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Judge rules against Outlaws club Ruling says authorities can keep group’s items seized after bar fight By CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com WOODSTOCK – A McHenry County judge sided with the government in its forfeiture case against the Outlaw Motorcycle Club, although the attorney for the club says the legal battle isn’t over. Judge Sharon Prather on Friday issued a written ruling in which she found that prosecutors had proved the
Outlaws are a street gang as defined by Illinois law. Therefore, the leather vests and embroidered patches that members were wearing when they were arrested after a 2012 bar fight in Wonder Lake were indirectly linked to street gang activity. The vests and patches were seized from Outlaw members after their arrest from a bar fight at the Lizard Lounge in Wonder Lake. The defendants
– Luciano Flores, Kathleen McKevitt and Robert Bellmore – agreed to hand them over to the sheriff’s office as part of a plea deal on battery charges. The American Outlaw Association, or AOA, has argued it is the owner of all Outlaw-related property, not the individual club members who forfeited the items. Earlier testimony showed several club members entered
the bar wearing leather vests, and later violently punched and kicked the victim Cody Hutt repeatedly. “The Outlaws all acted jointly, the vests identified their membership and facilitated the fights resulting in injuries to the victim,” Prather wrote in her ruling. “They intimidated the patrons of the bar to show Outlaw dominance and to increase their reputation.”
Joel Rabb, attorney for the AOA, said the club could appeal the decision. “It was our hope we would have this settled today,” Rabb said. “I will confer with my client, but there are some issues that need to be examined by the appellate court.” The Outlaws have a violent history, Prather noted in her written motion, although she didn’t specifically mention the 1993 murders of Morris
and Ruth Gauger in Spring Grove. The Gaugers’ son was wrongfully convicted for the crime in one of the county’s more controversial cases. Gary Gauger eventually was cleared when federal authorities implicated Outlaw members for the murders. Gauger served 3½ years in prison and nine months on death row for crimes he didn’t commit.
Catholics mourn death of cardinal By RACHEL ZOLL and DON BABWIN The Associated Press CHICAGO – Cardinal Francis George, a vigorous defender of Roman Catholic orthodoxy who played a key role in the church’s response to the clergy sex abuse scandal and led the U.S. bishops’ fight against Obamacare, has died after a long fight with cancer. He was 78. George, who retired as Chicago archbishop in the fall of 2014, a few months before announcing his treatment for kidney cancer had failed, died late Friday morning, according to the Archdiocese of Chicago. “Let us heed his example and be a little more brave, a little more steadfast and a lot more loving,” Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich said Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
See CARDINAL, page A6
Beatrice Nott, 9, of Crystal Lake takes 30 seconds to look at herself in a mirror then write about what she sees while attending a new program called ChatterGirls run out of a Crystal Lake teen center. The program is designed to increase self-esteem among young girls.
‘CHANGE THE CHATTER’ Program in Crystal Lake aims to raise self-esteem among young girls By CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com
AP file photo
Chicago Cardinal Francis George celebrates Mass on April 12, 2005, in St. Bartholomew Church in Rome. George, 78, died Friday after a long fight with cancer.
She started it for her granddaughter. She started it for her daughter. She started it for herself. Alicia Birong developed ChatterGirls, a self-esteem program that aims at an age when confidence development is at a breaking point: the dreaded middle school years. “I didn’t want my granddaugh-
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For more Find information about ChatterGirls, visit http://chattergirls.net, call 815-4048343 or email aliciachattergirls@gmail. com.
ter to experience some of the things I experienced,” she said from her Crystal Lake-based office.
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Birong developed ChatterGirls for 8- to 13-year-old girls. The curriculum is taken from her own experiences with low self-esteem, and through counseling others with it. Birong talks about growing up in rural Texas – a mother with mental illness, an undignified learning disability, and making all the wrong choices with personal relationships. “I kept it all in my mind. I kept it
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in my mind for a long time,” Birong said with a slight southern drawl, although she hasn’t lived in Texas for more than three decades. “I never felt confident, I never felt like I had any power. I’m a very strong person, but I think I’m a survivor.” Since then, she’s earned degrees and is a counselor, hypnotherapist and life coach.
See PROGRAM, page A6