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March 19, 2024

Reverse Spin, Spinning out of control?

By Kirk Allen & John Kraft

On November 14, 2013

Edgar Co. – ECWd’s

From the Investigating Innocence Organization comes an interesting twist that should not surprise anyone in Edgar County. 

Conflict of interest!

Yes, that common phrase that permeates our public offices in this county has raised its ugly head again and this time it could have huge ramifications on a man’s future.

Below is the press release information we just received.

MEDIA ADVISORY

Chicago, IL.  Investigating Innocence will be holding a press conference after it delivers a letter on Friday morning to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan calling for the removal of the office of the Illinois State Appellate Prosecutor from the Paris, IL Rhoads homicide case.  

TIME/DATE:   Friday Nov. 15, 2013, at 10:30 a.m.

 Location: James R. Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph Street, Chicago, IL 

The office of the Illinois State Appellate Prosecutors (ILSAP) still retains prosecutorial control over the Rhoads homicide case, and have been one of the purveyors of injustice in this case.  After Randy Steidl filed a federal civil lawsuit it was ILSAP attorneys who directed agents of the Illinois State Police (an agency sued by Steidl) to interview cellmates who bunked with Steidl in an effort to recruit jailhouse snitches who might testify about a jailhouse confession.  Ironically, this use of unreliable witnesses was cited by the Governor’s Commission on Capital Punishment as one of the causes of why death row inmates, like Randy Steidl, were falsely convicted.  ILSAP also is the agency who appeared before the Prisoner Review Board to oppose pardons for both Steidl and Whitlock. 

ILSAP has a glaring conflict of interest in that it hired  Dan Curry, owner of Reverse Spin in Wheaton, IL, at the same time that Curry was being paid a monthly retainer to represent the wealthy Paris business man to do damage control from the 48 Hours story that re-aired in 2008.  Curry worked to persuade 48 Hours not to publicly identify his client in the story that it re-aired in 2008.  The episode featured former ISP Lt. Michale Callahan’s, who declared Steidl and Whitlock were innocent, and how he had been prevented from investigating a wealthy Paris business man because the case was Too Politically Sensitive.

On July 23, 2013, Investigating Innocence filed an affidavit with the Illinois Prisoner Review Board with new evidence identifying Tommy Lynn Sells as the person who may have been checked into the Hotel France in Paris at 1 a.m. under the alias “Richard Smith” hours before Dyke and Karen Rhoads were murdered.

Dan Curry and Reverse Spin have recently launched a website What Really Happened in Paris, IL attacking the evidence presented in the affidavit that was filed with Gov. Quinn.  Investigating Innocence will be delivering a letter to Attorney General Lisa Madigan calling for the appointment of a special prosecutor to further investigate this new evidence.


For more information contact Bill Clutter (217)899-4353

Kelly A. Thompson

Executive Director

Investigating Innocence

1032 S. 2nd Street

Springfield, IL 62704

www.InvestigatingInnocence.org

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9 Comments
  • Sandy Richey Wells
    Posted at 15:20h, 14 November

    Sandy Richey Wells liked this on Facebook.

  • Michelle Henry-Hall
    Posted at 15:20h, 14 November

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  • Peggy Kemp Camp
    Posted at 15:20h, 14 November

    Peggy Kemp Camp liked this on Facebook.

  • CatalystIL
    Posted at 17:02h, 14 November

    Reverse Spin, Spinning out of control? – Edgar County Watchdogs http://t.co/1zIj8hM6Nh

  • Daryl J. Marietta
    Posted at 19:20h, 14 November

    Daryl J. Marietta liked this on Facebook.

  • Belden Jackson
    Posted at 17:46h, 15 November

    I guess these folks are saying Bob Morgan ought to just “take it like a man” for being blamed for a murder he didn’t commit. If I had the money I’d hire a public relations expert and a lawyer to sue anyone who falsely accused me. I doubt anyone from Chicago really knows what happened here.

    • jmkraft
      Posted at 20:54h, 15 November

      I don’t think that is what they are saying in this press release. I think they are saying that the attorney being paid by the state prosecutor’s office should not have also been paid by a private person to make sure the eyes don’t look that way. Just a little bit of a conflict of interest on that one.

  • Belden Jackson
    Posted at 10:31h, 16 November

    Aren’t some of the investigators who worked for Steidl and Whitlock also paid by the state? Isn’t that a conflict? Who is running the group mentioned above? Is it a detective accused of framing an innocent man in another case? Just wondering.

  • Jeffrey R Savoie
    Posted at 21:15h, 21 December

    Jeffrey R Savoie liked this on Facebook.

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