Case Number 99-CF-102    My name is Nancy Siergiej & I'm from rural Stockton.  I also am very good friends with Julie Schmidt & Judy Trost.  I know exactly all they went through & they know exactly all that I went through with my son Jeff re: the above case.  The Constitution states: Innocent until Proven Guilty, but not so in JD County, you ARE GUILTY UNTIL YOU PROVE YOURSELF INNOCENT!  And I did prove my son innocent, I worked hard & diligently to accomplice this & did.  They, our current legal system in JD County, would have eaten my son up & spit him out if I did not see the obvious illegal tactics that were being taken to destroy an innocent person for the sake of the "state's attorney campaign" for 2000.  

 

Legal paper work does not exist in JD County!  Det. John Korth was the arresting officer with his backup buddy Jeff Rayburn.  The reason for this arrest was on "hearsay" only.  This is what the JD County Pre-Trial Report says: "The officer has learned from the Sheriff's Department that Mark McPeek notified them that the defendant stated he will leave for Washington upon release from jail".  Plus the evening before Korth called our home & Jeff answered, Korth asked him to take a lie detector's test, which me, Mitch (Jeff's father) & Jeff talked about this & decided no to this, as they fix those lie detector tests.  Jeff sd no to Korth because he was telling him the truth, Korth sd "well then we will have to take other measures".

Well, my son Jeff was in Stockton H.S. in class that day of 11/4/99, when at 2:30 Korth & Rayburn came to the school & in fact arrested my son.  (Some kids in a classroom overheard Korth tell Rayburn "this is going to be fun").  First they wanted him to admit that he was involved in an arson of a residence that was owned by his employer Mr. Joe Finn (to this day Joe & June Finn are on very good terms with Jeff & Jeff just adores them), when Jeff sd no he was not involved - they cuffed him, did not read him his Miranda Rights nor did they have any "Orders" to Arrest in hand, nothing.  The truth of this is that Mark McPeek employed a person by the name of Jeff Smith, who indeed that day 11/4/99 @ 4:00 p.m. boarded a bus in Freeport bound for Washington & was later arrested in Washington at the residence of his family.  I talked to Mark McPeek & he did infact say he overheard "Jeff" was leaving town that evening.  The Jeff Smith that worked for him had a warrant out & also before he left that very day 11/4/99 he stole property & money from Marcus Haas who lives in the town of Stockton & also worked for Mark McPeek.  Marcus Haas filed a Stockton police report, the Stockton police station would not give me a copy of this report) that I wanted to add to the proof that my son Jeff Siergiej was indeed not the Jeff that so was overhead as going to flee.  I found this part out on 11/5/99 evening.

 

John Korth himself at the JD police station td me that he has proof Jeff as going to "flee" Illinois.  I td him no, I have proof that my Jeff was no going to flee.  I could see the doubt pass on John Korth's eyes but then he composed himself & sd I better check my sources.  I sd no John, you better check your sources, mine are legit & provable, show me yours.  Again, John showed a hesitation, but Jeff was already booked & put in a cell with 2 black convicted felony criminals, one was for murder in another county in Illinois.  So, Jeff being 17 at the time & the jail was not filled, should have been put in a cell by himself, but he was not.  I did not know this at the time when talking to John Korth, but I did warn John verbally, that Jeff better he in a cell by himself or with someone of comparable age, as Jeff was arrested as a suspect & not convicted.  John td me to my face, that Jeff was in a cell by himself & was safe.  The reason I bring this up, his that when I sd this John Korth again looked like "oh boy I'm in trouble now", he looked guilty as hell that he lied to me.  

 

Also, went I got to the school, they had Jeff in back of the squad car, they were waiting for me as requested by Mr. King, I wanted paper work to look at, John Korth had none & Raybuyn was standing right next to him.  I was extremely upset, because "no paperwork" give me a break, I'm not a stupid person, plus I'm a paralegal.  I td John what kinds of bullshit was this "no paperwork", what kind of officer is he, he sd the paper work is at the station.  I sd oh at the station, well, you are arresting my Jeff here, at school, so where's the paperwork, I just kept pushing for the paperwork.  

 

Greg, my nose was almost touching John Korth's nose, so I know I was spitting on him when I was reciting the riot act to him, I was not afraid of him or Rayburn or anybody else!  Korth was poker straight & Rayburn just stood there.  It took everything in me to not punch them in the face.  Raybuyn then got in the squad, to take my Jeff away.  With the windows being sound proof, I then yelled to my Jeff, "Do not tell them anything, say you want your lawyer to be present, that is your legal right"  My Jeff nodded okay, & they pulled off.  I jumped back into my car & followed them to the station, I was right behind them the whole way.  When my Jeff asked Rayburn, aren't you suppose to read me my rights, Rayburn said to my son, "when you're arrested you have no fucking rights"!  This is the  TRUTH!  This is what these parasite law officers truly believe & that's the way they do it.  After arriving at the station, they would not let me see Jeff, so I went to the courthouse & found Don Schweihs & asked him for paperwork, he sd I'll get it tomorrow, I sd tomorrow, my son is arrested now, I want paperwork NOW!  I was just livid over the unprofessional, unethical way this was all handled.  So, I had no paperwork until the next day at after bail court.   

