Kathleen Savio was murdered, said the coroner
"You're kidding me. Unbelievable. That's hard to believe."
---Former Bolingbrook Police Department sergeant, Drew Peterson's reaction to hearing his ex-wife Kathleen Savio's death was ruled a homicide.
I had a wonderful time at the NAACP banquet last night. The food was good and the company was great. Woodie Rucker-Hughes and the NAACP are to be commended for their hard work. It's a privilege to be honored by such an honorable organization that's been active in the United States for almost 100 years and in Riverside, for nearly 70.
While studying the flow chart from the Riverside Police Department of its new Organizational Chart, I noticed something missing. The Office of Community Policing and Services is no longer a separate entity. It looks like it's been thrust into one of the two special operations' divisions under "community services" possibly? I'm sure it's in there somewhere and actually it is, somewhere.
According to this report submitted by the police department on its operations during 2007, the "community services" division had its own bureau lieutenant, Tim Bacon, who oversaw "community services group" and "youth court". Three other lieutenants were assigned divisions inside the Special Operations Division of the department. One of those lieutenants, Rick Tedesco oversaw special teams including PACT, K-9 and TSU.
The 2008 organizational chart is somewhat different than that for June 2007, in part because a deputy chief position vacated by Dave Dominguez has been frozen due to budget cuts. Bacon was moved out of his assignment to a watch commander position while the programs he supervised were added to Tedesco's list of assignments along with the special team that addresses the issue of transitional housing.
How much of the reshuffling was due to the recent bad news about the budget woes impacting the city and the state isn't clear or whether another lieutenant was assigned to work as a watch commander had anything to do with the department's latest audit which showed the percentage of word shifts supervised by sergeants instead of lieutenants (who are still on call) creeping upwards towards 20% of all shifts.
It would be ironic if the community policing and services division had gone the way of the stipulated judgment or even if it's being shuffled into other divisions where there's always a list of assignments that likely will be demanding to accommodate as well. Hopefully, the philosophy of its operation will continue to thrive, but in order for this to happen it has to remain a priority even during fiscally difficult times and that's the concern is that it won't or that it will go the opposite direction. Is the shuffling of the community policing division a sign of progress involving the integration of it into the police department or is the opposite, that it's being marginalized and relegated to the second string on the budget line items list instead? What has history shown and has that history changed?
Historically, community policing and related efforts had always suffered in the police department during fiscally short budget years and that proved to be much to the detriment of the department and the community it serves. That was probably one of the cogs in the pattern and practice machine which brought in multiple outside investigating agencies including the Department of Justice, the State Attorney General's office and the Riverside County Grand Jury.
In fact, the former State Attorney General Bill Lockyer alleged in his lawsuit against the city filed in 2001 that there was inadequate staffing and resources inside the department for community policing.
As has been said numerous times in this city, there will be budget cuts in the city's general fund which will impact the operations of any city department covered by that fund. There's been people saying that this department's budget shouldn't be cut or impacted, but the fact is that it's most likely that it's been impacted already.
The city officials and management employees often explain or even chide people including city residents on the failure to understand the difference between the general and nongeneral funding sources. However, what's never been explained is how and if the line between the two is a solid one or somewhat blurred. After all, money is moved in and out of various funds in this city so often, it's often hard for the city resident to keep track of where the same funds are at, when. That's why it's hard not to take these lectures by the city government or management with a grain of salt.
One well-known example is the city's sewer fund which rises and falls like the ocean tides. After all, the funds in this account were once borrowed to purchase properties through threat of eminent domain if necessary for redevelopment. At this time, people from what is currently called University City started appearing led by resident Kevin Akins to remind the city about its promises made in the 1960s about assisting them with a sewer. At the time, the sewer fund was pretty much depleted from being spent elsewhere. It's since been replenished a bit, assuming that the funds borrowed were returned. Still, it wouldn't surprise me at all if public utility customers, certainly homeowners find their sewer charges on their bills creeping up as well.
