Breaking News

Man killed in fiery crash in Lisle

By Admin on March 12, 2010

A man was killed this morning in Lisle when his vehicle crashed into a bridge support and burst into flames, officials said.

The single-car crash happened at about 2 a.m. on the on-ramp from eastbound Ogden Avenue to the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway, according to the DuPage County Coroner’s office.

The man, whose identity was not yet being released, was the only one in the vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene about a half-hour after the crash.

Ogden was shut down near the tollway was shut down following the crash.

A Lisle police dispatcher confirmed that the incident occurred but declined to provide further information.

– Staff report

Man charged in 3 Southwest Side sex attacks

By Admin on March 12, 2010

A 23-year-old man who turned himself in this week after police issued an alert on a series of attacks on the Southwest Side was charged this morning with three counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, police said.

Chauvet Stiggers, of the 12600 block of South Wallace Street, is suspected in at least three incidents last week in the area bounded by 79th and 83rd Streets, Maplewood Street and Pulaski Road. Stiggers walked into the Wentworth Area police headquarters Wednesday with a lawyer, police said.

Stiggers was named as a suspect in connection with sexual attacks that took place between March 4 and Sunday.

According to police, a man matching his description sexually assaulted a
17-year-old girl in the 8200 block of South Sacramento Boulevard about
7:15 p.m. March 4 after he forced her into a green minivan.

The following day at 8:30 a.m. a man forced a 16-year-old girl into a green
minivan at gunpoint in the 7900 block of South Maplewood and sexually
assaulted her, police said.

On March 7 a man in a green minivan
exposed himself to an 18-year-old woman near the 7900 block of South
Pulaski Road.

Police said Stiggers had been seen driving a green Chrysler minivan.

He is scheduled to appear in court this morning.

– Staff report

Cause lives on for veteran killed while helping others

By Admin on March 12, 2010

Throughout his life, Bill Burtner had managed to dodge numerous bullets — both literally and figuratively.

He survived two tours of duty in Vietnam, where he was wounded in combat. Next came a bout of lung cancer, followed by a long siege of chemotherapy.

But it was neither the military nor a malady that ultimately claimed the 65-year-old custodian’s life in November. Burtner was mugged at a south suburban bank, depositing proceeds from a fundraiser for the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2580 in Midlothian. Two days later, he died of his injuries.

Burtner’s friends and family hope to pick up where he left off: supporting and honoring those who serve their country. A benefit organized in his memory is scheduled Saturday to send area World War II veterans to their memorial in Washington.

Bill and Mary Burtner in a 2008 photo taken in Oak Forest, in front of the traveling Vietnam Memorial. (Photo courtesy of Mary Burtner)

“I had to stay away from the post for a while,” said his widow, Mary Burtner. “I just expected him to walk in the door at any moment.”

The Mount Greenwood resident had been a daily presence at the brick building for about 25 years, most recently as commander. It’s the kind of place where Friday night fish fries are still a big draw and no one would ever dream of ordering a “microbrew.” There’s a collection box of assorted items — combs, razors, deodorant — that Burtner would regularly send to a new generation of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Bill was the only person I’ve ever known who’d give you everything he had and expect nothing in return,” said Debbie Halloran, manager of the VFW hall.

So it was just business as usual for Bill Burtner to be at the nearby A.J. Smith Federal Savings Bank on Nov. 16, depositing $5,500 in cash to help others. That’s when witnesses saw someone strike Burtner, grab the deposit bags and run to a waiting car.

Jerry Brown, 28, of Calumet City, was apprehended after a chase by police. Stevie Smith, 25, of Chicago, managed to remain at large until last month. Some of the cash was recovered.

Both defendants face murder, robbery and aggravated battery charges. Brown has pleaded guilty while Smith will be arraigned next week, said Andy Conklin of the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

“It doesn’t help with the loneliness, but I felt a lot of relief when he was caught,” said Mary Burtner.

The couple had been together for 28 years, and she thought her husband would bounce back this time, as he had so many times before — after shrapnel injuries in Vietnam and after cancer surgery in 2006 that removed half of his right lung.

Bill Burtner died Nov. 18 of hypertensive cardiovascular disease and fractured ribs.

“It was just so stupid,” said Steven Schaefer, a Des Plaines resident and fellow Vietnam veteran.

Schaefer spearheaded Saturday’s fundraiser at Papa T’s Bar & Grill, 4660 147th St., Midlothian. Tickets are $20, which includes food and beverage.

“This is exactly what Bill would have wanted,” Halloran said. “But still, you can’t help but ask yourself: How could something so bad happen to someone so good?”

