Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Reporter Payton Felix shares insights into her latest stories

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Talk Line: Reporter Payton Felix shares insights into her latest stories · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's just about eight thirty nine on your Thursday morning,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: and as promised, it's a double dose of talk Line today.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I'm joining the booth once again, but far too long
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: in between, by my good friend and colleague, reporter Peyton
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Felix Peyton, how are you?
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: I'm good? How are you?
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm fantastic. I just get to chill out here
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and wait to talk to all of you, so you
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: get all the you get all the coolest stories, Peyton.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: We're just talking about it. Not that it's cool that
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: things happen, but I mean, if you have to run
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  Speaker 1: the gamut of interesting, oh my goodness, you just seem
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: to spin on that every time.
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  Speaker 2: Well, they're definitely interesting. A lot of a lot of
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: court stuff lately, so a lot of might bring it
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: down a little bit, but we'll bring you back up
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  Speaker 2: at the end.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So we're gonna start off with something that you've
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: had to write on multiple times because it's just been
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: an ongoing, developing thing. Is the case involving the Rodeo.
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  Speaker 2: And Rochelle Yes, So this is really turned into quite
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  Speaker 2: the saga lately. There was so Jody Whittaker is one
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  Speaker 2: of the shark advocates that was really kind of leading
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  Speaker 2: the fight against this rodeo in Rochelle holding steertailing events
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  Speaker 2: once again. Steertailing is a rodeo event where a rider
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  Speaker 2: on horseback will chase a running steer, grab their tail
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  Speaker 2: and wrap it around their leg to knock the steer down.
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  Speaker 2: It's been very widely controversial. There's been different state legislators
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  Speaker 2: taking up the issue to try to get a law pass,
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  Speaker 2: and people are largely against it because of the injuries
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  Speaker 2: that it typically results in for animals. But so here
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  Speaker 2: in Rochelle there was this rodeo holding these events that
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Shark was advocating against, and Jody Whittaker, one of the
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  Speaker 2: Shark people, was charged with two felonies in a misdemeanor
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  Speaker 2: and on June sixteenth, a jury found her guilty of
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: one count of false reporting and harassment by telephone. So
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  Speaker 2: her sentencing hearing is set for July twenty eight, that
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  Speaker 2: one thirty and then kind of with all that, the
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  Speaker 2: rodeo was still going on and Shark was still advocating
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  Speaker 2: against this rodeo. So Shark and some different people within
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  Speaker 2: Ogle County and Lee County and a Kelp County who
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  Speaker 2: have been kind of fighting against these events, filed a
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  Speaker 2: lawsuit against the rodeo to try to get it shut
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  Speaker 2: down that way because it was still going on. They
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  Speaker 2: argued that it's a public nuisance and wanted a judge
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  Speaker 2: to order it to be closed. And then, kind of
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  Speaker 2: in an interesting turn of events, at that hearing, a
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  Speaker 2: representative from the rodeo showed up and said, Hey, we're
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  Speaker 2: gonna We're gonna be done holding the rodeos, So this
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  Speaker 2: is all kind of dull and void basically, and the
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  Speaker 2: lawyers for the advocates basically agreed, and they did set
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  Speaker 2: a next hearing for August seventh at nine point thirty.
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  Speaker 2: But she was like, you know, if things go the
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  Speaker 2: way we're thinking they're gonna go, then there might not
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  Speaker 2: be a point. And on Tuesday, things did go the
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  Speaker 2: way they thought they were going to go. The Ogle
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  Speaker 2: County Board voted to accept the Rodeo's relinquishment of their permit,
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  Speaker 2: and they've said that we're not gonna be holding any
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  Speaker 2: rodeos anymore. So it seems like the advocates have kind
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  Speaker 2: of gotten what they wanted, at least for now in
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  Speaker 2: Ogle County. Some of them that I've spoken to say that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, it is kind of a victory. But they
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  Speaker 2: also could just pick up and go somewhere else, which
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  Speaker 2: they've seen happen before. So it's still not the end
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  Speaker 2: of it, but it might be the end of this
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  Speaker 2: specific event.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, at least here in this in this area.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Anyways, and uh yeah, I gotta imagine that's that's the
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  Speaker 1: small win for them and was probably the right move
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  Speaker 1: on the organization after all the heat, the attention, and
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  Speaker 1: that it was probably to cut ways with it. I
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  Speaker 1: personally am kind of glad they did that because I,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe I'm just a little too soft hearted,
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  Speaker 1: but from what I had read what steer tailing involves,
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  Speaker 1: I not a fan. Not a fan.
