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Police arrest suspect in reported
library attack
By Tom Cronin
The man suspected of attacking an 18-year-old female student on Nov. 2
in Brookens Library is being held in Sangamon County Jail
following a UIS and Springfield police investigation that led to
his arrest on Nov. 9.
Christopher Clausen, 19, of Chatham was charged with aggravated battery
and disorderly conduct for reportedly hitting the victim over
the head with a book and activating the fire alarm system to
allow for his escape, according to UIS police report No.
04-0277. Clausen is not a current or former UIS student.
UIS Chief of Police Don Mitchell said in an e-mail sent to students and
employees on Nov. 3 that the perpetrator, who identified himself
as “Kit,” approached the victim as she was conducting research
on the library’s third floor and had a short conversation with
her.
In her account described in Springfield police report No. S04-108143,
the victim said that she became concerned about the perpetrator
and began to walk toward the main doors of the periodicals
section. Then, the victim felt something – possibly a hardcover
book, based on the way it felt and sounded – hit the back of her
head, the report said.
Seeing the perpetrator right behind her, the victim grabbed him by the
hair and started screaming, the Springfield police report said.
According to the UIS police report, a witness tried to corner the
perpetrator after seeing him begin to run away from the victim.
The perpetrator then reportedly pulled a fire alarm and fled the
building. Two UIS police officers were dispatched to the scene
around 8:59 p.m., but they were not able to locate the
perpetrator.
The victim was treated at St. John’s Hospital following the incident and
later followed up with a private physician, the Springfield
police report said. She was not seriously injured.
Mitchell, in his Nov. 3 e-mail, advised students and employees to
contact the Police Department with any useful information about
the incident. Police received more than a dozen leads with
information that helped police identify and apprehend the
suspect, according to the UIS police report.
In his account described in the Springfield police report, Clausen
initially said that he tripped and inadvertently hit the victim
on the back of her head or neck with a book as he fell. After an
investigator questioned the credibility of this story, Clausen
began to cry and admitted to hitting the victim as she described
in her account, the report said.
“I’m sorry I hit her,” Clausen said in his official statement. “I didn’t
mean to cause her pain.”
Jane Treadwell, university
librarian and dean of Library Instructional Services, said in an
e-mail to The Journal that the library staff was in the
process of reviewing and revising the facility’s emergency
procedures when the incident occurred. She said that she would
meet with the group reviewing the procedures to see if further
action can be taken as a result of the Nov. 2 incident.
The library has been sending two student workers to each floor before
closing the facility each night, Treadwell said. Mitchell has
suggested installing security cameras in “various locations” in
the library, an idea that Treadwell said she supports.
Currently, each floor of the library has a red telephone near the
elevator that rings at the Library Information desk when picked
up, Treadwell said. The library has three official entrances,
but other stairwells function solely as emergency exits and are
equipped with alarms.
Students may approach the library staff with general security concerns
or with requests for a police escort to their vehicle, she said.
“We also recommend that students avoid isolated areas of the stacks if
they are by themselves,” Treadwell said. “If a student is not
studying with a friend and the building is relatively empty, we
think it makes more sense to use Levels 1 or 2, which are
staffed at all times, rather than Levels 3 or 4.”
Treadwell said that the library staff will continue to work with campus
police and Physical Planning & Operations personnel to make the
building as secure as possible given the university’s budget
limitations.
“I also think we need to ask each student to try to be ‘street smart’ –
to be aware of their surroundings, to take advantage of courses
such as [Rape Aggression Defense], to be willing, as several
students were [on Nov. 2], to come to the aid of a fellow
student.” Treadwell said. “And I really think we need to
approach security as a campus concern, rather than building by
building.”
Co-Defendent in murder trial to recieve evidentiary hearing
UIS Students to
advocate his innocence
By Heather Shaffer
Randy Stitle was imprisoned for a double murder in Paris, Ill.,
in 1986. He was later acquitted but Herb Witlock continues
imprisonment for the same murder charges, according to
investigator Bill Clutter.