–Bonnie Miller Rubin

Nationwide alert after Illinois man cuts off ankle bracelet

By Admin on March 12, 2010

PEKIN, Ill. — Tazewell County authorities said an attempted murder suspect triggered a nationwide alert when he allegedly cut off an ankle monitoring bracelet.

Aaron “Garth” Baecker, 63, of Pekin was indicted Jan. 25 in the attempted first-degree murder of his wife and on aggravated domestic battery charges.

On Feb. 3, Baecker was released from the Tazewell County Justice Center on $250,000 bond, with the requirement that he wear the monitoring bracelet.

Sgt. John Horan of the Tazewell County Probation Department said Baecker cut off the device late Thursday afternoon.

Horan said authorities located the device a short time later, and went to Baecker’s wife’s residence to move her to a safe location.

–The Associated Press

4 pets killed in Hoffman Estates blaze

By Admin on March 12, 2010

The Daily Herald reports: A fire that broke out in the attached garage of a home in Hoffman Estates Thursday night left four pets dead and caused what officials estimate at more than $300,000 in damage.

Get the full story: dailyherald.com.

Survivor of Cicero fire thought she’d be safe in apartment

By Admin on March 12, 2010

When mice invaded Allison Gist’s apartment, she moved to 3034 S. 48th Court in Cicero so her children and baby grandchildren would be safe and more comfortable.

She remembers the friendly maintenance worker showing her the apartment three years ago, pointing out the spacious attic that he said a previous tenant used as a nursery.

That same handyman, Marion Comier, 47, is accused of setting the building on fire around 6:30 a.m. Feb. 14, killing seven people. Gist’s two daughters, a son and two grandsons, the youngest just 3 days old, were among those killed.

The victims were trapped in the attic, the only stairwell blocked by flames.

“He knew they’d be up there, asleep,” Gist said today in a small voice, looking at the ground.

Family members, friends and survivors, including Alison Gist (left) who lost several family members in the fatal Valentine’s Day fire in Cicero, gather at Alessandro’s restaurant Thursday. (Tribune / Antonio Perez)

She and roughly a dozen other survivors of the fire met Thursday at a lunch sponsored for them by the One Voice, One Love Foundation and Judah Travelers Ministry.

Some of the survivors wept as they remembered friends and relatives killed in the blaze, and they shared how they struggle to comprehend how the fire could have been intentionally set.

Prosecutors say Comier torched the apartment building at the request of landlord Lawrence Myers, 60, who is accused of trying to collect $250,000 in insurance money. Myers and Comier each are charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated arson and are being held without bail.

Cicero officials this week obtained a court order allowing them to immediately inspect two other buildings owned and managed by Myers and Comier. The town plans to check on living conditions and general safety there.

Officials on Thursday also released property and maintenance records to the Tribune that show that the building where the fire took place was riddled with code violations and health and safety concerns for many years, most of them occurring in the last five years. Officials had referred to the violations in the days right after the fire.

The documents describe problems that included rodent holes in the foundation, damaged exterior stairs breaking away from the building, overflowing garbage and general aesthetic complaints. The town’s building department had scheduled at least 18 inspections or reinspections of the property since 2005, though it’s unclear if all of them were carried out.

The town would not release all documents related to the building, citing an ongoing investigation of the fire. Cicero officials had said the property was inspected for overcrowding but no evidence was ever found.

Killed in the fire were Gist’s daughter Sallie, 19; her daughter’s boyfriend, Byron Reed, 20; and their sons Rashon, 3, and Brian, 3 days old. Also killed were Allison Gist’s 16-year-old twins Elijah and Elisha and family friend Tiera Davidson, 18.

The fire displaced about 20 people, many still living in hotels or with family members.

Gist said she and her surviving family members are living in a hotel, and she has trouble sleeping and often awakens with fears of being burned in her sleep.

She once considered Comier a friend. He was kind, she said. He let her pay rent mid-month once and even loaned her money on another occasion.

“You never know,” she said. “It’s weird that you can’t ever trust anyone anymore.”

–Angie Leventis Lourgos

Click HERE for a WGN-TV report on this story.

Black Chicago firefighters losing ground

By Admin on March 12, 2010

Mark Townsend joined the Chicago Fire Department in 1988 hoping to help pave the way for future black firefighters in an agency long plagued by charges of racism.

But as Townsend nears retirement, he faces a troubling fact: Despite years of diversity training and a highly publicized minority recruitment campaign, the percentage of African-Americans in the department is shrinking.

Chicago ranks third from the bottom — in front of only New York City and Baltimore — when it comes to how closely its percentage of black firefighters matches the city’s racial makeup, according to a Tribune analysis of 10 of the largest fire departments.