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  Speaker 2: Well, and you know, it's interesting because a big argument
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  Speaker 2: for because these events have been happening in de Kalb County,
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  Speaker 2: they had happened in Nogo County and McHenry County, Boone County,
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  Speaker 2: all over the place, and most of the prosecutors from
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  Speaker 2: these different counties that I've talked to, they all say,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the issue is we don't have a state law.
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  Speaker 2: The state does have animal protection laws that are kind
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  Speaker 2: of pretty broad, like you can't overwork an animal, you
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  Speaker 2: can't do certain things, and it's any animal. They weren't
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  Speaker 2: specifically written for rodeos, so that's why it makes it difficult.
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  Speaker 2: But in McHenry County, prosecutors did charge some participants of
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  Speaker 2: a rodeo with animal cruelty for ripping a steer's tail
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  Speaker 2: off during a steertailing event. And those three participants were
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  Speaker 2: found guilty of animal cruelty for that and they'll be
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  Speaker 2: sentenced August fifth. So it does seem like we do
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  Speaker 2: have existing laws.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know in the state at least we
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  Speaker 1: have precedence for for how this could be said, like no,
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  Speaker 1: you know this, this isn't allowed. So yeah, it was
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  Speaker 1: just saga. I love it. It really was. Yeah, very
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  Speaker 1: interesting to see how your your your epic saga ended
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  Speaker 1: ended up going out. And my goodness, was this the
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  Speaker 1: one you did the whiteboard for? I mean, I think
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  Speaker 1: you'd use the whiteboard for. I'm going to give a
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  Speaker 1: little shout out to to Peyton here. Okay, she recently
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  Speaker 1: won an Illinois Press Association Award for Investigative Journalism.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: She's fantastic. But you should see this woman work. It
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: looked like CSI Miami, Okay, scene cuts with the whiteboards.
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  Speaker 1: She would like go into on like mapping these things out.
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  Speaker 1: And so I forgot to ask you what the story
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  Speaker 1: was that you got your your award for. Was it
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  Speaker 1: this one?
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  Speaker 2: It was? It wasn't specifically for Ogle County, but it
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  Speaker 2: was a seertailing article that I wrote for de KAlP County.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, all right, we we lose track of her
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: whiteboard shenanigans there. That's why I had to ask her.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: I do feel at that whiteboard when I was making it,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: I felt like that one meme with the guy with
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: the tinfoil hat on. Yeah, people are going to come
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: in here and think I'm crazy.
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  Speaker 1: It makes sense. Man, you had the orange and it's here.
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  Speaker 1: We got but I mean, but you had it and
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  Speaker 1: you were on the money. Uh, and it was good work.
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  Speaker 1: So it was paid off with all your crazy equations.
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  Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. Well we're going to keep it rolling
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: along with all the things that Peyton has to dive
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  Speaker 1: into as a reporter. The another infamous story with the
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  Speaker 1: Carroll County deputy.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so for those that don't remember, it's Matthew Herbstreeth
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  Speaker 2: and he is a former Carroll County deputy, and he's
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  Speaker 2: charged for reckless homicide, reckless conduct, and obstructing justice and
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  Speaker 2: then some misdemeanors associated with the death of eighteen year
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  Speaker 2: old Jackson Cradle of Mount Carroll in twenty twenty four.
