St. Clair County

Cahokia High Coach Mario Hunt Charged With Sexual Abuse of Teen, Transmitting HIV

Update below: Mario Hunt, an assistant teacher and coach at Cahokia High School, is accused of having sexual contact with a minor -- while he knew he was HIV positive. The alleged abuse, police say, stems back to 2011 when the victim was seventeen years old. It's unclear exactly what his connectio ... More >>

Police: Imani Shakoor Steals Woman's iPhone on MetroLink, She Pulls His Hair To Stop Him

Imani Shakoor, 21, allegedly stole a woman's iPhone right from her hands while she was riding on the MetroLink. Unfortunately for him, he was not able to get away fast enough -- and the victim was not going to let her smartphone go without a fight. Police say in trying to get her phone back, she c ... More >>

Moo Cow: Wanted Homicide Suspect on Missouri, Illinois Billboards Found...in Nebraska

Moo Cow didn't find greener pastures in Nebraska. That's right, the local homicide suspect with one of the strangest nicknames to be plastered on Missouri and Illinois billboards -- managed to make it to Nebraska before authorities nabbed him. That means Moo Cow is going back to jail. Which prob ... More >>

No Smoking: New Ban for St. Clair County Public Housing Units, Likely Start of a Trend

In St. Louis County, elected officials and business owners have been fighting over a proposal to ban smoking inside most establishments -- even ones that were previously exempt. But across the river in Illinois, St. Clair County is successfully pushing forward with a different kind of smoking poli ... More >>

Caseyville Nursing Home Battery: Two Women Accused of Beating Handicapped Patient, Age 78

There are a lot of missing details in the alleged beating of a 78-year-old woman in a Caseyville nursing home, but based on the official reports released so far, it's not looking good for the two suspects. Nina Dorsey, 46, and Julia Tillis, 43, are accused of forcibly removing a handicapped patien ... More >>

Stan Musial Bridge? St. Clair County Wants To Call Mississippi River Project "Veterans Bridge"

The debate about what to name the Mississippi River bridge is back in full swing this week with yet another suggestion -- and one that some Illinois officials say everyone can support. The idea? The "Veterans Bridge." The proposed name, voted unanimously in St. Clair County, Illinois last night, ... More >>

Belleville Man Gets 25 Years for Sexting With 11-Year-Old Girl

Jack C. Baldwin Jr., a 46-year-old from Belleville, was sentenced yesterday to 25 years in federal prison for sexting back and forth with an 11-year-old girl, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois. Last August, Baldwin admitted that he sent a pair of photos of his "nud ... More >>

Reggie Allen, Charged with the 2009 City Nights Homicide, Requests Change of Venue

Citing "voluminous press coverage" of the case, 29-year-old Reggie Allen of Dupo, Illinois is requesting to be tried by a jury outside of St. Clair County on charges that he fatally mowed down Anthony Rice with his pickup truck outside an East St. Louis bikini bar in 2009.  Watch the video of t ... More >>

St. Clair County Sheriff's Department Raids 13 Shops for Synthetic Drugs

The St. Clair County Sheriff's Department joined forces with the Belleville Police, US Marshals, Cahokia Police, Mascoutah Police and the Fairview Heights Police to simultaneously execute search warrants at thirteen businesses in the county suspected of selling synthetic drugs. The 10 a.m. raid was ... More >>

Which St. Louisans Have the Strongest Livers?

It's no secret that folks in the St. Louis region like to throw a few back from time time. Sometimes every day, in fact. We live in a beer town, and many of us are quite proud of that piece of our cultural heritage, thank you very much. But is it possible to split up the alcohol-consumption demogra ... More >>

Lambert Airport's China Hub Is Dead, But May Live at MidAmerica Airport

​Midwest China Hub Commission Chair Mike Jones all but admitted defeat in the battle to pry tax breaks and public money from Missourians in order to build a dedicated aviation center at Lambert St. Louis International Airport. Jones blamed Missouri for being "cheap" as the main reason why the prop ... More >>

McDonald's Collision Sparks Lawsuit

​So, we always knew that McDonald's is bad for your health, but we didn't realize that the fast-food chain's drive-through operation could damage your body so literally. As the Madison Record reported this week, Quadiciana Paige and Brittany Small were waiting in line at a Sparta McDonald's w ... More >>

Stripper Kicks Man in Mouth, Prompting Lawsuit

Don't lean too close.​Many patrons of strip clubs appreciate the long, svelte limbs of the performers onstage. But for one disgruntled ogler on the Illside, there's such a thing as too much leg. Especially when that leg is connected to a platform shoe. A man named Andrew Deluca has filed a l ... More >>

