The Weekly Post public record for 1-25-24

NOTE: Charges are merely an accusation. All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Police reports

• YATES CITY – A 15-year-old Yates City boy was taken into police custody after he used a knife to threaten a family, according to authorities.

A few weeks later, the boy was accused of damaging and flooding his cell at a juvenile-detention facility.

The initial incident happened about 6:30 p.m. Dec. 15 at a residence in the 300 block of E. Bishop St., according to a Knox County Sheriff’s Office report. Officers responded to a report of a knife-wielding boy approaching a family and suggesting there would be a homicide.

A deputy and a Yates City officer found the suspect in a bedroom sitting on a bed and a man sitting on a chair next to it. A large butcher knife was atop the bed next to the boy, the report stated. The man asked for the boy to be arrested, the report stated.

The deputy then grabbed the knife and he and the Yates City officer subdued the boy, who resisted being handcuffed initially. The boy was transported to Knox County Jail in Galesburg. Elmwood police also responded.

About 11 p.m. Jan. 3, the boy was accused of breaking a sprinkler head at the Mary Davis Home in Galesburg. The leak resulted in about 1 inch of water covering his cell floor, according to another report. He was charged with criminal damage to government-supported property.

• EDWARDS – An Edwards man was accused of drunken driving following a single-vehicle accident.
A Peoria County Sheriff’s Office deputy found George W. Morefield, 55, walking about 8:30 p.m. Jan. 12 in the 7600 block of Illinois Route 8. A 2012 Ford F-150 pickup truck he had been driving was in a nearby ditch behind a guardrail and had front-end damage, according to the deputy’s report.

Morefield said the vehicle skidded on black ice, but the deputy reported seeing none on the well-salted pavement. Morefield smelled of alcohol, his eyes were glassy and bloodshot and he was slurring his speech so badly the deputy found it difficult to understand him, the report stated.

An ambulance transported Morefield to OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria after he complained about neck pain. There, he said he had been drinking beer at a friend’s house in Peoria. Morefield also said he earlier took five prescribed pills his doctors advised him not to mix with alcohol.
Morefield refused a blood draw, the report stated. In addition to driving under the influence of alcohol, Morefield was cited for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. The pickup truck was towed.

• HANNA CITY – A Peoria driver was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after a head-on collision with a Hanna City man’s vehicle.

The Peorian, Robert E. Miller, was behind the wheel of an eastbound 1997 Ford Escort about 10:30 p.m. Jan. 12 in the 9000 block of W. Farmington Rd. when it swerved on ice and snow and struck a westbound 2016 Dodge Journey, a Peoria County Sheriffs Office report stated. Eric R.R. Myers was the other driver.

Miller was unresponsive and transported to OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria. There was no word about his condition. Myers complained about neck pain and was transported to St. Francis, as were his two passengers. The front-seat passenger complained about knee pain. Both vehicles were towed.

• WILLIAMSFIELD – A Yates City man’s blood-alcohol content was almost twice the legal limit following a single-vehicle accident south of Williamsfield.

Loren J. McKim, 19, was driving a 1996 Ford pickup truck about 10:45 p.m. Dec. 23 when it rolled onto its passenger side near where Interstate 74 meets Knox Roads 1100 North and 2000 East, per a Knox County Sheriff’s Office report.

McKim said he lost control around a curve. He had one passenger, an 18-year-old man from Farmington.

Cans of Busch Light were found in and around the truck, and McKim admitted to having a few beers, the report stated. McKim’s BAC at the accident scene was .154. The limit is .08.

McKim was accused of two counts of driving under the influence of alcohol, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, failing to report an accident, improper lane use and driving too fast for conditions. His vehicle was towed, and he was transported to the Knox County Jail in Galesburg.

• YATES CITY – Someone used a chainsaw to cut two fence posts and a black walnut tree on a farm north of Yates City, according to authorities.

The damage took place sometime between midnight Jan. 6 and 9 a.m. Jan. 7 near the 800 block of Knox Road 2200 East. The farm owner said the road in that area is dirt and almost impassible except in a four-wheel-drive vehicle, according to a Knox County Sheriff’s Office report.

Damage was estimated at $50. No suspect information was available.

• WILLIAMSFIELD – A Cuba woman and her passenger received medical attention following a single-vehicle accident south of Williamsfield.

Delaney L. Brooks, 18, was driving a red Chevrolet Trailblazer about 4:15 a.m. Dec. 23 in the 1100 block of Knox Highway 18 when she missed a curve and the vehicle went into an east-side ditch, according to a Knox County Sheriff’s Office report.

A B.Y.E. ambulance crew treated Brooks and her passenger, an 18-year-old woman from Canton. The vehicle was towed. Brooks was cited for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

• DAHINDA – Shaun M. Marksity, 48, of Williamsfield was cited for abandoning an all-terrain vehicle in the 1400 block of Knox Road 2000 East near Happy Hollow Drive. A Knox County Sheriff’s Office deputy noted the unoccupied red-and-white Polaris RZR ATV in the road about 10 p.m. Dec. 31, according to a report.

• DAHINDA – At 5:15 a.m. Dec. 28, Glenn A. Wilson of Portage, Ind., was driving a 2018 Ford Edge west on Interstate 74 at Knox Road 1800 East near Dahinda when the vehicle struck a deer. Wilson was uninjured, according to a Knox County Sheriff’s Office report. The vehicle sustained disabling damage and was towed.

• FARMINGTON – Sean R. Holton, 38, of Farmington was arrested at 11:30 p.m. Jan. 18 and accused of unlawful possession of methamphetamine, domestic battery/bodily harm, unlawful possession of firearm ammunition, unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia and unlawful possession of a controlled substance, according to the Peoria County Sheriff’s Office.

• PRINCEVILLE – Ronald L. Potter Jr., 37, of Princeville was arrested on or about Jan. 11 in Fulton County and was wanted in Knox County for domestic battery, according to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office.

• GALESBURG – These were among calls to which the Knox County Sheriff’s Office responded between Jan. 7-13: suspicious incident, Dahinda; burglar alarm, Williamsfield; burglary, Yates City; trespass, Dahinda; damage, Williamsfield.

• YATES CITY – Chief Randy Benson reports the following activity for the Yates City Police Department in December: 2 arrests, 3 citations, 15 reports, 9 warnings, 9 traffic stops, 2 ordinance violations. For all of 2023, activity was: 8 arrests, 35 citations, 10 open doors, 190 reports, 110 warnings, 8,182 miles, 853.85 gallons of fuel, 5 ordinance violations, 113 traffic stops, 3 NTAs and 4 maintenance calls.