Sex abuse charges for Spring Valley man

Sexual abuse charges for a 25 year old man accused of having sex with a 14 year old girl and trying to hook up with a 13 year old.

          Police Friday arrested O-ephia AKA Antwown Hampton of Spring Valley after they say he went to a parking lot along Shooting Park Road in Peru to meet with a 13 year old girl from La Salle. 

          He was arrested for solicitation of a child, a class four felony.  He was also charged with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for allegedly having sex with another girl.

          Investigators from La Salle and Peru think it’s been going on for a half a year and other girls could be involved.

          Hampton was taken to the La Salle County Jail where he’s being held with his bond set at $100,000.

Spring Valley Woman Fends Off Burglars With Knife

A fear shared by many…being woken up by burglars in your home.

A woman in Spring Valley called police Saturday morning saying three boys forced open the backdoor of her home.  She told police she woke up and scared the alleged burglars off with a kitchen knife.  As she was on the phone with police, Herbert Alonzo and two younger boys from Spring Valley allegedly came back before running away and getting caught about a block away.

Alonzo and the 14 year old suspect were arrested for residential burglary and burglary to a motor vehicle.  The 16 year old suspect was picked up for residential burglary, burglary to a motor vehicle, criminal trespass and criminal damage to a vehicle.  All three were taken to the county jail.

Investigators think the three also broke into other cars last week.

Store Closed Because Of Leakage

A leaky roof means no shopping for the foreseeable future at Sav-A-Lot in Streator.

The La Salle County Health Department and the Streator building inspector have ordered everything to be moved out by Wednesday because of a fear of contamination to food.  Store officials had put out buckets for water during heavy rain but damage has been done to ceiling tiles and insulation.

Officials say they heard about the water issues from an anonymous complaint.  Store officials say they’ve been handcuffed by a landlord refusing to address the water problems.

La Salle aldermen want to know why a bill wasn’t brought before the council

Bills from a winter storage space have a couple of the aldermen in La Salle questioning the transparency of their spending.  Since October, the city has been paying $500 a month to store a vactor truck, street sweeper, chipper, and sewer camera truck in a building on Civic Road.
The arrangement was the work of Mayor Jeff Grove. He says they don’t have enough space in the city garages that’s kept heated to store some of the vehicles during the winter.
Grove addressed the rental space only after alderman and finance committee chairman George Green started asking questions.  Green and alderman Gary Schroeder are upset that it never came before the council.
Grove says he felt it was an operational cost.  Several aldermen agreed that you can’t leave diesel engine vehicles out in the cold if you’re going to be using them.
Schroeder is upset the charge doesn’t appear on the bills the council approves at every meeting, but rather on a list that is given to the finance committee.
As for ending the agreement, it doesn’t seem to matter now.  Grove says this is the last month they would have needed to been kept in a heated building.

Items being accepted for fire victims

Donations are being collected for a family that lost everything to a house fire in La Salle.

The house that Tammy Eubanks shared with her daughter and three grandchildren was gutted by fire last Thursday.

Her coworkers are taking donations at the Spring Valley Nursing Center.  Some items they need are clothes for a six year old girl, two year old girl, and four month old baby boy. They also need women’s pants size 18 and women’s pants size medium petite, 2X shirts and scrub tops.  They could also use diapers and Enfamil formula.

Donations should be left at the Spring Valley Nursing Center.