Calling in the Cavalry

In Clinton, Ill., a farming hamlet 150 miles southwest of Chicago, a reporter for the weekly DeWitt County Observer (circ. 3,150) got a tip last October on the biggest story of her life. In a five-hour taped interview, a source spilled out a tale of corruption and brutality involving County Sheriff Keith V. Long, 57, whose gruff manner and thick downstate drawl seem right out of In the Heat of the Night. Trouble was, Reporter Charlene Hettinger, 39, and a colleague, Edith Brady, 22, kept running into brick walls as they tried to check the story out. The local townsfolk and officials were afraid to talk. Recalls Hettinger: "We were buffaloed."

Then the cavalry arrived. Through a state official, Reporter Larry Green of the Chicago Daily News (circ. 374,000) learned of the Observer's predicament and got his own paper's approval to combine forces on the story. Green, 35, and another News reporter. Rob Warden, 36, started probing this month. Local lips unbuttoned. Says Hettinger: "The Daily News had enough clout that people opened up like Niagara Falls."

Last week the Observer and the News simultaneously published an expose that accused the sheriff of misuse of funds, nepotism, violence and gross noncompliance with the law. It reported that inmates in the county jail had been blackjacked.Maced and sexually assaulted; one man said his broken leg went without medical attention for five days. The newspapers also alleged that Long had employees kick back 2% of their pay into what may be a political fund. The report quotes Long as boasting: "I am the law."

In the wake of the joint expose, the county attorney asked a judge to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the charges; state and federal law enforcement officials launched their own investigations. It all reminds some Clinton citizens of what Abraham Lincoln said in 1858 as he stood three blocks from what is now Long's jail: "You can fool all the people part of the time, and part of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."

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