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  Speaker 2: Prosecutors say that he was you know, driving under the
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  Speaker 2: influence of alcohol that night and failed to reduce speed
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  Speaker 2: and avoid Cradle in this accident and struck him and
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: killed him, and then had covered it up. And so
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  Speaker 2: this case has kind of been, you know, making its
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  Speaker 2: way through the courts on its way to trial. On
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  Speaker 2: July tenth, there was a hearing where Herbstrei's defense attorney
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  Speaker 2: had filed emotion asking for more like a detailed explanation
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  Speaker 2: when it comes to the charges. He thought that the
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  Speaker 2: prosecutors weren't specific enough and that information then they they
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  Speaker 2: do this so that a defense attorney can form their
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  Speaker 2: defense and like make an argument at trial. The judge
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  Speaker 2: in that case ended up denying that and said that,
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: you know, they're detailed enough. They the prosecutor's argument was,
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  Speaker 2: we basically filed everything that the State of Illinois says
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  Speaker 2: that we have to follow we have to name the accused,
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  Speaker 2: we have to name the victim, we have to say
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  Speaker 2: what like factors had led to led to this, and
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  Speaker 2: they did all that. So that motion was denied. And
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  Speaker 2: at the hearing, the judge previously was setting each hearing
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  Speaker 2: about like two three months apart, and he said, you know,
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  Speaker 2: we want to keep this on a tight leash. We
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  Speaker 2: want to keep it moving. So the hearings will be
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  Speaker 2: every month going forward now and the next one is
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  Speaker 2: at three pm on August seventh, and the defense attorney
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  Speaker 2: said he's expecting to file a couple more motions and
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  Speaker 2: then they'll get that at that trials scheduled.
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  Speaker 1: Has anybody else been charged with anything in.
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  Speaker 2: This No, we've kind of been keeping an eye out
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  Speaker 2: on that, but so far it's just Matthew Harpstreith. So
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  Speaker 2: if that changes, we'll be on it. Though.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Kind of interesting because I mean, I think one
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  Speaker 1: of the questions that always rises up is with somebody.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I suppose it is within the realm possibility
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  Speaker 1: for a person to be able to cover this up alone,
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  Speaker 1: but it always makes you wonder if they had help, right.
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  Speaker 2: Well, in the evidence that they've kind of presented so
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  Speaker 2: far at trial, we know so far as there was
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: another there was a Carroll County dispatcher in the car
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  Speaker 2: with him when this happened. That person has not been
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  Speaker 2: charged with any crimes, but we do know that they
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  Speaker 2: were in the car with them.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I had seen some you know, discussion around
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: how things proceeded, when when the call came in for
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: for you know, this young man being reported found dead,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: and and the way that proceeded. And what was really
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  Speaker 1: interesting interesting about this and I know it's it's I
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: don't use the word interesting lightly because this was a
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: very tragic incident. But what I did really find interesting was,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: you know, even before these charges, you know, were formally
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  Speaker 1: put out, there was the buzz on the internet from
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  Speaker 1: the local community saying, hey, like this, we know what happened,
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  Speaker 1: we know what happened, Like somebody has to listen to us,
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  Speaker 1: and they were calling it out and here we are.
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  Speaker 1: And I mean and it was not like one or
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: two people there was there were a lot of voices
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  Speaker 1: going all over Facebook groups that were created reaching out
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  Speaker 1: and saying like this, you know this happened, this is
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: this is how it happened, or you know, the vegust
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  Speaker 1: of outlines for it, you.
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  Speaker 2: Know, and here we are, well and you know, they
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  Speaker 2: still haven't It feels like they still haven't stopped. Every
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  Speaker 2: year that I've been to there's a large group of
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  Speaker 2: you know, people that care about this young man that
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  Speaker 2: died and about the case and our seeing it through.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, well one of the times the power
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  Speaker 1: of social media, you know, kind of has a positive
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  Speaker 1: for one. So definitely, I love hearing. I promise we
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: are going to get positive after a wild folks, but
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: it's not yet. Unfortunately, Payton's job is involved in a
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: lot of gloomer doom.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: I O.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Andy Jackson was just here talking about National self Care
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: dat tomorrow, Payton, I need you to set up a
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: day at the SPA. However you like to relax because
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: you are always in the trenches of turmoil and we're
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: just going to keep it going. We've got two more
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: doses of awfulness when it comes to that, and so
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: we're gonna go with Generis and the Lost Lake shooter.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So if you guys remember there was that shooting
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: that happened in that Lost Like neighborhood back on June
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  Speaker 2: twelfth and twenty twenty four. Jonathan Gannaris had is accused
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: of shooting three Ogle County emergency responders, and so one
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: of those is Ogle County Sheriff's Lieutenant Jason Cutter. He
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: was out of the three of them. I mean, he
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: really took like he was shot in the face and
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: he spent two days in a Rockford hospital. When he
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: was released, there was a big police escort that escorted
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: him back home. Everybody applauding when he got out of there,
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  Speaker 2: and he ended up returning to work about four months later.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: It was in October of that year. So after that,
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Gunnars is charged with four counts of attempted for degree murder,
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  Speaker 2: three counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, three counts
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: of aggravate aggravated battery, and then some other counts for
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: possessing a firearm. So this is still his case. His
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: criminal case is still proceeding it through the court. And
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Jason Ketter has filed a lawsuit against Gnaris, his mom,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: and the LLC company that owns their home that they
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: shared together, and that a hearing for that lawsuit is
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: scheduled at nine thirty am October ninth. And what was
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: what stuck out to really stuck out to me about
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: that is in the lawsuit, he one of the things
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: that it accuses his mama is that she should have
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: she should have known that this was happening and should
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: have is kind of that fault that this happened to.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out,
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: especially that his criminal case has still not gone to
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: trial yet.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, I and I for I forget. Why are they
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  Speaker 1: Why are they saying they believe the mom is at fault?