A
jury convicted Stitle of the murder of newlyweds Karen and Dyke
Rhoads. He spent 17 years in prison, 12 of them on death row.
Witlock’s attorney convinced the jury of reasonable doubt and
was only convicted of the murder of Karen Rhoads, Clutter said.
Stitle was released in May as a result of a federal habeas
corpus decision. “A federal judge decided that Stitle was
deprived of a fair trial and concluded that no rational jury
would have found him guilty if they had been aware of certain
new information,” Investigator Bill Clutter said.
Clutter is the director of investigation for Witlock’s case and
co-founder and director of the Downstate Innocence Project.
According to him, Karen and Dyke Rhoads were stabbed while
sleeping in their home on July 5, 1986. Investigators concluded
that the perpetrator stabbed Dyke Rhoads, then Karen Rhoads and
set the bedroom on fire to destroy the evidence. A neighbor
reported hearing Karen Rhoads scream around 4 a.m.
 The
fire department found Dyke Rhoads on the floor of the bedroom.
A lamp from the night table lay near his body. They found Karen
Rhoads’ body lying at the foot of the bed with a pillow covering
her face. Her bottle-shaped glasses were broken and smeared
with blood, according to Clutter.
Nearly three months after the murders Darrel Harrington, a known
alcoholic, told police he saw Stitle and Witlock murder the
Rhoads couple, Clutter said.
Harrington told police he was in a bar the night of the murders
and rode home with Witlock and Stitle. Harrington claimed that
the two men stopped at the Rhoads home, where the two men went
inside, Clutter said.
Harrington reported hearing a woman scream and seeing the
silhouette of a woman through the window around 4 a.m.
Harrington’s report stated he used a credit card to enter the
back door and inside saw Stitle covered in blood holding a knife
at the top of the stairs.
In
September 1986, Deb Reinbolt brought a knife to police, claiming
it was the weapon Stitle and Witlock used to kill the Rhoads
couple. Her story changed several times until eventually she
told police she witnessed the murders, Clutter said.
Both Reinbolt and Harrington denied knowledge of a $25,000
reward that was circulating the area by a man who was also under
investigation by police.
The evidence that discredited both Reinbolt and Harrington,
Clutter said, was the broken lamp in the doorway next to Dyke
Rhoads's body. Reinbolt told police she had knowledge of the
lamp breaking during the struggle.
“When I looked at the lamp I saw it was bone-white inside,
which meant it was broken after the fire was suppressed,”
Clutter said.
He
envisions UIS students working to prepare testimony for
Witlock’s evidentiary hearing, which is hearing for a judge to
decide if Witlock deserves a retrial. According to Clutter,
prosecutors have already agreed to use the same evidence that
freed Stitle for this hearing.
The Downstate Illinois
Innocence Project conducts research and investigative activities
for attorneys representing convicted inmates in cases where
there is a strong possibility that the convicted persons are
actually innocent, according to the Downstate Innocence Project
website.
Larry Golden, emeritus professor of political studies and legal
studies at UIS and co-founder and director of the Downstate
Illinois Innocence Project said, “We only take cases where we
believe the people convicted are wrongly convicted because they
are actually innocent.”
According to their
website, the first case the Downstate Innocence Project worked
on was the case of Keith Harris, who was convicted of attempted
murder and spent more than 20 years in prison.
UIS students reviewed
transcripts, re-interviewed participants, and assisted in the
preparation and presentation of the final petition to the
Illinois Prisoner Review Board. On Jan. 10, 2003, Governor
George Ryan pardoned Keith Harris, the website stated.
Last year, the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project organized a
major movement for the innocence of Julie Ray-Harper of
Lawrenceville, Ill., who sat on death row for the murder of her
ten-year old son in October 2000. She was recently granted a
new trial based on errors in the first trial.
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