Federal prosecutors say a southwestern Illinois man who admitted to trafficking heroin supplied the narcotic almost daily to a former judge is now facing drug and weapons charges. 34-year old Sean McGilvery of Belleville pleaded guilty to heroin conspiracy and possession yesterday in U.S. District Court in East Saint Louis. Prosecutors say Michael Cook was a Saint Clair County circuit judge when he got heroin from McGilvery “on an almost daily basis.” Cook is the central figure in a Saint Clair County courthouse drug scandal. Authorities say he was with prosecutor-turned-judge Joe Christ (krihst) at the Cook family’s hunting cabin in March when Christ died of a cocaine overdose. Federal prosecutors later charged Cook with unrelated heroin and gun charges. He has resigned from the bench, pleaded not guilty and awaits trial.
Three men accused of conspiring with ex-Madison County Treasurer Fred Bathon to rig property tax auctions pleaded guilty in federal court to one count each of violating the Sherman Anti-trust Act. The Belleville News-Democrat reports John Vassen of Belleville, Scott McLean of East Saint Louis and Barratt Rochman of Carbondale on Thursday acknowledged colluding with Bathon. The three orchestrated a multi-year “pay-for-play” scam that cheated more than 10,000 property owners out of about $2 million in excessive interest and penalty payments. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Williams set the sentencing hearing for all three men for February 21, 2014. They remain free on personal recognizance bonds. Bathon pleaded guilty in February to rigging 2005 to 2008 tax lien auctions so that his political donors profited from inflated penalties paid by property owners.
The beating death of Cahokia man whose body was found in a southwestern Illinois state park has been ruled a homicide due to blunt force trauma. The Telegraph in Alton reports that a Madison County coroner’s inquest made the ruling Wednesday. The victim was 20-year old Dakota Jones. Three fishermen found his body in August 11th in the water near a boat launch ramp at Horseshoe Lake State Park. Coroner Steve Nonn testified to the coroner’s jury that Jones had evidence of severe head injury and his body “appeared to have been thrown.” A man paroled after prison time for killing an elderly woman in 1989 is accused in the death. 41-year old Scott Thompson of Centreville is charged with first-degree murder.