Prison Time For Punching Cop

Even though he apparently said he was sorry, a La Salle teen was given prison time today for punching a police officer.

19 year old Nicholas Puyear was given three and a half years in prison yesterday after pleading guilty to aggravated battery to a peace officer. He’s already in prison for violating probation on a 2006 residential burglary charge. Puyear will get credit for 91 days served in jail.

Puyear was arrested in May for the aggravated battery charge after he punched a La Salle police officer in the leg. The officer was responding to a battery call and said Puyear was drunk.

Streator Woman Admits To Stealing From Grandma

A Streator woman will serve probation after admitting to stealing money from her grandma.

Megan Kappel pled guilty yesterday to the class 3 felony of forgery. While staying where her grandma, Kappel admitted stealing some of grandmother’s checks and writing them out to herself. The checks totaled 708 dollars. She has to pay this back as restitution.

Kappel will be on probation for 30 months. She served 15 days in jail.

Local Cleaning Lady Gets Probation

A cleaning lady from Wenona was given 30 months probation for admitting to stealing from her clients.

Misty Smith pled guilty yesterday to a felony charge of unlawful use of a credit card. While cleaning a house in Streator, she apparently got a hold of the homeowners discover card and rang up 936 dollars in charges.

As part of her plea agreement, she’ll pay that money back as restitution. She also served 18 days in jail.

Shots Fired At Area Bar

A man from rural Sandwich is under arrest after shots were fired yesterday morning at an area tavern.

La Salle County Sheriff Tom Templeton says his office got a call just after two yesterday morning in regards to shots fired in the parking lot of the Hideout Tavern in Sandwich. When deputies arrived, they saw that to unoccupied cars had been shot at. No one was injured.

After investigating, Steven Nelson of rural Sandwich was arrested for illegal discharge of a weapon, felony criminal damage to property, and possession of a weapon by a felon. He was taken to the county jail to await a bond hearing.