GAZ_12102013

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Your source for community news and sports 7 days a week.

Did George invoke right to stay silent?

SVM ATHLETES OF THE WEEK

DIXON, A2

SPORTS, B3

dailyGAZETTE

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

SERVING ROCK FALLS, STERLING AND THE SURROUNDING AREA SINCE 1854

LEE COUNTY

Did calls get proper response? Two 911 contacts made hours before body found on I-88 BY CHRISTI WARREN cwarren@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 521

DIXON – Two 911 phone calls made the night of Nov. 12 regarding a man – alive and waving his arms – on the side of the Interstate 88, just west of mile marker 51.5 were

released to Sauk Valley Media on Monday. The first call was placed at 8:24 p.m., almost 12 hours before the body of Lee E. Catlin, 65, of Bettendorf, was found near the Hoyle Road overpass on Interstate 88. Ray Specht, 50, was driving his

semi east, scanning the highway for deer, when Catlin’s waving hands caught his eye. 911 Dispatch: Lee County 911 where’s your emergency? Specht: There’s a guy laying alongside Interstate 88 about the 51.5 mile marker. Right by the overpass, he’s waving his

arms back and forth. He’s laying down, though? “Yeah, he was laying down on the ground waving his arms” OK, hang on just a second. Let me give you the proper authority, OK?

Hear the 911 calls To listen to the two 911 calls released to Sauk Valley Media on Monday, visit saukvalley.com.

CALLS CONTINUED ON A4

DIXON

PROPHETSTOWN

‘A check his mouth couldn’t cash’ Colorful field report gives more details of fight near bar BY DAVID GIULIANI dgiuliani@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 525

Photos by Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com

Yet unfinished, Jack Bally’s one-third scale model of a B-17 G bomber wears a “B” on its tail to represent his name. And he liked the look of the triangle. Bally says it’s the fourth plane the former carpenter has built.

Just like the real thing

Only smaller, Bally Bomber nearly finished

RIGHT: Bally looks into the cockpit of the one-third scale bomber he’s building from its glass nosecone. BELOW: Bally BY MATT MENCARINI mmencarini@saukvalley.com ordered the 800-798-4085, ext. 529 plans for a one-ninth scale DIXON – Inside a hangar made model of the of old telephone poles, with a wood-burning stove for heat, Jack B-17 and multiplied the meaBally has been working on his surements by “obsession.” That obsession, nearly 13 years three in order to in the making, is a one-third-scale lay the blueprint version of a B-17 G, which Bally for his one-third hopes will be flyable in 2 years. model. The plane, which he calls The Bally Bomber, has a 34-foot wingspan and is 25 feet from nose to tail. The only part of the plane that doesn’t work, the 72-yearold Bally said, are the guns. “All the prints were really good,” he said. “They were all up scaled. I had to bring them up three times. They were oneninth-scale prints, so I had to enlarge all the prints. Every piece on this [plane] has basically been made by hand.” REAL CONTINUED ON A3

PROPHETSTOWN – After Eugene Pashon was flown to a Peoria Hospital for treatment of injuries he suffered in a bar fight in late September, a Whiteside County sheriff’s deputy took some notes. “Eugene wrote a check his mouth couldn’t cash,” Sgt. Kris Schmidt wrote. “He was mouthing off and his friends were holding him back from some other subjects when he broke free. After he broke free, Eugene ran over to confront or fight and they Pearl Harbored his butt with a surprise attack.” Pashon’s friends dragged him back to the front of the bar, and “that was when they dropped him on his head literally,” Schmidt said. Schmidt showed up to help at the request of the Prophetstown Police Department, which first responded to the fight in the early morning hours of Sept. 28 near Kuel’s Pub, 213 Washington St. The state police later took over the investigation, but officials have declined to provide details, saying they were still working on it. Asked Monday about Schmidt’s report, Sheriff Kelly Wilhelmi said the deputy simply took down field notes, and they didn’t constitute an official report. He said officers often don’t realize such information can be subject to the Freedom of Information Act. In the case of Schmidt’s narrative, the sheriff said, “it just sounds kind of funny.” Schmidt was off-duty Monday and couldn’t be reached for comment. In an interview last week, Pashon said he got into a fistfight with another bar patron in the parking lot of a grocery store that is across the street from the bar. CHECK CONTINUED ON A3

$1.00

TODAY’S EDITION: 20 PAGES 2 SECTIONS VOL. 160 ISSUE 2

INDEX

BUSINESS ......... A10 COMICS ............... A9 CROSSWORD....B10

DEAR ABBY ......... A7 LIFESTYLE ........... A7 LOTTERY ............. A2

OBITUARIES ........ A4 OPINION .............. A6 SPORTS ...............B1

Today’s weather High 21. Low 12. More on A3.

Need work? Check out your classifieds, B5.

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