Clark County, IL. (ECWd) –
The Clark County Sheriff’s Department responded to a 911 call on an incident last weekend in which Charity Murphy, the Clark County Park District’s Executive Director, and her husband, West Terre Haute Police Officer “Chuck” Murphy, and others got into an all-out brawl at the boat ramp. This happened on June 6, 2015 around 7:52 p.m.
It was reported to us that Charity became involved in “unsolicited assistance” in “advising” someone how to put their boat onto the trailer at the end of a day on the lake.
This unwanted advice apparently escalated into a brawl between two groups of people, with Chuck Murphy bearing the brunt of the actions and suffering from abrasions on his knees and elbows, and bleeding from a previous cut by his left eye.
[Charity] stated, during the 911 call, that she wanted to file a complaint against Tony Norman, an employee of Sycamore [Engineering].
According to the 911 transcripts, there were 15 people involved in the brawl and the caller stated “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
No weapons were involved.
No arrests were made, the case was turned over to the State’s Attorney’s office.
Sheriff’s report, obtained thru the Freedom Of Information Act, below:
[gview file=”https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Altercation-at-Boat-Ramp.pdf” save=”1″]
Now for some comedy:
[gview file=”https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Battle-of-the-Ramp1.pdf”]
3 Responses
The INACTION of Clark County Sheriff’s Department to make an arrest(s) based on the overwhelming evidence in this violent incident of a large group of people fighting in public is the real problem. By leaving it up to the Clark County State’s Attorney Office to file charges and THEN arrest the alleged perpetrators is the wrong way to handle this violent incident obviously. The perception by park patrons and especially families trying to enjoy the park now will be fear of their safety that violence (fighting) happened within this park with NO arrests and NO consequences for it yet. This sends the wrong message of lawlessness within this park to the public obviously. Inaction of law enforcement when laws were evidently violated in public before witnesses is just another example of the failure of our law enforcement to TAKE ACTION and actually enforce the law no matter who the alleged perpetrators are involved or where it took place. Why didn’t someone or a group of people video record this incident happening on their phones and then just take control of the situation as a group and then citizen arrest these people fighting in public and detain them until law enforcement showed up? Seems simple enough to do to stop any fighting in public to continue to escalate until people get injured. Citizens need to get more involved in protecting themselves by ARRESTING people when their violent instead of engaging in more violence with them and relying on law enforcement to protect them. This could of been handled better by ALL involved. This is the type of drama (violence) that will keep people from coming to this park to visit for fear of their safety and not wanting to be around any drama it causes. This park has a bad enough reputation now obviously, now this. Why would anyone want to go there anymore with all the options available of other parks to go to in the area? I suggest people avoid this place until it is safe and these type of violent incidents are addressed by law enforcement correctly and the Clark County States Attorney Office files charges against the alleged perpetrators AND law enforcement ARREST the alleged perpetrators in public to send a message to the public this type of violent behavior won’t be allowed in this park anymore.
How is the State’s Attorney going to determine if any charges are warranted from THAT report ?
There was barely anything of substance in the report, no indication of who allegedly did what, at all. Hope he writes a more thorough report when it comes to dealing with sober, rational people. However, perhaps that was his intent all along – he had spent enough time dealing with a bunch of idiots that don’t warrant any extra effort beyond the time they have already taken away from the remaining citizenry.
Park Director & W. Terre Haute Police Officer brawl with Park Patrons – http://t.co/7n2aJ3roYI http://t.co/z0O7LcUAUe