Captain Mark Townsend at the Engine 82 Firehouse on the South Side, Monday, March 8. (Tribune / Alex Garcia)

“We are definitely moving backward,” said Townsend, a captain and 22-year veteran. “It’s very disappointing, and it also makes you angry.”

The racial makeup of the department is in the spotlight as the U.S. Supreme Court in the coming months is expected to rule on a potential $100 million civil rights case stemming from allegations of racial bias against black applicants in the department’s 1995 entry-level exam.

Since that test, the percentage of African-Americans in the department has slipped from 22 percent to 18 percent, though blacks represent about 34 percent of the city’s population.

Townsend and others worry it is only going to get worse. Hundreds of black firefighters hired in the 1980s become eligible for retirement in the coming months, so they expect to see their numbers plummet. The department is gearing up for a hiring spree in anticipation of that, but the list it’s pulling from is only 21 percent African-American.

Meanwhile, the newest class of 160 recruits, set to graduate at the end of March, is 66 percent white, 18 percent Hispanic and 13 percent black, according to the department.

“The numbers coming in just can’t keep up with those that will be going out,” said Fire Department Engineer Gregory Boggs, president of the African American Firefighter’s & Paramedic’s League of Chicago.

The current decline, coupled with the possibility the percentage of black firefighters could soon drop to a 20-year low, raises questions about why efforts to recruit African-Americans seem to have had little impact.

Fire Department officials stressed it will take time to achieve greater diversity in a large agency with little turnover.

“The mathematical reality is that change requires more bodies (than in smaller departments),” said spokesman Larry Langford, who acknowledged the agency “is not there yet” in terms of minority representation.

But black firefighters point to the infrequency of entrance exams and targeted recruitment campaigns as a major obstacle to building meaningful relationships with a community that has historically felt unwelcome by the agency.

Under state guidelines, all paid municipal fire departments must give new tests about every three years. Chicago is exempt from those rules.

The city’s most recent entrance exams were in 1985, 1995 and 2006. Those who passed the 2006 exam were randomly assigned a number between one and about 17,000. The department pulls from this list, but potential recruits can wait years before their numbers are called.

Philip Cowley, who works as a registered nurse in Chicago, said he found out about the 2006 exam days after it was held.

“I really want to become a firefighter, but it’s not practical for me to wait until 2016 just to apply,” said Cowley, who is African-American and decided to apply to the Homewood Fire Department instead.

Langford said there is no single factor behind the city’s decision to hold exams every 10 years.

“I am sure economics (has) had something to do with it, and the availability (of applicants) — we still had a lot of people on the lists,” Langford said. The department’s current goal is to hold tests every three to five years, he said.

Most fire departments refresh their lists with exams every one or two years, said Larry Sagen, executive director of Fire 20\20, a national group that analyzes and supports diversity recruitment and retention.

“If you have a list and it is just sitting there for 10 years, you are not getting new and current people,” Sagen said. “It definitely impacts your ability to have that connection with diverse and multicultural communities.”

A minority recruitment blitz preceded Chicago’s 2006 test, including outreach to majority black schools, churches and businesses and advertising. In the end, blacks made up about 25 percent of those who applied.

Department officials acknowledged they had hoped for a better turnout. In 1995, blacks represented 36 percent of those who took the exam. But Adrianne Bryant, an assistant commissioner who headed the 2006 diversity outreach campaign, said numbers were down overall. Bryant pointed to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina as possible influencing factors.

“Many people saw what first responders really had to go through,” she said.

But black firefighters say the brevity of the campaign was not enough to overcome a perceived culture of bigotry in the department.

“A lot of black kids don’t know this is something they can aspire to,” said Boggs. “Their grandfathers and fathers didn’t do this, so they have a harder time knowing where to begin.”

Over the years, black firefighters have reported harassment, such as finding nooses hanging in their firehouses. An infamous videotape of a 1990 retirement party, which became public in 1997, depicted white firefighters drinking, exposing themselves and using racial slurs. In 2004, a firefighter on an all-white truck made racist comments over an open microphone.

Gillespie Taylor, 24, an accounting student at DeVry University, said that growing up in Rogers Park, he rarely saw black firefighters but still heard stories of conflict in the department.

“It follows that we’re not welcome … it is not something that we should pursue,” said Taylor. “(The Fire Department) did not project that this could be a (career) option as a young African-American.”

Tom Ryan, president of the firefighters union, declined to comment on the department’s diversity.

“We have nothing to do with hiring,” Ryan said. “There are no problems that I know of (with race in the department).”

