission to use harsh interrogation methods on a captured al-Qaida operative, the response from Bush administration lawyers was encouraging, even clinical. In one of several memos forming the legal underpinnings for brutal interrogation techniques, the CIA was told Abu Zubaydah could lawfully be placed in a box with an in-
sect, kept awake for days at a time and slapped multiple times in the face. Waterboarding, too, was acceptable because it didn’t cause the lengthy mental anguish needed to meet the legal standard of torture, the 2002 Justice Department memo said. The release last week of a Senate report cataloging years of such interrogation tactics has revived debate about legal opinions since discredited and withdrawn and about the decision to not prosecute the program’s architects or offi-
cers who used the methods. Civil rights groups in the U.S. and abroad are renewing calls to prosecute those who relied on methods President Barack Obama has called torture. “How can we seriously use the phrase ‘rule of law’ if crimes of this magnitude go uninvestigated and unprosecuted?” said Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. The Justice Department said it lacks sufficient evidence to convict anyone and found no
new information in the report. Department officials said they will not revisit their 2012 decision to close the investigation, citing among other challenges the passage of time and the difficulty of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that crimes were committed. “Our inquiry was limited to a determination of whether prosecutable offenses were committed. Importantly, our investigation was not intended to answer the broader questions regarding the propriety
of the examined conduct,” the department said in a statement after the report was released. That conclusion followed an investigation that began in 2009 as an outgrowth of a probe into the destruction of videotapes of CIA interrogation tactics. After the Senate report was released, United Nations officials said U.S. officials and interrogators who authorized or carried out torture must be prosecuted. They said the actions violate the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which the
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U.S. ratified in 1994 and which bars American personnel from engaging in torture or “cruel, inhuman or degrading” treatment of detainees. Lawyers say government officials could, theoretically, be at risk of prosecution in foreign countries where the interrogations occurred. A case also could be referred for prosecution by the U.N. Security Council to the International Criminal Court. But the U.S., which is not a member of the court, holds veto power.
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