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Protection from death threats has limits
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Protection from death threats has limits
This story was published in Metro on Sunday, April 28, 2002.
By Paul Hampel And Trisha L. Howard
Of The Post-Dispatch
Norm Parish Of The Post-Dispatch Contributed To This Report.
To anyone besieged by the likes of George Setzekorn, Madison County state's attorney William R. Haine offers this blunt reality: You can't always count on the law to protect you.
Haine's assessment reflects the frustrations that many, both in and out of law enforcement, feel in the face of people who threaten mayhem, and, in some cases, follow through.
For years, Setzekorn, 53, of Centralia, Ill., threatened to kill his ex-wife, Patricia Young, and members of her family. He made good on those threats last week in Carlinville, Ill., where he killed his 14-year-old daughter, his former sister-in-law and then himself.
It wasn't the first time Setzekorn resorted to violence to settle scores. He fatally shot his estranged wife, Verna Stapleton Setzekorn, in 1978.
He was sentenced to 20 years for that murder and released after eight years in a period when Illinois allowed sentences to be reduced half or more for good behavior. That practice was ended in the 1990s.
Haine would not discuss Setzekorn's prison sentence, but when it comes to men bent on mayhem, he said people need to watch out for themselves.
"You cannot depend on the law at all times to face down wild men filled with hatred," Haine said.
"Sometimes, it is incumbent on citizens to take what measures the law allows, and the law allows bearing arms to defend one's life and one's family. That's what I would do. I say that to you with all my heart."
Some lawyers and social workers say that the Setzekorn case proves more changes are needed in the legal system to prevent women and their families from suffering abuse.
"I think we are hitting a national crisis in our country," said Jane Lee, executive director of the Violence Prevention Center of Southwestern Illinois, which deals with families in St. Clair, Monroe and Randolph counties. "Violence is getting more hideous."
Lee said her center dealt with about 2,000 cases of abuse during the last year. In 1989, her office handled 900 to 1,000 abuse cases.
Lee believes penalties should be stiffer for men who abuse women.
But Haine said the law is limited regarding threats.
"It's hard to prosecute what's in the heart," said Haine, prosecutor in Madison County since 1988. "But if a guy takes overt action and makes an attempt to or commits a grievous felony like battery, then we'll prosecute.
"But there's no law allowing the state's attorney to lock up for indefinite periods someone who has threatened someone. That would be an unconstitutional statute."
Death threats
Patricia Young divorced Setzekorn in 1997, and moved that year to Ohio when Setzekorn began making threatening phone calls.
Her sister, Janie Goesmann, obtained an order of protection against Setzekorn that same year.
Setzekorn was convicted of intimidation of Young in 1998, based on a telephone death threat. The state released him after two years, and he was soon making more threats.
Members of Young's family said they kept firearms with them almost constantly for fear of Setzekorn. Despite those precautions, Setzekorn struck again last Tuesday, killing his daughter, Skylar, and then setting fire to the home of his ex-wife's parents. He drove to the home of Goesmann and shot her to death, then turned the gun on himself.
The sister of Setzekorn's first victim found the most recent killings eerily familiar.
Becky Todd, Verna Stapleton Setzekorn's sister, said George Setzekorn was controlling and cruel. Todd, of Jacksonville, Ill., said Setzekorn physically abused his wife and threatened her repeatedly when she talked about leaving him. At one point, Setzekorn cut the battery cables in Verna Stapleton's car so "she just couldn't up and leave without calling someone for help," Todd said.
Stapleton left Setzekorn just two months after the couple married and moved with her two children from her first marriage to her sister's house in Jacksonville.
When Stapleton returned to her home a few days later to retrieve the rest of her belongings, Todd said, everything else was gone, including her children's bicycles and toys.
"That was another way for him to control her," Todd said. "It was like, 'If I can't have you, you can't have anything.'"
At 6:18 a.m. on Jan. 4, 1978, as Verna Setzekorn was leaving her brother's house in Athens to go to school, George Setzekorn shot her once in the back with a shotgun. Her 11-year-old son witnessed the shooting.
Although Todd feels sorrow for Setzekorn's latest victims, she said Setzekorn's death has also brought her a sense of relief.
"Unfortunately, it's just starting for that family, but it's closure for this one, because he's gone," she said.