There was to be some other fund reallocation as well earlier last year when Tequesquite Park itself was going to provide city with some ready cash for other projects in Riverside Renaissance by being sold off in parcels to private developers. That didn't quite work out and some minds switched very quickly and for now, Tequesquite Park will remain what the people wanted and that's a city park. It's unfortunate that this statement required the qualifier, for now, but even after it's done, you can still never be quite sure what will happen next or what brilliant idea will emerge from City Hall on how to handle park land.
This whole budget situation is amplified by the decision of the city several years ago to place its once separate finance department under the direction of the city manager's office which led to the creation of an assistant city manager of finance position. Keeping it separate would have facilitated in keeping the divisions operated by the city council's three direct and "at will" employees at an equal level without one or two of them having to submit a budget request to the third for their funding. It would also provide a layer of accountability to all three divisions for budget allocation without having to answer to one of them or having to serve under the will of one of them.
Was this a wise decision? That will remain to be seen.
Riverside County's code enforcement division is is providing block grants to property owners for addressing code violations.
One elderly woman from Rubidoux had a difficult time because she said she wasn't prepared.
(excerpt)
She was often on the verge of tears.
Fulcher's sister, Marie Cretty, tried to lend a hand but was frequently forced to sit because of a chronic heart condition.
"Let it go," Cretty told her sister. "If there's something special you want, pick it out. If not, let it go."
Cretty said collecting things is a family trait that started "way back."
"Our mother and grandmother collected. If there was anything they thought was nice, they'd collect," Cretty said.
Osborne said the cleanup crew was sent out Tuesday to make sure the property was in order for an inspection today.
The history of the Chino meat packing plant which was the focus of the largest beef recall in national history has long been a troubled one.
It's official. Kathleen Savio was murdered. According to a second autopsy done after her body was exhumed, Savio died from drowning and her death has now been determined to be a homicide.
(excerpt, Associated Press)
We have been investigating this as a murder since reopening the case in November of last year," Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said. "We now have a scientific basis to formally and publicly classify it as such."
Peterson, 54, has denied any involvement in either case and he has not been charged with wrongdoing. He was a sergeant and 29-year veteran in the Bolingbrook, Ill., police department when he resigned after coming under suspicion in Stacy Peterson's disappearance.
Peterson told the (Joliet) Herald-News that the ruling in Savio's death shocked him. "You're kidding me. Unbelievable. That's hard to believe," he told the newspaper.
Authorities are not prepared to name a suspect in Savio's death, but police and a grand jury are actively investigating both cases, said Charles Pelkie, a spokesman for Glasgow's office.
Peterson's attorney did not immediately return a telephone call Thursday from The Associated Press.
For Savio's family, this announcement was a long time coming. Savio was found dead in an empty bathtub inside a residence she once shared with her ex-husband, former Bolingbrook sergeant, Drew Peterson. She had bruises on her body including her chest, arms and legs, according to medical examiner hired by her family to do an independent autopsy after her body was exhumed.
No suspects have yet been named in her death though almost all the speculation has centered on Peterson since the disappearance last Oct. 28 of his current wife, Stacey.
The autopsy report said that Savio had drowned and it was a homicide, according to the Chicago Tribune.
(excerpt)
The development was encouraging to Savio's sister, Anna Marie Doman.
"We've always known in our hearts that it was [murder], but now finally we're getting some confirmation and it will be investigated the way it should have been," she said. "I think they should really investigate the people who blew it the first time. . . . [A]ny blind man could have seen that it was a homicide."
Actually, it's not whether you can see or not that kept Savio's mysterious death relegated in the accidental category for several years by a coroner's jury that only had three possible verdicts and none of them fit easily. Disturbing circumstances, not strong enough evidence wise to label it as a homicide but not "natural causes" either so it was called through default, an accident even though the majority of the jurors assigned to that case would later say that if they'd had the option to issue a finding that was inconclusive, they would have done so in Savio's case.
It's about what people choose to see or not to see when troubling circumstances like those surrounding Savio's death emerge in their midst surrounding a colleague of those assigned to investigate it.
Greta Van Suster did this interview with Fox News, taking credit for the push behind the second autopsy but any credit should really go to Savio's family who never stopped pushing since Savio's death over three years ago.