Belleville to Bust Parents for Teens' Misdeeds

It's not our darling angels' faults when they break the law -- it's their parents!​Bad news for parents out in St. Clair County: Prosecutors are warning that if your kid acts up, you could face criminal charges.That's the word from the Belleville News-Democrat, which reports this morning that St. ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Belleville Plan is a Cop Out

Today's comment of the day comes in response to our story about St. Clair County officials and the Belleville Police Department threatening parents with arrest if their kids behave badly. Reader Jeffn9 reacted negatively to another commenter who suggested that it's not the job of the police to, well ... More >>

Alcohol Spill Shuts Down Illinois Interstate Near Dupo

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Sheriff's Department Invites Media Along for Sweep of Crime-Ridden Neighborhood

The press got to play cops last night in St. Clair County.​I've got to admit it. I enjoy the bravado of the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department, even as I occasionally question its chummy relationship with the press. Every other month, it seems, the sheriff's department emails local media with s ... More >>

Kraken Wise: Squid Rocks

​No question about it: Squid and octopus are in. On a whirlwind visit to New York late last year, Gut Check partook of octopus dishes at four different restaurants on four consecutive nights. Last week, right here in blogland, our featured chef of the week Grace Dinsmoor of Modesto shared her ... More >>

Myron Kimble: Associate of ATM Solutions Robbery Suspect Arrested for April Kidnapping

Currency Exchange at MLK Drive and Rowan in northwest St. Louis.​Officers with the St. Louis police department's Tactical Operations Unit, the FBI TaskForce and the U.S. Marshals yesterday apprehended 22-year-old Myron Kimble after a brief foot chase in the parking lot of St. Clair Mall.Kimble was ... More >>

The Exterminator: Metro-East Folks Lurve It

Image viaDaily RFT would feel uncomfortable moving any serious weight around The Exterminator​Yesterday, the BND dutifully asked Belleville residents: So now that you've got a 12,000-pound police Humvee with surveillance cameras that's parked right in your 'hood, aren't you worried about invasions ... More >>

Judge Boots East St. Louis Football Team from Playoffs

​The temporary restraining order issued last week allowing the East St. Louis Flyers to compete in high-school football playoffs was just that -- temporary. Yesterday a judge in St. Clair County refused to grant the school another restraining order in its efforts to delay a ruling last week that f ... More >>

Sheriff Mearl Justus: Marijuana Decriminalization In Illinois "Fast-Approaching"

photo by Jennifer SilverbergSheriff Mearl Justus says potheads shouldn't be put behind bars​A week ago today California became the first state to decriminalize marijuana, making the maximum punishment for possession of less than an ounce of herb just a $100 fine, about the equivalent of a speeding ... More >>

Belleville Police Face Lawsuit Over Homeless Woman Who Died in Jail

courtesy of Belleville Police DepartmentSunny L. Swanson​Around 5 p.m. on October 15, 2009, officer James Huber of the Belleville Police Department was summoned to KJ's Saloon on Illinois Street in the north end of town. A bar employee had called to report a burglary in progress at a vacant house ... More >>

Bruce Price: Felony Burglary Arrest is Not the Life He Ordered (w/ Classic Mugshot)

Bruce W. Price​Bruce W. Price was arrested last Friday after he was allegedly caught red-handed leaving an unoccupied home on the 200 block of West Garfield Street in Belleville. He was charged yesterday with felony burglary.It's hardly the 43-year-old's first run-in with the law in St. Clair Coun ... More >>

Floyd Robinson: East St. Louis Homicide No. 18; Allegedly Shot By His Neighbor, Cleo Fultz

Prosecutors in St. Clair County charged Cleo Fultz yesterday with the murder of Floyd Robinson, his neighbor on the 1000 block of N 13th Street, near the Emerson Park Metrolink station in East St. Louis.View Larger Map Police say Fultz, 23, was hosting the 27-year-old Robinson in his home at 1016 N ... More >>

Stealing Just Another Form of Tax-Free Back-to-School Shopping in East St. Louis

image viaHow to thwart a school security system in East St. Louis.​Illinois, alas, does not have a tax-free back-to-school shopping weekend the way Missouri does. And so a few citizens of East St. Louis have had to resort to other methods of saving money, namely breaking, entering and stealing. Me ... More >>

Major Case Squad Accuses T-Mobile of Delaying Arrest of Double-Homicide Suspect

Justus: Has a lawman ever had a sweeter name?​The head of the St. Louis Major Case Squad and cell-phone carrier T-Mobile Wireless are trading shots over the investigation of Eric C. Tucker. On Monday prosecutors in St. Clair County charged the 19-year-old resident of Washington Park with the murde ... More >>

Tracia Johnson: Sentenced to Year Probation for Leaving Tommy the Pit Bull for Dead in Trash

bnd.comTommy as he appeared when discovered last fall.​The dog was found clinging to life in a trash can behind a Cahokia home last October. An electrical cord tied tight around its neck had grown embedded into the skin. The dog was starved, bruised and beaten. Veterinarians didn't know whether th ... More >>

Racial tensions flare in the wake of the hanging death of Lester Wells Jr.

