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Friday, April 4, 2014
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Schmidt not guilty
Argument may have led to Fort Hood attack By PAUL J. WEBER and WILL WEISSERT The Associated Press
Monica Maschak - mmaschak@shawmedia.com
Patricia Schmidt hugs a family member Thursday after Presiding Judge Robbin Stuckert found her not guilty on all four counts at the DeKalb County Courthouse in Sycamore. To see more photos of the trial visit, Daily-Chronicle.com.
Trial in 2011 crash that killed area couple ends in acquittal By ANDREA AZZO aazzo@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Patricia Schmidt’s attorney said her acquittal Thursday gave new life to the 49-year-old Sycamore woman once accused of reckless homicide in the crash that killed a local couple. Defense attorneys Gregg Smith and Jonathan Minkus said the case alleging reckless homicide and aggravated reckless driving shouldn’t ever have been brought to court. Smith called Presiding Judge Robbin Stuckert’s decision courageous. “This was a negligence case at best,” Smith said. “The judge did the right thing.”
Timothy Getzelman
Alexis Weber
Authorities said Schmidt was driving more than 70 mph Feb. 21, 2011, when she ran a red light at the intersection of Route 23 and Peace Road in Sycamore. Her pickup truck collided with the white Pontiac Grand Am carrying Tim Getzelman, 21, a Sycamore High School graduate, and his girlfriend, Alexis Weber, 21, a Kaneland High School graduate. Both died as a result.
ways listened to her doctor and faithfully attended all appointments. Prosecutors asked Stuckert to put more emphasis on Schmidt’s decision to drive rather than her doctor’s own expert opinion, Stuckert said. “”I cannot take that out of the equation,” Stuckert said. “Isn’t that what we expect ourselves to do?” Stuckert called on residents to call their legislators and change seizure driving laws. Dawn Weber and Tamara Getzelman said they will call State Rep. Bob Pritchard to request the laws in Illinois be changed. Most states in the United States require those with
Schmidt would have faced probation or up to five years in prison if convicted of the more serious charge, reckless homicide. Schmidt was released from jail while the case was pending since posting $50,000 bail April 6, 2011. The trial began in January and continued a few days at a time until Thursday. Testimony revealed Schmidt likely suffered a seizure just before the crash. Schmidt’s neurologist, Andrew Ta, testified he was OK with Schmidt driving and knew she was driving herself to doctor’s appointments. Ta never filed a notice with the Secretary of State forbidding Schmidt to drive. Stuckert said Schmidt al-
On the web For video from the Schmidt trial, visit Daily-Chronicle.com or use the QR code with your smartphone.
FORT HOOD, Texas – The soldier who killed three people at Fort Hood may have argued with another service member before the attack, and investigators believe his unstable mental health contributed to the rampage, authorities said Thursday. The base’s senior officer, Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, said there is a “strong possibility” that Spc. Ivan Lopez had a “verbal altercation” with another soldier Ivan Lopez or soldiers immediately before Wednesday’s shooting, which unfolded on the same Army post that was the scene of an infamous 2009 mass shooting. However, there’s no indication that he targeted specific soldiers, Milley said. Lopez never saw combat during a deployment to Iraq and had shown no apparent risk of violence before the shooting, officials said. The 34-year-old truck driver from Puerto Rico seemed to have a clean record that showed no ties to extremist groups. But the Army secretary promised that investigators would keep all avenues open in their inquiry of the soldier whose rampage ended only after he fired a final bullet into his own head. “We’re not making any assumptions by that. We’re going to keep an open mind and an open investigation. We will go where the facts lead us,” Army Secretary John McHugh said, explaining that “possible extremist involvement is still being looked at very, very carefully.” Investigators were also looking into Lopez’s psychological background. He had sought help for depression, anxiety and other problems, military officials said. “We have very strong evidence that he had a medical
See ATTACK, page A6
See TRIAL, page A6
Quinn stresses plans for student financial aid expansion By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Adrianna Carr has dreams of working in public relations for a company like Disney, which she said wouldn’t be possible without state tuition assistance to earn her business management degree from Northern Illinois University. Carr is one of 140,000 Illinois college students who receive a Monetary Award Program grant from the state. Had she waited a couple of weeks longer to apply, she could have been one of the more than 150,000 who qualified, but were denied because funding had run out. Illinois awarded $373 million in MAP grants last
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year to residents attending in-state universities who demonstrate financial need, with money going to less than half of those who were eligible, according to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Under the budget proposed by Gov. Pat Quinn, about 20,000 more students across the state could receive MAP grants with the help of a $50 million bump in funding to the program included in Quinn’s fiscal 2015 budget.
Quinn flew to DeKalb on Thursday and visited the NIU campus to promote his budget, which calls for making Illinois’ “temporary” 67 percent income tax hike permanent and doubling MAP grant funding over the next five years. “We want to make sure we invest in scholarships,” Quinn said. “We understand how important college education is to the families and students of Illinois, but it’s getting more and more expensive. We want to make sure it’s affordable to working families.” A law passed in 2011, with solely Democratic support, increased the personal income tax rate from 3 percent to 5 percent. It was designed
to be temporary, with the provision that the rate would decline to 3.75 percent Jan. 1. Quinn warned that the MAP program would be cut by $50 million if this is allowed to happen, leaving 21,000 more Illinois college students across the state without grants. “We cannot have the money run out and [have] a lot of the dreams extinguished,” Quinn said. “That’s not the right way to go in Illinois or America. We’ve got to invest in the people who want to learn. We want a lifelong learning society.” Quinn is running for re-election in November against Republican Bruce
See QUINN, page A5
Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Gov. Pat Quinn talks about Northern Illinois University senior Michelle Romero’s goals after graduation as NIU President Douglas Baker (right) looks on during an appearance Thursday at the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center on the campus in DeKalb. The Illinois Monetary Award Program has helped Romero as well as her two older sisters through college.
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