Although many firefighters say race relations have improved, particularly among the younger generation, they say some firehouses are still uncomfortable places filled with off-color jokes and racially loaded pranks.

Lt. Rocky Morris said he often felt ostracized in 2008 while working as an African-American firefighter in an all-white firehouse on the West Side, where he said colleagues would tape pink transfer slips to his locker.

“It was a hostile work environment,” said Morris, a 24-year veteran.

Lt. Silvery Mitchell, a 23-year veteran who is black, said that when she did recruiting for the 2006 exam, she still encountered worries from potential black recruits.

“There were questions like: Did they ever do anything to you? Or, did they ever leave you at a fire or ever play tricks on you or call you names or not eat with you?” said Mitchell.

Many minorities who came to fire departments nationally from the ’70s through the ’90s, often under court orders, found themselves in hostile environments and spread the word in their communities, Sagen said. That remains an obstacle in recruiting the next generation.

Fire Department officials denied that the agency’s history had anything do to with current underrepresentation of African-Americans. Langford said that, simply put, some people just don’t want to become firefighters.

“It’s a reality of life that if you get several thousand people together, they are not all going to be sensitive to everyone’s background or makeup,” said Langford. “(But) I don’t think that anything has occurred in the Chicago Fire Department that is so far out of the ordinary it would cause any group to feel unwelcome.”

Langford also said that over the last several years minority representation in the command ranks has improved. “That is a signal to young blacks and Hispanics that you can succeed in the Fire Department,” he said.

Experts say there is no magic formula for diversity, but some of the most successful departments use aggressive advertising for regular exams, hire part- and full-time recruiters, mentor applicants and offer cadet programs, among other steps. Chicago uses its fire safety program at thousands of events every year to promote careers in the agency. The agency offers a cadet program with police through city schools.

But the department’s Bryant said that without an actual test, recruitment is limited. “The challenge with doing it full throttle is if there is no place for people to channel their energy — if there is no exam to take, where do we send them,” she said.

The department would like to hold another exam before 2012, Bryant said.

But Townsend and other firefighters are skeptical that will actually happen.

On a recent winter day, as Townsend and his team were shoveling out fire hydrants on the South Side, a young black man walked up and asked him about becoming a firefighter. Townsend told him that he didn’t know when the next exam would be and suggested the man approach suburban departments or pursue his paramedic’s license instead.

“It was disheartening,” Townsend said. “He took out a pen and paper and wrote down the information. Then we drove off, and he was just standing there.”

–Cynthia Dizikes

Restaurant owners charged in check-kiting scheme

By Admin on March 12, 2010

A father and son who operated the Boston Blackie’s burger restaurants were charged Thursday with ripping off nearly $1.9 million from two banks in a check-cashing scheme, and authorities said they arrested the father on the U.S. border as he was trying to enter Canada.

The allegations caused a new round of political embarrassment for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, whose family owns Broadway Bank and has long known the father and son.

The Blackie’s operators are accused of writing bad checks from their accounts at Broadway to other banks as part of their alleged scheme. Longtime Blackie’s operator Nick Giannis gave Giannoulias more than $114,000 in campaign contributions for his treasurer and Senate campaigns.

Giannoulias was in a state of “shock and disbelief” at the news, according to his campaign, which announced he would donate an equivalent amount to local charities.

Cook County state’s attorney Anita Alvarez holds a press conference at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse today to announce check-kiting charges against Chris Giannis and Nick Giannis, the owners of the Boston Blackie’s restaurant chain. A manager, Andy Bakopoulos, also was charged. (Terrence Antonio James/Tribune)

Giannis, 62, his son, Chris, 38, and restaurant manager Andy Bakopoulos, 38, were charged with defrauding Charter One and Washington Mutual banks. Chris Giannis also was charged with two counts of being an organizer of a continuing financial crimes enterprise.

Nick Giannis was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Detroit while attempting to enter Canada after he failed to surrender to authorities and investigators sent out a nationwide alert.

Prosecutors said the men participated in a so-called check-kiting scheme in which they wrote checks from bank accounts that didn’t have enough money and deposited those checks at Charter One and Washington Mutual. They then withdrew money from their Charter One and Washington Mutual accounts before the checks actually cleared, or in some cases stopped payments on the checks.

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez did not identify a motive for the alleged scheme. But a law enforcement source said the Giannis family had overextended itself and was trying to stave off creditors on bills owed related to the business and some expansions or new ventures they had planned.

