A look back at police reports in 2008

An appropriate name

James A. Hole did not live in Brookfield for a very long time. This is a good thing.

He arrived in the village in 2006 on parole from state prison, where he spent 10 years for convictions of robbery and attempted rape.

In March, he struck in Cambridge, Wisconsin, killing a 71-year-old real estate agent and then starting a fire to cover up the crime. While awaiting trial in Jefferson County Jail, Hole also admitted to police he was involved in a January 2008 robbery of a LaGrange Park woman. He reportedly beat her so badly, she lapsed into a coma.

On Nov. 4, Hole pleaded no contest to the murder charge and faces a prison sentence of life without parole. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 26, 2009.

Gross misdeeds

Earlier in 2008, S.E. Gross officials were troubled when they reported to police that one the school’s students had started a fire in a third-floor bathroom stall on May 7. While the school was evacuated, a teacher doused the fire with some water and no one was injured. The alleged perpetrator was identified within two weeks and petitioned to juvenile authorities.

But District 95 officials received another shock in November when they learned that a group of students between the ages of 9 and 14 broke into Gross School twice between Nov. 26 and 30. Computers and other items were stolen and classrooms and hallways were vandalized.

Within days, officials had identified suspects and Brookfield police made three arrests. In all, five children from the school district were expelled for up to two full years. While the district did recover some of the stolen items, many, including the superintendent’s laptop computer, have not been accounted for.

Over the dam

Everett Lee Lauderdale was officially on the Illinois terrorism watch list when he floated helplessly over the Hofmann Dan on April 5 and drowned despite efforts by Lyons firefighters to save him.

The news of a “terrorist” connection indicated something sinister about Lauderdale, and he had been charged by police just days before in north suburban Round Lake Beach, where items in his possession led to his name being placed on the list.

But Lauderdale, 27, was a troubled man, a drifter who had battled demons since childhood. Family members had only sporadic contact with him in the month before his death, tracing his movements as far away as New England and Alaska.

On April 5 he was floating down the Des Plaines River on a raft. Riverside firefighters fished his body out of the river downstream of the dam. A tattoo across his midsection read “do not bury me, cremate me.”

He was buried near his family’s home in Tennessee.

Calling all cars

Dec. 16 got off to an eventful start in Riverside. Around 9:30 a.m., police received several emergency calls of customers lying face down on the floor of the lobby at Bank of America, 3300 Harlem Ave.

When police arrived, there was reason to believe that three gunmen who took over the bank and grabbed money there might still be inside, prompting a full alarm call to the Northern Illinois Police Alarm System. SWAT teams surrounded the bank and the area was cordoned off for over two hours while police combed the area.

In the end, the robbers were found to have fled and remained at large as of press time.

Fire storm

Between late April and mid-July, it seemed that no garage or garbage can in Brookfield was safe. On April 27-28, six fires were set in alleys on the north end of the village, principally inside garbage cans. Then on May 6, one garage was destroyed and four others damaged when arsonists struck again.

Police appeared to have solved part of the problem when they announced the arrest of an 11-year-old boy allegedly responsible for the April fires. But on July 15 and 16, the fire department was again putting out four more alley fires, including one set in a dumpster next to Cornerstone Community Church. Police have not reported solving the May and July fires.

Suicide watch

The days after Thanksgiving were busy ones for police departments in both Riverside and Brookfield. But while Brookfield police were trying to resolve just who had ransacked S.E. Gross Middle School twice, Riverside police were coping with a rash of attempted and successful suicides.

On Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27, a 20-year-old Lyons man jumped in front of a westbound freight train, killing himself. That same day, Riverside police were called to an apartment building that overlooks that very rail crossing after receiving an emergency call from someone who said his sister had tried to kill herself by overdosing on pills. The woman was saved by Riverside emergency personnel.

Then on Dec. 1, police and paramedics were called to Riverside-Brookfield High School after a staff member reported that a girl there had slashed her wrists in an attempt to kill herself. That attempted suicide was also unsuccessful.

Also on that day, however, police were called to do a well-being check of a man whose family hadn’t heard from him in two weeks. Arriving at his apartment, they saw an eviction notice tacked to the front door and parking tickets on his car, which was parked in the street.

The man was found inside the apartment, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Fight club

For whatever reason, February brought out the fisticuffs in people in North Riverside and Brookfield.

On Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, as many as 40 people were involved in a full-out brawl inside the North Riverside Park Mall. No one was reported hurt, but three men were arrested by police. Others scattered as officers arrived to keep the peace.

The trouble started as mall security attempted to remove two youths from the mall. The pair got into a scuffle and others joined in. Some 12 police agencies responded to the scene and the mall closed early that night.

Then on Feb. 24, Brookfield police reported a large-scale bar fight involving some 20 people and flying beer bottles at Johnny B’s on Brookfield Avenue. Three men were charged in connection with the fight and one other man had to be hospitalized after suffering a severe head laceration.

Wily coyotes

Wildlife ran wild last spring. In Chicago cougars were prowling city neighborhoods when they weren’t being shot by police. Out here in the suburbs, the coyote menace made its presence felt.

In Riverside, Trustee Kevin Smith called for government action after a coyote eyed his pet dog and then took a stroll into his backyard and up onto his back deck. He also reported seeing a coyote in the Big Ball Park near his home.

Then in May, a resident of Brookfield’s Hollywood section reported that a coyote swooped in and snatched his pet Maltese right from under his very eyes. He said he found the dog lying dead nearby.

Riverside ended up setting traps in Big Ball Park, but the effort was stymied by wily coyotes and by people who kept tampering with the traps. In June, Riverside decided to remove the traps, and the coyotes appeared to have moved on.

Car meets light pole

A 66-year-old North Riverside man on his way to withdraw some money from a Riverside ATM lost control of his car on Jan. 24 jumped a curb at Woodside Road and Maplewood and took out a concrete light pole, which landed on top of his car, crushing the roof.

Despite the fact that the pole had landed almost on top of his head, the driver continued on down the center of the Woodside median almost all the way into the center of town, stopping near Central School.

Police reported that the driver suffered only minor injuries and than drugs and alcohol were not involved. However, police said, nearly the car’s entire windshield was covered with snow, which probably impaired the driver’s ability to see out the window.