DAILY CHRONICLE
September 19-20, 2015 • $1.50
WEEKEND SERVING DEKALB COUNTY SINCE 1879
Sycamore.....................6 p.m. Genoa-Kingston...................40 DeKalb.......................Saturday Rockford Christian................0 Yorkville.......................7 p.m. Kaneland.................Saturday
Mooseheart...................1 p.m. Hiawatha.............. ....Saturday
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Hinckley firm under investigation Grand jury issues subpoenas for Porpoise Properties’ business records By RHONDA GILLESPIE rgillespie@shawmendia.com DeKALB – An investigation is ongoing into dealings between the village of Hinckley and a real estate company owned in part by the town’s top elected official. A DeKalb County grand jury has subpoenaed village records seeking documents related to Porpoise Properties LLC, which is owned in equal
shares by Hinckley Village President James Roderick, Peter Wallers and David Burroughs. Both Wallers and Burroughs are executives at Sugar Grove-based Engineering Enterprises Inc., Hinckley’s longtime engineering consulting firm. Some residents have raised concerns that Roderick’s business with the executives creates a conflict of interest. “Porpoise Properties has noth-
ing to do with the village. That’s my personal business,” Roderick said. “There is no conflict of interest. I don’t have a stake in anything that comes before the Village Board.” The village’s attorney, state Rep. Steven Andersson, R-Geneva, said that Hinckley turned over as many as 30 pages of documents to the grand jury. Requested were “any and all information, records and documents” from Jan. 1, 2014, to May 29, 2015, re-
lated to Porpoise Properties and two homes the company owned – one at 301 N. Sycamore St. and the other at 530 Clark St. “I think there is some misinformation going around that has caused the residents’ concern, that is really undue,” said Andersson, who also is the agent and attorney for Porpoise Properties. The company buys homes, rehabs them and sells them for a profit – a
CASTLE CHALLENGE
Lightning postpones event
practice known as flipping. One of the homes it flipped was Roderick’s mother’s, located at 301 N. Sycamore St., and a subject of a subpoena. Roderick said the company was formed a year ago, about the time he needed to try to sell his mother’s home to help her pay for her care at Pine Acres nursing home, where she lived and was ill. She died in September 2014.
See SUBPOENAS, page A7
Judge denies appeal from McCullough Imprisoned murderer, 75, serving a life sentence By BRETT ROWLAND browland@shawmedia.com
Photos by Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
DeKalb and Sycamore football fans take cover from the rain Friday on the east side of Huskie Stadium in DeKalb. The game was postponed until 6 p.m. today at DeKalb High School. View video from this event at Daily-Chronicle.com.
DeKalb, Sycamore will renew rivalry tonight at DeKalb High By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com DeKALB – The annual Castle Challenge football contest between DeKalb and Sycamore high schools was postponed Friday because of lightning. The game will take place at 6 p.m. today at DeKalb High School. The Castle Challenge tradition began in 2000 and If you go draws thousands of fans from the WHAT: DeKalb CounCastle Challenge ty area. About – Sycamore at 9,000 were exDeKalb pected to attend WHEN: 6 the game Friday p.m. today at Northern IlliWHERE: nois University’s Huskie StadiDeKalb High um to watch the School, 501 W. longtime rivals Dresser Road play, supporting the local athletic programs of both teams in the process. Since its inception, the challenge has raised more than $915,000. Lightning struck about 6 p.m. and fans were herded to the Kenneth and Ellen Chessick Practice Center to get out of the weather and waited more than an hour before officials called off the game. Dan Pastore of DeKalb said that
SYCAMORE – Convicted child murderer Jack D. McCullough could spend the rest of his life in prison after a DeKalb County judge dismissed the 75-year-old man’s most recent appeal. McCullough was sentenced to life in prison in December 2012 for the 1957 murder of Maria Ridulph, 7, of Sycamore. He is an inmate at the Pontiac Correctional Center. Judge Robert Pilmer dismissed McCullough’s petition for post-conviction relief this week calling it “frivolous and without merit,” Jack D. according to court documents. McCullough After Pilmer’s dismissal, the U.S. Supreme Court is the only avenue left for McCullough to appeal. The dismissal came as a relief to Maria Ridulph’s family, her older brother Charles Ridulph said. “I was glad to hear it,” Ridulph, of Sycamore, said Friday afternoon. “The community as a whole needs some closure on this.” Maria Ridulph’s death and McCullough’s subsequent arrest, trial, conviction, sentencing and appeal were extremely difficult for the family. “It’s has been so horrible,” Charles Ridulph said. “But the people from the community and even those from outside the community ... talking with them through the process has been so much a part of our healing.” In June, McCullough filed a petition for post-conviction relief claiming that his 2012 trial and subsequent appeal were tainted by prosecutors’ misconduct and that a new witness would support his alibi. In his order, Pilmer went through McCullough’s claims one by one and determined each was frivolous, according to court records. The Illinois Supreme Court denied McCullough’s appeal in May, according to court records. Pilmer wrote that “the record does not reflect whether [McCullough] sought further review in the United States Supreme Court.” In February, an appellate court upheld McCullough’s murder conviction, but tossed two other convictions – kidnapping and abduction of an infant – because they didn’t affect McCullough’s life sentence and because prosecutors did not prove the statute of limitations had not expired.
See McCULLOUGH, page A5
A DeKalb fan dons orange face paint while before the game was postponed. View more photos from this event at Daily-Chronicle.com. while he doesn’t have any football players in the high school, his four kids attend schools throughout DeKalb School District 428, and he likes to support the Barbs. “This is what we do,” he said. “It’s the crosstown rivalry. It’s the Cubs vs. the Sox, the Yankees
vs. the Mets.” Lori Hogan agreed that rivalry was deep at Castle Challenge games. That rivalry contributes to the atmosphere, which she said seems different compared to other games throughout the season. “The crowd is bigger,” she
said. “More fired up.” Hogan just moved with her family to Sycamore from Sandwich, where her son Cody Lee, a junior, played football. He now plays center for the Spartans.
See CHALLENGE, page A7
LOCAL NEWS
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
Underdogs
On the itinerary Editor’s Note
NIU football plays at No. 1 Ohio State today on ABC / B1
Pope Francis set to visit sites in New York, D.C., and Philadelphia / C1
Olson: DeKalb went with sure thing in University Village vote / A2
Daily Chronicle file photo
Jack McCullough is escorted into the DeKalb County Courthouse by Sheriff’s Deputies Ray Nelson (back left) and David Rivers (front right) on Sept. 4, 2012.
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