 

Bail court was on 11/5/99 in the afternoon, we were there in the morning, because we couldn't get a time frame from the circuit clerk's office.  I had our witness's with us to verify were Jeff was going to be after school on 11/4/99.  Plus when they arrested Jeff, if I remember right, he had about $1.00 or so of money on him.  When Asst. States Atty. Don Schwiehs, found out that I had witness's with us for Jeff's trumped up "flee plan", he did not even mention this to Judge Sprenglemeyer as he had planned to & Schweihs wanted bail at $25,000.00 but then asked for bail to be set for $15,000.00 & Don Schweihs was very upset & red from the neck up.  Why? Because he already had a hole in his "case", that was supposedly rock solid according to John Korth.  Financially, this put a huge strain on us, Jeff's father, Mitch & I had to go to our bank & borrow the $1500.00 bail money to get Jeff out of jail that day.  Plus legal fees that should not have been but we had to come up with that also, Atty Kevin Ward represented my son.  So, I do feel we should be compensated from the JD county sheriff's dept. for legal fees & defamation of character.  My son could not get a job around here for anything, our other 2 younger boys were shunned by parents & their children were td not to be with my other 2 younger boys because of this case.  So, we all paid a high price for the wrong done to our son Jeff.  The newspaper columnist, Mike Cowan, should also be made to pay compensation to my son & our family, for the coverage he was eager to put on the front page of the Stockton paper in the midst of another horrific story that made my son Jeff look like he was part of another crime also, I have that paper also.  Mike Cowan did make a retraction the next week, just a small article on the bottom of the front page, not very noticeable.  When it was dismissed, just a teeny tiny blip on the inside of the paper. Mike Cowan td me he didn't write that article, I sd well your name is on it, he sd we just copied that article from the Telegraph Herald.  I td Mike, so if a story is wrong & you just copy it that's alright.  Aren't you as a reporter, suppose to investigate your story, if your name on the story as the author, You Are Responsible For What You Write!!!!!!    

 

There is so much more to all this & I have every single bit of paperwork on this case to back everything up & I mean everything.  After Schweihs lost the State's atty campaign, Jeff's case was "dismissed" a very short time later.  That sounds well & fine, but "dismissed" is not enough for an innocent person!  Arson has no statutes of limitations, so anytime some bandit cop(s) want to harass Jeff, the Arson can be conveniently drudge up again.  It should be as you stated "Void ab Initio" & nothing less then that!  I'm very serious about this.  So, yes, Greg, I'm not satisfied with the ending of this case.  Yes, they have not bothered my son since, but you never know when the corrupt's will get bored again!             

 

I have to tell you that I think you will be a good sheriff for JD County because you have first hand knowledge & details of their illegal strategies as I do also.  It's an unforgettable experience once you are on their "hit" list.  I know, I've been their too & so has my son, Julie, Judy and many, many others  They have  bothered my son only once since then, & I went to bat for him again to fight off the dirty dealings that go on in this county.  It was an underage drinking.  Another interesting story too.  That's why I had a meeting with Weber & his asst. & also another meeting at a different time with Brad Finn & Kirk Raab at the Stockton police station, my friend Bonnie Doane was with me.   

 

I have to tell you also that I've had a personal meeting with Glenn Weber & his asst. Shane, regarding the free flow of drugs into our county.  I td them all the drugs per capita vs people in Stockton alone is obvious that there is on "ok" with the higher up's in this county for the drugs to come in.  Yes, they tried to get me to name names but I would not, I was very guarded with my answers, but I freely asked them questions.  Which they were very guarded in responding to me, more Glenn Weber then Shane.  I was to have another meeting with them & also a meeting with Stockton Officer Jeff Phillips.  Not shocked, neither occurred! 

 

Also the meeting me & Bonnie Doane had with Finn & Raab, nothing came of that, & that was a 2 1/2 hr meeting.  We asked them to do about 3 things to prove to us that they are straight up then we would give names, dates, etc., well, they didn't even call us back.  Raab wanted this info bad, he's a sicko too, Finn was as cool as blue eyes are, no soul in him.  The other officer there was officer Shutte's if I remember correctly, he was a newby on the force at that time & I hope not under their thumb, he seemed quiet earnest to work with us & the youth.  I am a watcher of the kids in this area, there are others also too, I help out the teens when the cops take advantage of them, & they do quite often.  When ever I open my mouth, if seems to help the kids with their court or cops questioning.  I've td many kids, tell the cops your phone call is to me or if your getting stopped & have a cell phone call me quick, I'll be right there.  When the kids tell the officer their rights & the cops ask them where did you hear that, they give my name, which I td them to do, boy do the cops get mad & tell them that I've given them misinformation. Yeah, right!  Then the kids say, they will answer questions with their attorney or me, that has stopped alot of harassment right then & there.  An adult around changes alot for these kids treatment.  I will be writing to you again with more provable info.

 

Until then, your have my vote on March 19th.  And Stockton is buzzing with your site, good job!  The young voters are happy to see you come out with the truth of what we JD County citizens have been dealing with.  They are spreading your website to everybody.  So, Greg, you've got the youth's interest, they know you are telling the truth & are honest, they've lived through alot of injustice too, more then any youth should.  With being honest, you will change the youth of this area, you are showing them integrity.  Many just do not know what that is, they only know illegal law enforcement - chief's, officers, sheriff's, judges (sprenglemeyer) & state's attorney's.  So, you are doing more good then your realize.  I know, I've talked to voting age young adults, and they want Allendorf OUT!

 

Sincerely,

Nancy M. Siergiej

5242 S. Curtiss Rd.

Stockton, IL 61085