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  Speaker 2: It was because she there's a lot of legal terms,
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: because because she had a special relationship, a special relationship
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: in quotes to Jonathan Gnaris as being his mother, and
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: that she lived in the home with him where this happened.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: So she did. What we do know is that she
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: did call police the day that this shooting occurred and said,
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: my son has been making suicidal homicidal threats. This could
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: be a side by cop situation, all this stuff. But
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: they're arguing in the lawsuit that I guess she should
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: have done that earlier, and just that she knew that
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  Speaker 2: all this was going on and allowed it to happen
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: in the home that she shared with him. Yeah.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Wow, I mean this was one of those things. When
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: it first came out, it felt like it should have
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: been on like in the nightly news in Florida or something.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: You know, it was like wow. And then now for
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: it to still be going on like that, it's it's
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: gonna be interesting to see how this develops.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, And I mean I can still remember I
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: had just started at the newspaper when this whole thing happened,
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: and I can remember like hearing whispers of something going
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: on and emailing our editor and running out the door
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: go to Loss Lake. So it was definitely yeah, definitely memorable.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Peyton will have the details in the updates
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: as they come through. She'll be writing them on so
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: you've got always check them out online and in print,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: and then when she comes back, she will be giving
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: us updates as as she has them. One more sour note,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: but I'm sure everybody wants to know for what you
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: can because this is still an ongoing investigation, and that's
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: the recent incident at our own Dixon Correctional facility.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we don't know a lot. I contacted the
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Illinois Department of Corrections and they were able to tell
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: me that one person who was in custody died on Sunday.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: They wouldn't release any more information and said that the
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: investigation is ongoing. This situation is interesting because there was
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: a big emergency response that happened out there that people
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: could just see. But that is the only information that
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: we know as of now. Hoping to to kind of
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: get some more and keep checking over there so.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Well she will have us updated. That is literally as
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: far as it gone. This was what Sunday.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Sunday, Yeah.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: And I mean you have to imagine with an investigation
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: unless it was unless it was something clear cut and
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: dry that considering we don't have anything by now, it'll
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: let's just say Peyton is going to continue writing the
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: pines of the court system benches. Are they getting any
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: more comfortable, Peyton, or are you just getting or is
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: your back just getting hard to it?
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: My back is just cramping up at this point.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Y'all got to start angling them things back. Nobody sits
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: at ninety degrees.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: This is true.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Well, I promised y'all positivity, but we are about out
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: a time, so I'll give it a ten second recap.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Peyton very nicely got to write a story about the
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: opening of mine in my wife's store, so thank you
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: so much for that. It was awesome. We had so
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: many positive comments and messages, and we were super busy
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: at this store yesterday, so I really want to say
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: thank you for that.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: Of course, I'm very happy to hear that there. I
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: love your guys' store, and I actually bought myself some too,
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: little like a milk and like a sugar dish for
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: my coffee station, which I just love.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: So that is awesome. You got to take some pictures
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: and share it with us. I always try to get
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: people to share pictures of their stuff when they decorate
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: it in their home, so I will well, thank you
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: so much for coming and sharing all the details. Peyton
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: and I look forward to our next update.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: Yes, thanks for having me.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Always a pleasure.