[Peace-discuss] Re: [Announce] Donnell Clemons in court

[Jan & Durl Kruse]

Homeless man's court date set for West Side Park shooting
By Mary Schenk

Wednesday August 1, 2007

URBANA – A homeless man accused of shooting two police officers near a 
Champaign park in June is scheduled to be back in court Aug. 14.

Judge Heidi Ladd on Tuesday arraigned Donnell Clemons, 47, on a 
six-count indictment returned by a Champaign County grand jury last 
week.

The charges are identical to those filed last month by the state's 
attorney's office. They include two counts of attempted first-degree 
murder alleging Clemons tried to kill Deputy Chief John Murphy and 
Officer Shannon Bridges; two counts of aggravated discharge of a 
firearm for shooting in the direction of Murphy and Bridges; aggravated 
battery with a firearm for injuring Murphy; and unlawful possession of 
weapons by a felon for having a .380-caliber handgun.

The charges all stem from a June 7 incident in the 300 block of West 
Church Street in Champaign on the north side of West Side Park.

Murphy, Bridges and fellow officer Jack Armstrong were all responding 
to a call of a man with a weapon.

When they approached the car Clemons was in about 7:40 p.m., Clemons is 
alleged to have opened fire and the officers returned fire. Bridges is 
still not back to work; Murphy and Armstrong are.

Exactly how Armstrong was injured is still the subject of investigation 
but no criminal charges have been filed against Clemons regarding 
Armstrong.

Both Assistant Public Defender Scott Schmidt and Assistant State's 
Attorney Steve Ziegler asked Ladd for an additional 30 days beyond the 
normal 30 to file pretrial motions. Ladd, who will hear the case, 
agreed to their request.

If convicted of all the charges, Clemons faces up to 160 years in 
prison, Ladd told him.
  Find this article at:
  http://www.news-gazette.com/news/2007/08/01/mans_court_date_set
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