Chris Giannis’ attorney, former Cook County State’s Attorney Dick Devine, said his client was “caught up in a tough business situation, and he did the best he could under difficult circumstances.” Giannis was allowed to take out more money than what was in the Charter One bank account, according to Devine, who said such overdraft protection is commonly extended to restaurant owners because of the unpredictable nature of their business.

In a proffer filed by prosecutors, Bakopoulos admitted stopping payment on checks he had just deposited and acknowledged he knew that was wrong. But he said he was told to do it by Chris Giannis and needed the job.

The Boston Blackie’s chain, which expanded from a single restaurant in the River East neighborhood in the 1980s to eight outlets in the city and suburbs, has struggled financially. The company filed for bankruptcy late last year.

The restaurants have remained open during the bankruptcy proceedings, and Thursday’s charges were not expected to have any immediate impact, according to an attorney representing the Boston Blackie’s management company.

Broadway Bank is listed in the bankruptcy case as an unsecured creditor, owed $1.6 million for a commercial loan to the Boston Blackie’s restaurant in Lincoln Park.

Broadway Bank was not a victim of the scheme nor was it accused of any wrongdoing, prosecutors said.

But the case brought unwanted attention to a political soft spot for Giannoulias. He has faced tough questions about loans Broadway Bank made to people with criminal backgrounds while he was the senior loan officer and what role he played in financial decisions that have left the bank on the brink of insolvency.

The charges came on a day when Giannoulias was trying to change the conversation, holding a news conference at a small business in the West Loop to promote his jobs plan and slam his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, about his votes that favored “Wall Street and special interests.” Instead, by the end of the day, Kirk was firing back, saying Broadway’s mention in the Boston Blackie’s case represented a “disturbing pattern.”

In a 2006 interview with the Tribune, Nick Giannis said he has known the Giannoulias family for years and was a friend of Giannoulias’ father, Alexis, who oversaw the loans to Giannis. He said he was not donating to Giannoulias’ campaign to win favor with Broadway.

“I am doing it because the kid is an honorable, hard-working guy,” Giannis said. “This has nothing to do with the bank or any loans. It’s just a personal thing.”

All three men were in custody Thursday night.

Annie Sweeney contributed to this report.

--Matthew Walberg, John Chase and David Jackson

Click HERE for a WGN-TV report on this story.

Person shot on I-57 near Oak Forest

By Admin on March 12, 2010

A male victim was shot in the leg tonight while in a vehicle on Interstate Highway 57 near southwest suburban Oak Forest, according to Illinois State Police.

The victim was shot by a female in the vehicle, in what appeared to be a possibly domestic-related incident, state police said.

State police responded to a call of the shooting shortly before 9 p.m. in the southbound lanes of I-57 at 167th Street.

The victim, whose condition was unavailable, was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. The female shooter was taken to the Oak Forest police station for questioning.

Ages for the two were not available.

–Staff report

Ex-East Chicago mayor, aides ordered to pay $108 million

By Admin on March 12, 2010

A federal judge today ordered ex-East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick and two former aides to pay $108 million in civil damages in an alleged sidewalks-for-votes scheme.

Pastrick was never charged criminally, though other members of the so-called Sidewalk Six were sentenced to prison. A phone rang unanswered at the office of Patrick’s attorney, Michael Bosch, when The Associated Press called seeking comment.

The federal racketeering suit filed by the state in 2004 alleged Pastrick and others ran the city as a “corrupt enterprise” and spent $24 million in public money on private driveways, patios and walkways to court voters in the 1999 Democratic primary.

Attorney General Greg Zoeller said U.S. District Judge James Moody’s decision marked the first time a city government had been adjudged a corrupt organization under federal racketeering laws.

“I am enormously pleased that the federal judge awarded triple damages against former Mayor Pastrick and the other remaining defendants as a symbol of how brazen and shameless the public corruption was in the municipal government of East Chicago during the Pastrick regime,” said Zoeller.

The triple damages were assessed against Pastrick, former aide James Fife III and former City Council President Frank Kollintzas. The damages were calculated based not only on the money allegedly spent to buy votes, but other costs associated with public corruption, including a bond issue that became necessary after the city’s general fund was depleted.

When Pastrick left office the city had a deficit of $17 million, the order said.

Pastrick, the city’s mayor for 32 years, left office after the Indiana Supreme Court in 2004 found Pastrick’s campaign was tainted with corruption and ordered a rerun of the 2003 Democratic primary.

Pastrick and Fife agreed to accept judgment by default, the order said. Phone numbers listed under Fife’s name in northwest Indiana were disconnected.

Kollintzas fled the country in 2005 before he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his role in the scheme.

Other co-defendants settled with the state.

–The Associated Press

Next Page »