Matthew McConaughey Made Her Do It: Illinois Mother Sues RedBox Over Fees

They say fool's gold isn't worth squat. Laurie Piechur found it's worth $25.​Laurie Piechur, a single mom from St. Clair County, thought she'd discovered an inexpensive way to entertain her kids when she started renting them movies from RedBox. Piechur liked the fact that RedBox, those $1-a-day D ... More >>

Blake Munie: Teenage Victim Shot to Death in Cahokia

The Major Case Squad has identified the victim shot to death Wednesday night in Cahokia and have arrested a suspect in his murders. The police task force says Blake Munie received multiple bullet wounds while driving around 10 p.m. April 7 in the 300 block of Range Lane in Cahokia not far from his h ... More >>

Pink Handcuffs Can't Hold Brooklyn Man Arrested For Burning Rubber

Image ViaCops love donuts but not this kind.​Just when you think crime and punishment in the metro east suburbs can't get anymore absurd (Taco Bell police chase, anyone?) a guy goes and escapes from the pink handcuffs of a female Brooklyn police officer.A 23-year-old man -- police declined to name ... More >>

The So-Called Glass Palace on the Prairie: Mid-America Airport Called "A Special Outrage" By NBC's Brian Williams

NBC Nightly News revived its "Fleecing of America" series last night with a report on a St. Louis boondoggle: the $321 million Mid-America Airport, "a lovely airport with no scheduled flghts," in Mascoutah, Illinois. And St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern refuses to be even be interviewe ... More >>

Latin King Gang Member Shot While Tagging Garage Near Fairmount Park

​A southwestern Illinois man claims he shot in self defense when a 17-year-old gang-banger attempted to break into the home where he was staying Tuesday night.Law officers, however, tell another story. They say the 38-year-old shooter fired at the teen from a distance of 75 to 100 feet away. And - ... More >>

Dog's Bark Prompts Officer's Bite: Suit Claims Cop Aimed for Canine, Shot Woman Instead

Officer Donald Williams Knotts​Poor, poor Linda Hicks of Washington Park, Illinois. She was only trying to do the right thing last year when she called the police to remove her disruptive son from her home. In a lawsuit filed in St. Clair County, Hicks alleges that Washington Park police officer D ... More >>

Woman With 63 Drunk in Public Arrests In 5 Years Dies In Jail; Police anxiously "awaiting the results of toxicological testing."

photo of Sunny Swanson via www.bnd.com/news/crime/story/972782.html​The story of Sunny Swanson is a sad, strange one and George Pawlaczyk of The Belleville News-Democrat does a damn fine job telling it.If you missed the tale in today's BND, here's the Cliff's Notes version:Swanson, 38, was homeles ... More >>

The Big Bloody: Another Shooting at The Pink Slip Strip Club

Wikimedia Commons​For the second time this month, a man was shot at the Brooklyn strip club the Pink Slip, the Belleville News-Democrat reports. This time the shooting was not deadly. Details are scarce but here's the rub:A St. Louis man was shot inside a nightclub early Sunday.According to I ... More >>

St. Clair County Brings Out the Big Guns In Lawsuit Against Local Shooting Range ... Because Its Members Might Shoot Down a Fighter Jet?

thedonovan.comThe Belleville News-Democrat published a curious story this morning about St. Clair County's four year-long legal battle with a gun club in Caseyville. Since June 2001, the county has spent almost $200,000 in legal fees attempting to shutter a shooting range near Scott Air Force B ... More >>

Last Call?: East St. Louis nightclubs under siege

Power Broken

The Metro East’s legal community is in a dither over Amiel Cueto’s defamation lawsuit.

Win Lose Die

Belleville racketeer Thomas Venezia goes out with a bang

The Resurrection of Carl Officer

East St. Louis’ prodigal son is back — but is he the man to save Sin City?

This Gland Is Your Gland

Unreal snags the rare prostate interview, drops in on a lawyer's blog and cracks open a can of Dinty Moore beef stew (the linchpin of the Pontoon Beach Diet); plus, how many Post reporters does it take to tell us it's really frickin' cold?

Funky Town

Smokestacks, strip joints and a seriously solid tax base: Welcome to Sauget, Illinois

Letters to the Editor

Published the week of May 24, 2000

Space Case

Witnesses testify in the mystery of the Metro East UFO

Letters to the Editor

Terminal Illness

Twenty minutes from downtown, the $300 million MidAmerica Airport is ready and waiting for business -- any business. Trouble is, Lambert is killing its chances of attracting commercial traffic.

Airworthy