Setzekorn's 20-year sentence, the minimum, was the result of a plea-bargain. The Menard County prosecuting attorney at the time, Nolan Lipsky, could not be reached for comment. But in an interview last week with the Springfield, Ill., State Journal-Register, Lipsky said that the agreement was reached to spare Stapleton's son from further trauma.
"The only witness to the event was her son, and I sat down and discussed with her brother and sister-in-law whether they wanted the child to testify," Lipsky told the State Journal-Register. "They opted he not testify."
Slayings shock neighbors
Setzekorn lived in a mobile home on property that his brother, Fred Setzekorn, owned on the north end of Centralia. His beige, 1971 Dodge pickup remained parked in the driveway last week.
Neighbors in mobile homes on either side of Setzekorn's said there was no indication he was a dangerous person.
Louella Howard, 63, remembers him as "a tall and slim guy, who walked slow and had long hair and a beard."
She said he was mostly quiet, and polite on the rare occasions that he spoke.
"I talked with him the day he did the murders," Howard said. "He asked me what I had planted in my yard and I said, 'Hummingbird plants.' And he said, 'I'm not much of a gardener myself. The way I look at it, if it grows, it grows.'"
Another neighbor, Wayne Howe, said that as far as he knew, Setzekorn earned money cutting grass around the area. Howe was flabbergasted when he heard about the recent murders.
"I knew that George had killed his first wife, but he was such a nice guy around me. I said, 'It can't be him!' when I heard the news."
Several members of Setzekorn's family live nearby in Centralia, but a measure of their relative's isolation is indicated by the grown nieces and nephews who said they had never met him.
His brother Fred owns a custom motorcycle shop in nearby Richview. He refused to comment, other than to say, "The news has misrepresented my brother. It's been a lot of lies."
A sister, Emma Mueller, of Okawville, said she didn't wanted to discuss the matter. However, she said the news had not distorted her brother's character. "Nothing's been misrepresented in the news about him," she said. "The justice system failed, it's as simple as that."
Reporter Paul Hampel:\ E-mail: phampel@post-dispatch.com\ Phone: 618-659-3639\ Reporter Trisha L. Howard:\ E-mail: thoward@post-dispatch.com\ Phone: 618-659-3640
http://home.post-dispatch.com/channel/pdweb.nsf/text/86256A0E0068FE5086256BA9003C266B
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
This story was published in Metro on Sunday, April 28, 2002.
By Paul Hampel And Trisha L. Howard
Of The Post-Dispatch
Norm Parish Of The Post-Dispatch Contributed To This Report.
To anyone besieged by the likes of George Setzekorn, Madison County state's attorney William R. Haine offers this blunt reality: You can't always count on the law to protect you.
Haine's assessment reflects the frustrations that many, both in and out of law enforcement, feel in the face of people who threaten mayhem, and, in some cases, follow through.
For years, Setzekorn, 53, of Centralia, Ill., threatened to kill his ex-wife, Patricia Young, and members of her family. He made good on those threats last week in Carlinville, Ill., where he killed his 14-year-old daughter, his former sister-in-law and then himself.
It wasn't the first time Setzekorn resorted to violence to settle scores. He fatally shot his estranged wife, Verna Stapleton Setzekorn, in 1978.
He was sentenced to 20 years for that murder and released after eight years in a period when Illinois allowed sentences to be reduced half or more for good behavior. That practice was ended in the 1990s.
Haine would not discuss Setzekorn's prison sentence, but when it comes to men bent on mayhem, he said people need to watch out for themselves.
"You cannot depend on the law at all times to face down wild men filled with hatred," Haine said.
"Sometimes, it is incumbent on citizens to take what measures the law allows, and the law allows bearing arms to defend one's life and one's family. That's what I would do. I say that to you with all my heart."
Some lawyers and social workers say that the Setzekorn case proves more changes are needed in the legal system to prevent women and their families from suffering abuse.
"I think we are hitting a national crisis in our country," said Jane Lee, executive director of the Violence Prevention Center of Southwestern Illinois, which deals with families in St. Clair, Monroe and Randolph counties. "Violence is getting more hideous."
Lee said her center dealt with about 2,000 cases of abuse during the last year. In 1989, her office handled 900 to 1,000 abuse cases.
Lee believes penalties should be stiffer for men who abuse women.
But Haine said the law is limited regarding threats.
"It's hard to prosecute what's in the heart," said Haine, prosecutor in Madison County since 1988. "But if a guy takes overt action and makes an attempt to or commits a grievous felony like battery, then we'll prosecute.
