Police and Courts

Sean Lenckus worked as an assistant public defender in McLean County for less than a year before his arrest in April. The Illinois Supreme Court has revoked his law license at least until the case is resolved.

Delays and glitches in a new McLean County Computer Aided Dispatch system are frustrating public safety agencies. McLean County is implementing a new suite of software applications to speed up fire and police response in the county. It has not gone well.

The mayor of Bloomington said the city and police department must work to regain public trust in the wake of the abrupt retirement of Assistant Chief Paul Williams. Williams was involved in a questionable traffic stop that sparked a lawsuit against Williams and the city.

Emerson Evans, 32, pleaded guilty to manslaughter of an unborn baby after being accused of slipping abortion pills to his girlfriend last year.

An Illinois State Police K-9 dog detected the presence of drugs inside a refrigerator truck following a traffic stop. Authorities said officers found four large black garbage bags containing a substance that tested positive for cocaine.

McLean County prosecutors said Friday that a 43-year-old Unit 5 junior high school teacher made sexually suggestive remarks to a 13-year-old girl last year. He faces charges of grooming.

Normal Police say Brandon Knapp, 43, of Hudson, was indicted Wednesday by a McLean County grand jury. Knapp, who taught at Chiddix Junior High School in Normal, was placed on paid leave in January as police investigated reports of alleged misconduct.

The Normal Police Department has made technology one of its top priorities in 2026. That includes a new video drone that officers can bring to crime and crash scenes.

Emerson Evans, 31, appeared before Judge Amy McFarland Monday afternoon for a pretrial detention hearing on two counts of intentional homicide of an unborn child. Prosecutors argued Evans should be held in McLean County Jail awaiting trial; McFarland agreed.

A 31-year-old man from Normal was charged Saturday with causing the intentional homicide of an unborn child, after allegedly sneaking the abortion pill mifepristone to his girlfriend in Bloomington without her consent.