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Janua r y 29, 2016 • $ 1 .0 0
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Marengo’s Turner gives team the lead, momentum needed to beat Woodstock North in nonconference wrestling dual / C1
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Ex-Prairie Grove officer charged Village fires man accused of crashing patrol SUV into pole while drunk and on duty By KATIE DAHLSTROM
kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com PRAIRIE GROVE – A parttime Prairie Grove police officer was fired after he allegedly crashed his patrol SUV into a pole while drunk and on duty, an incident the arresting agency and the village said their policies did not require them to disclose to the public. Oscar Baez, 52, of the 900 block of Medinah Street,
Bensenville, was driving a 2011 Ford Expedition patrol vehicle when he crashed about 10:30 p.m. Nov. 29 at Route 31 and Gracy Road near Prairie Grove, according to the report from the McHenry County Sheriff’s sergeant who charged him. The sergeant reported smelling alcohol on Baez’s breath and said Baez admitted to drinking around 11 a.m. Baez failed and refused to
complete field sobriety tests, according to the report. Baez was issued a notice to appear in McHenry County court for DUI and was issued a notice that his driver’s license would be suspended. He also was issued a citation for disregarding a stop sign. He is next due in court Feb. 18 in front of McHenry County Judge Mark Gerhardt. Prairie Grove Village President Stan Duda said Baez was
Fox Lake officer’s son not charged
fired immediately after the crash and, about two weeks later, the village agreed to spend about $32,000 for a 2016 Ford Interceptor to replace the Expedition patrol vehicle Baez was driving. When asked whether he felt the incident should have been mentioned to the media, Duda said he did not, asserting the village’s part the incident was a human resource issue. “Basically, the [McHenry
County Sheriff’s Office] did the investigation from their protocol,” Duda said. “They are the ones that took the report. We took information from MCSO and that was it.” McHenry County Sheriff’s spokeswoman, Deputy Aimee Knop, said the agency did not issue a news release because it does not write news releases about DUI incidents. The Northwest Herald received a tip about the incident this
week. The crash also was not in the sheriff’s police blotter released to the media and posted on the department’s website, which Knop said was because Baez was issued a notice to appear and was not processed through the McHenry County Jail, so Prairie Grove could conduct its probe immediately. Baez’s defense attorney, James McCoy, did not return requests for comment.
McHENRY COUNTY HOUSING AUTHORITY STEPS IN AFTER DISASTERS
Police say not enough evidence found despite texts By JASON KEYSER
The Associated Press CHICAGO – Investigators did not find enough evidence to charge the son of disgraced Fox Lake police Lt. Joseph Gliniewicz with financial crimes even though text messages show the father and son discussing money pilfered from a youth program before the officer killed himself, a police spokesman said Thursday. The officers’ wife, Melodie Gliniewicz, was indicted Wednesday by a grand jury on felony counts of money laundering and disbursing charitable funds without authority and for personal benefit. With her indictment, the financial investigation is over and no one else is expected to be charged, Lake County Sheriff’s Detective Christopher Covelli said. Investigators were not able to prove the officer’s 23-year-old son, Donald “D.J.” Gliniewicz, knew until after the fact that the money he was spending had been stolen, Covelli said. Melodie Gliniewicz had fiduciary responsibility for the Fox Lake Police Explorer Post 300 accounts as a program adviser. D.J. Gliniewicz, who had gone through the program in his youth, did not, Covelli said. Gliniewicz elaborately staged his Sept. 1 suicide to look like he’d been killed in
See GLINIEWICZ, page A6
Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
George Rueterborg relaxes Thursday in his new home at Heritage Woods of Gurnee. Rueterborg previously lived in Island Lake before the McHenry Housing Authority helped him find a home after his house burned down and he lost all of his possessions.
For agency, tough task in finding housing for displaced By HANNAH PROKOP
hprokop@shawmedia.com Sue Rose keeps her purse on a hook next to her bed. After about 20 years of working with the McHenry County Housing Authority to help house people after disasters, it’s become apparent
LOCAL NEWS
how many people rush out of their homes in the middle of the night and aren’t able to grab their cellphone, keys and wallet, she said. “You see it enough, and it starts to really hit you,” said Rose, community services director with the housing authority. In the past seven and a half years
STATE
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since she’s been keeping data, Rose said she’s worked with about 255 fire victims in McHenry County. That’s not to mention the hundreds of other people she’s worked with who have been displaced after a fire, flood or any other type of natural disaster, and those who have lost their homes for other reasons.
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If someone who has been displaced does not have insurance to cover their shelter, the housing authority can put people up in motels from six to eight weeks, depending on the housing authority’s available funding, she said.
See HOUSING, page A6
February 3rd - 9th - Fat Tuesday
Tastes of the French Quarter Hurricanes & Bourbon Street Rum Punch Ash Wednesday 6 Fish to choose from