---Former Bolingbrook Police Department sergeant, Drew Peterson's reaction to hearing his ex-wife Kathleen Savio's death was ruled a homicide.
I had a wonderful time at the NAACP banquet last night. The food was good and the company was great. Woodie Rucker-Hughes and the NAACP are to be commended for their hard work. It's a privilege to be honored by such an honorable organization that's been active in the United States for almost 100 years and in Riverside, for nearly 70.
While studying the flow chart from the Riverside Police Department of its new Organizational Chart, I noticed something missing. The Office of Community Policing and Services is no longer a separate entity. It looks like it's been thrust into one of the two special operations' divisions under "community services" possibly? I'm sure it's in there somewhere and actually it is, somewhere.
According to this report submitted by the police department on its operations during 2007, the "community services" division had its own bureau lieutenant, Tim Bacon, who oversaw "community services group" and "youth court". Three other lieutenants were assigned divisions inside the Special Operations Division of the department. One of those lieutenants, Rick Tedesco oversaw special teams including PACT, K-9 and TSU.
The 2008 organizational chart is somewhat different than that for June 2007, in part because a deputy chief position vacated by Dave Dominguez has been frozen due to budget cuts. Bacon was moved out of his assignment to a watch commander position while the programs he supervised were added to Tedesco's list of assignments along with the special team that addresses the issue of transitional housing.
How much of the reshuffling was due to the recent bad news about the budget woes impacting the city and the state isn't clear or whether another lieutenant was assigned to work as a watch commander had anything to do with the department's latest audit which showed the percentage of word shifts supervised by sergeants instead of lieutenants (who are still on call) creeping upwards towards 20% of all shifts.
It would be ironic if the community policing and services division had gone the way of the stipulated judgment or even if it's being shuffled into other divisions where there's always a list of assignments that likely will be demanding to accommodate as well. Hopefully, the philosophy of its operation will continue to thrive, but in order for this to happen it has to remain a priority even during fiscally difficult times and that's the concern is that it won't or that it will go the opposite direction. Is the shuffling of the community policing division a sign of progress involving the integration of it into the police department or is the opposite, that it's being marginalized and relegated to the second string on the budget line items list instead? What has history shown and has that history changed?
Historically, community policing and related efforts had always suffered in the police department during fiscally short budget years and that proved to be much to the detriment of the department and the community it serves. That was probably one of the cogs in the pattern and practice machine which brought in multiple outside investigating agencies including the Department of Justice, the State Attorney General's office and the Riverside County Grand Jury.
In fact, the former State Attorney General Bill Lockyer alleged in his lawsuit against the city filed in 2001 that there was inadequate staffing and resources inside the department for community policing.
As has been said numerous times in this city, there will be budget cuts in the city's general fund which will impact the operations of any city department covered by that fund. There's been people saying that this department's budget shouldn't be cut or impacted, but the fact is that it's most likely that it's been impacted already.
The city officials and management employees often explain or even chide people including city residents on the failure to understand the difference between the general and nongeneral funding sources. However, what's never been explained is how and if the line between the two is a solid one or somewhat blurred. After all, money is moved in and out of various funds in this city so often, it's often hard for the city resident to keep track of where the same funds are at, when. That's why it's hard not to take these lectures by the city government or management with a grain of salt.
One well-known example is the city's sewer fund which rises and falls like the ocean tides. After all, the funds in this account were once borrowed to purchase properties through threat of eminent domain if necessary for redevelopment. At this time, people from what is currently called University City started appearing led by resident Kevin Akins to remind the city about its promises made in the 1960s about assisting them with a sewer. At the time, the sewer fund was pretty much depleted from being spent elsewhere. It's since been replenished a bit, assuming that the funds borrowed were returned. Still, it wouldn't surprise me at all if public utility customers, certainly homeowners find their sewer charges on their bills creeping up as well.
