Belleville man charged with threat to BND accused of speeding truck toward pedestrians
A 20th Judicial Circuit Court judge has found probable cause to move forward with a case against a Belleville man accused of purposely speeding toward two pedestrians in his truck last November.
Stewart R. Lannert, 78, is charged with two counts of aggravated assault, a Class 4 felony. His preliminary hearing was held Friday in St. Clair County Circuit Court.
Lannert also has pending court appearances related to three charges from October, when he allegedly threatened to use fertilizer and dynamite to blow up the Belleville News-Democrat office. Police determined that he had left a phone message and sent a letter that referred to media bias against then-President Donald Trump and the BND’s failure to publish three of his letters to the editor.
St. Clair County State’s Attorney James Gomric’s office filed two complaints against Lannert related to the alleged aggravated assault. The first refers to an incident on Nov. 7, 2020, at an unspecified location.
“Stewart R. Lannert, knowingly and without justification, drove his motor vehicle, a bluish colored pickup truck, increasing the speed of the truck as he was driving, directly towards Charmel Wilburn, in close proximity to Charmel Wilburn, operating said vehicle in a manner which placed Charmel Wilburn in reasonable apprehension of receiving a battery,” it reads.
The second complaint includes the same date and description, substituting the name Mekka Weeden as the victim.
Neither Wilburn nor Weeden could be reached for comment on Monday. Lannert’s attorney, Eric Rhein, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Chris Allen, spokesman for the state’s attorney, didn’t respond to a request for information.
On Friday, the aggravated assault charges were considered by Monroe County Circuit Judge Chris Hitzemann, former Monroe County state’s attorney, who began his term in December. He’s presiding over a criminal felony docket in St. Clair County because he can’t judge Monroe County cases that he filed as state’s attorney, according to the Republic-Times in Waterloo.
A Class 4 felony in Illinois can result in a penalty of one to three years in prison and fines of up to $25,000.
In October, Gomric’s office charged Lannert with falsely making a terrorist threat against the BND, a Class 1 felony; harassment by telephone, a Class B misdemeanor; and disorderly conduct, a Class C misdemeanor. A grand jury indicted him on Nov. 20, 2020.
“Belleville Detectives executed a search warrant at the suspect’s residence in the 300 Block of South 29th Street in Belleville,” according to an Oct. 21, 2020, news release from the Belleville Police Department.
“The search warrant was executed on October 20. Detectives discovered the suspect was not able to carry out the threat as described via the voicemail left to the BND.”
That case started Oct. 16, 2020, with a nearly two-minute message on the BND’s voicemail. The caller complained that people had vandalized his yard signs supporting Trump’s reelection campaign, thrown rocks at his window and torn an American flag off his car; that the BND and other newspapers were biased against Trump and in favor of former Vice President Joe Biden, his opponent in the Nov. 3 general election; and that the BND had declined to publish some of his letters to the editor.
“Well, anyway, I’m wondering what I should do with all this stockpile of fertilizer and dynamite I got in my basement,” the caller stated. “I don’t know what I should do with it yet, maybe blow up the doggone News-Democrat ‘cause they’re so biased against Trump.”
The BND later received an envelope postmarked Oct. 17, 2020, with a hand-printed letter that again referred to unfair coverage of Trump by the news media and the BND’s failure to publish three letters to the editor.
The letter ended with the following: “when I worked at Coal Mine They used tons of Amornia (sic) Nitrate and I saved some To Fertilize my Garden or put To Good Use Someway.”
Lannert has three other cases pending in St. Clair County. A pretrial conference is scheduled April 20 related to a ticket he received from Belleville police on Aug. 7, 2020, for criminal trespass to a building, a Class B misdemeanor; a Feb. 6, 2020, charge by the state’s attorney’s office for carrying a concealed firearm in an alcohol establishment, a Class A misdemeanor; and a 2017 ticket he received from Belleville police for criminal trespass to a building, a Class B misdemeanor.
Previously, Lannert pleaded guilty or was found guilty of three misdemeanors in St. Clair County, including disregarding a traffic-control device in 2011, harassment by telephone in 2010 and being under the influence of drugs or alcohol as a pedestrian in 2007.
