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Posted on 04/30/2012 3:08:31 PM PDT by Larry381
The former police chief for the village of Alorton and the city of East St. Louis was sentenced in United States District Court on April 27, 2012 for stealing evidence and making false statements to federal investigators, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced today. Michael Baxton, Sr., 49, was sentenced to federal prison for one year; was ordered to pay a $200 special assessment and a $2,000 fine; and was ordered to serve a two-year term of supervised release following completion of his prison sentence. Baxton, Sr. pled guilty to the charges on January 19, 2012.
In May, 2011, Baxton was hired by the village of Alorton to serve as the police chief. Baxton was appointed to fill the vacancy created after the previous Alorton police chief, Robert L. Cummings, pled guilty to unrelated federal tax crimes. Baxton served as the village of Alorton chief of police until October 14, 2011, when the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board decertified Baxton as a police officer after discovering that he had received two felony convictions from 1982 (theft of more than $150, in Madison County, case 81-CF-751; and burglary, in Madison County, case 81-CF-752).
On November 17, 2011, a St. Clair County judge reinstated Baxton’s law enforcement credentials because his felony convictions had been expunged in 1989. The order criticized the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board for decertifying Baxton, stating that their actions “resulted in significant damage to Mr. Baxton.” The judge ironically continued, “He lost employment. He was falsely designated a liar and felon. He was subjected to public humiliation.” United States Attorney Steve Wigginton said, “Baxton fooled the judge who recertified him, but he did not fool the IRS and FBI.”
David A Ford, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Springfield Division stated, “Public officials are entrusted with power from the public they serve. Corrupt public officials destroy the trust our citizens have placed in their government. Combating public corruption is the number one priority of the FBI’s criminal investigative division, and we will make every effort to investigate and bring to justice all those who violate this trust and deprive the American public of the honest service they deserve.”
After being reinstated to serve as a police officer, Baxton was hired by the city of East St. Louis to be that city’s police chief on November 30, 2011. He served in that capacity until January 18, 2012, when he resigned based upon his agreement to plead guilty to the current charges. Baxton previously served as the East St. Louis police chief from June 29, 2007 until February 13, 2009.
The current charges against Baxton were unrelated to his decertification by the Illinois Police Training and Standards Board. That investigation concerned allegations of systemic corruption within the village of Alorton by various public officials. In the months following his appointment, it was learned that Baxton intervened to provide favorable treatment to arrestees who were family members or associates of Mayor Randy McCallum or himself. It was further alleged that Baxton and McCallum were stealing evidence for their personal use and/or profit. Based upon these facts, federal investigators decided to conduct a proactive integrity test operation on October 5, 2011.
On that date, federal agents arranged for a federally owned covert vehicle to be registered to a fictitious Illinois business and to be entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database as stolen. The purportedly stolen vehicle was loaded with five Xbox 360 video gaming consoles that had been purchased by the FBI for the sting operation. Baxton responded to the call of an abandoned vehicle along with a village of Alorton police officer who was assisting the federal investigation in an undercover capacity. When Baxton discovered the electronics in the purportedly stolen car, he took four of the devices and directed the other officer to take the fifth to his home.
On January 5, 2012, Baxton was interviewed by agents from the IRS and FBI. During that interview, Baxton denied ever taking anything while working as a police officer. When confronted with the fact that agents knew gaming consoles had been stolen, Baxton blamed the officer (Officer 1) for theft, stating that Officer 1 took all of the devices and that he shouldn’t have let Officer 1 do that. When confronted more directly, Baxton admitted taking four Xbox gaming consoles. He apologized and assisted in recovering each of the four game systems that he stole on October 5, 2011.
That’s gotta be one of the most squalid cities I’ve ever had the displeasure of seeing. Went looking for gas there while on a cross-country road trip; every single gas station on my GPS was not there anymore—all boarded up. Whole place looks like a bad Kurt Russell post-apocalyptic movie set.
I doubt that.
One of the few blue areas in Southern Illinois, besides U of I and Southern Illinois.
You’re lucky they weren’t there any more. The son of a neighbor of mine (we lived in a small town) went looking for a station back in the 70’s and was murdered putting gas in the car. The son was probably 19 or 20 at the time and had no idea about the place.
You mean RED as in Communist.
If I ever wanted to know what hell looked like I found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_St._Louis,_Illinois
East St. Louis, Illinois he racial makeup of the city was 1.23% White, 97.74% Black
40.6% had a female householder with no husband present
Crime
East Saint Louis...... National average
Murder 101.9 ..........5.6
Considering the demographics of East St. Louis I would say absolutely. The good thing is St. Louis is way south of me and I don't have to go there.
On the other hand I'm even in a worse place Crook County!!!
That LOW??? East St. Louis must be on the recovery. Considering what a hell hole it is I would have figured that number would be above 90% with the female householder having multiple kids from multiple baby daddy's.
Even right off the expressway, everything was boarded up. Had to drive a little, found one beleagured station. When I got out, I was the only white boy for 10 miles. I was immediately set upon by hordes of zombies trying to sell me "gold", heroin, crack, or their sister/mama. Some had nothing to sell and just begged. I got 2.00 worth just to get the hell out of dodge. Wow.
40.6% had a female householder with no husband present
That LOW??? East St. Louis must be on the recovery.
If I may quibble: U of I is definitely blue-state territory (though even there are some fiscal conservatives), but it’s in East Central IL, not South. South is Effingham or lower. ;-)
East St. Louis and Cairo are worse armpits than the worst ‘hood in Chicago. Maybe even worse than Gary.
"Hey kids you noticing all this plight"
*gunshot* *scream*
"Roll 'em up!"
"Do you think these guys know The Commodores?"
I’ve been to Cairo twice, and I wouldn’t say that it is worse than ESL or Gary in that it is openly dangerous to visit. The problem with Cairo is that it is almost completely empty of people. Blocks of streets that once were lined with homes and businesses are open fields, even in the middle of the central business district. It had over 15,000 people in 1920 at its zenith, packed into a small area between the Ohio & Mississippi (the downtown fronts the Ohio). It has now lost more than 80% of its population, down to around 2,500 today (even in 1980, it still had 6,000). It’s a damn shame, because it could’ve benefitted from tourism as a river town and the historic areas restored as with so many other places (like Paducah, Owensboro, Cape Girardeau). It’s criminal what’s been allowed to happen to it, and heartbreaking when you see it with your own eyes.
Well in an alternate reality Cairo has a population of over 1 Million and St. Louis is a Milwaukee to it’s Chicago.
Heh... I think if Cairo had managed to grow beyond 15,000, it’s not very likely to have gone much higher (short of it becoming a very densely packed city). Remember that it is hemmed in on 3 sides by the river on a very narrow peninsula and it can only grow northward. On either side of it is Kentucky & Missouri, and that’s mostly flat farmland on the MO side (KY has some hills). Culturally, though, it has more in common with Mississippi than Illinois (or even KY, for that matter). It’s closer to MS than Springfield (and it’s only 3 hours from Nashville, making us the closest state capital to it). Still, it is astonishing given its premier location that it has been allowed to decay and fester as it has.
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