There was to be some other fund reallocation as well earlier last year when Tequesquite Park itself was going to provide city with some ready cash for other projects in Riverside Renaissance by being sold off in parcels to private developers. That didn't quite work out and some minds switched very quickly and for now, Tequesquite Park will remain what the people wanted and that's a city park. It's unfortunate that this statement required the qualifier, for now, but even after it's done, you can still never be quite sure what will happen next or what brilliant idea will emerge from City Hall on how to handle park land.
This whole budget situation is amplified by the decision of the city several years ago to place its once separate finance department under the direction of the city manager's office which led to the creation of an assistant city manager of finance position. Keeping it separate would have facilitated in keeping the divisions operated by the city council's three direct and "at will" employees at an equal level without one or two of them having to submit a budget request to the third for their funding. It would also provide a layer of accountability to all three divisions for budget allocation without having to answer to one of them or having to serve under the will of one of them.
Was this a wise decision? That will remain to be seen.
Riverside County's code enforcement division is is providing block grants to property owners for addressing code violations.
One elderly woman from Rubidoux had a difficult time because she said she wasn't prepared.
(excerpt)
She was often on the verge of tears.
Fulcher's sister, Marie Cretty, tried to lend a hand but was frequently forced to sit because of a chronic heart condition.
"Let it go," Cretty told her sister. "If there's something special you want, pick it out. If not, let it go."
Cretty said collecting things is a family trait that started "way back."
"Our mother and grandmother collected. If there was anything they thought was nice, they'd collect," Cretty said.
Osborne said the cleanup crew was sent out Tuesday to make sure the property was in order for an inspection today.
The history of the Chino meat packing plant which was the focus of the largest beef recall in national history has long been a troubled one.
It's official. Kathleen Savio was murdered. According to a second autopsy done after her body was exhumed, Savio died from drowning and her death has now been determined to be a homicide.
(excerpt, Associated Press)
We have been investigating this as a murder since reopening the case in November of last year," Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said. "We now have a scientific basis to formally and publicly classify it as such."
Peterson, 54, has denied any involvement in either case and he has not been charged with wrongdoing. He was a sergeant and 29-year veteran in the Bolingbrook, Ill., police department when he resigned after coming under suspicion in Stacy Peterson's disappearance.
Peterson told the (Joliet) Herald-News that the ruling in Savio's death shocked him. "You're kidding me. Unbelievable. That's hard to believe," he told the newspaper.
Authorities are not prepared to name a suspect in Savio's death, but police and a grand jury are actively investigating both cases, said Charles Pelkie, a spokesman for Glasgow's office.
Peterson's attorney did not immediately return a telephone call Thursday from The Associated Press.
For Savio's family, this announcement was a long time coming. Savio was found dead in an empty bathtub inside a residence she once shared with her ex-husband, former Bolingbrook sergeant, Drew Peterson. She had bruises on her body including her chest, arms and legs, according to medical examiner hired by her family to do an independent autopsy after her body was exhumed.
No suspects have yet been named in her death though almost all the speculation has centered on Peterson since the disappearance last Oct. 28 of his current wife, Stacey.
The autopsy report said that Savio had drowned and it was a homicide, according to the Chicago Tribune.
(excerpt)
The development was encouraging to Savio's sister, Anna Marie Doman.
"We've always known in our hearts that it was [murder], but now finally we're getting some confirmation and it will be investigated the way it should have been," she said. "I think they should really investigate the people who blew it the first time. . . . [A]ny blind man could have seen that it was a homicide."
Actually, it's not whether you can see or not that kept Savio's mysterious death relegated in the accidental category for several years by a coroner's jury that only had three possible verdicts and none of them fit easily. Disturbing circumstances, not strong enough evidence wise to label it as a homicide but not "natural causes" either so it was called through default, an accident even though the majority of the jurors assigned to that case would later say that if they'd had the option to issue a finding that was inconclusive, they would have done so in Savio's case.
It's about what people choose to see or not to see when troubling circumstances like those surrounding Savio's death emerge in their midst surrounding a colleague of those assigned to investigate it.
Greta Van Suster did this interview with Fox News, taking credit for the push behind the second autopsy but any credit should really go to Savio's family who never stopped pushing since Savio's death over three years ago.
posted by Five Before Midnight | 10:54 PM
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