"But there's no law allowing the state's attorney to lock up for indefinite periods someone who has threatened someone. That would be an unconstitutional statute."
Death threats
Patricia Young divorced Setzekorn in 1997, and moved that year to Ohio when Setzekorn began making threatening phone calls.
Her sister, Janie Goesmann, obtained an order of protection against Setzekorn that same year.
Setzekorn was convicted of intimidation of Young in 1998, based on a telephone death threat. The state released him after two years, and he was soon making more threats.
Members of Young's family said they kept firearms with them almost constantly for fear of Setzekorn. Despite those precautions, Setzekorn struck again last Tuesday, killing his daughter, Skylar, and then setting fire to the home of his ex-wife's parents. He drove to the home of Goesmann and shot her to death, then turned the gun on himself.
The sister of Setzekorn's first victim found the most recent killings eerily familiar.
Becky Todd, Verna Stapleton Setzekorn's sister, said George Setzekorn was controlling and cruel. Todd, of Jacksonville, Ill., said Setzekorn physically abused his wife and threatened her repeatedly when she talked about leaving him. At one point, Setzekorn cut the battery cables in Verna Stapleton's car so "she just couldn't up and leave without calling someone for help," Todd said.
Stapleton left Setzekorn just two months after the couple married and moved with her two children from her first marriage to her sister's house in Jacksonville.
When Stapleton returned to her home a few days later to retrieve the rest of her belongings, Todd said, everything else was gone, including her children's bicycles and toys.
"That was another way for him to control her," Todd said. "It was like, 'If I can't have you, you can't have anything.'"
At 6:18 a.m. on Jan. 4, 1978, as Verna Setzekorn was leaving her brother's house in Athens to go to school, George Setzekorn shot her once in the back with a shotgun. Her 11-year-old son witnessed the shooting.
Although Todd feels sorrow for Setzekorn's latest victims, she said Setzekorn's death has also brought her a sense of relief.
"Unfortunately, it's just starting for that family, but it's closure for this one, because he's gone," she said.
Setzekorn's 20-year sentence, the minimum, was the result of a plea-bargain. The Menard County prosecuting attorney at the time, Nolan Lipsky, could not be reached for comment. But in an interview last week with the Springfield, Ill., State Journal-Register, Lipsky said that the agreement was reached to spare Stapleton's son from further trauma.
"The only witness to the event was her son, and I sat down and discussed with her brother and sister-in-law whether they wanted the child to testify," Lipsky told the State Journal-Register. "They opted he not testify."
Slayings shock neighbors
Setzekorn lived in a mobile home on property that his brother, Fred Setzekorn, owned on the north end of Centralia. His beige, 1971 Dodge pickup remained parked in the driveway last week.
Neighbors in mobile homes on either side of Setzekorn's said there was no indication he was a dangerous person.
Louella Howard, 63, remembers him as "a tall and slim guy, who walked slow and had long hair and a beard."
She said he was mostly quiet, and polite on the rare occasions that he spoke.
"I talked with him the day he did the murders," Howard said. "He asked me what I had planted in my yard and I said, 'Hummingbird plants.' And he said, 'I'm not much of a gardener myself. The way I look at it, if it grows, it grows.'"
Another neighbor, Wayne Howe, said that as far as he knew, Setzekorn earned money cutting grass around the area. Howe was flabbergasted when he heard about the recent murders.
"I knew that George had killed his first wife, but he was such a nice guy around me. I said, 'It can't be him!' when I heard the news."
Several members of Setzekorn's family live nearby in Centralia, but a measure of their relative's isolation is indicated by the grown nieces and nephews who said they had never met him.
His brother Fred owns a custom motorcycle shop in nearby Richview. He refused to comment, other than to say, "The news has misrepresented my brother. It's been a lot of lies."
A sister, Emma Mueller, of Okawville, said she didn't wanted to discuss the matter. However, she said the news had not distorted her brother's character. "Nothing's been misrepresented in the news about him," she said. "The justice system failed, it's as simple as that."
Reporter Paul Hampel:\ E-mail: phampel@post-dispatch.com\ Phone: 618-659-3639\ Reporter Trisha L. Howard:\ E-mail: thoward@post-dispatch.com\ Phone: 618-659-3640
http://home.post-dispatch.com/channel/pdweb.nsf/text/86256A0E0068FE5086256BA9003C266B
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878