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Justice For Ernie, Charleston, IL (2026)

11/03/2025

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Such is the case of the Coles County Coroner, who was so actively involved in the coverup. In coroner system states, these elected officials have no checks and balances or oversight authority double checking their integrity and ensuring that the oaths of office are being upheld. This consolidates their power completely when it comes to deaths in which they sign the death certificate and disposition permits. In these instances they determine cause of death, collect and dispose of evidence, have custody of the body, order or perform autopsies, order inquests, and more.

In our instance, the coroner determined it was the heart attack. He even came to the funeral home and argued with me in front of my family about not getting an autopsy, which I and our kids had already decided we wanted because of Ernie's grotesquely protruding eyes. The coroner after what was about 10 minutes of his increasingly aggressive back and forth discourse with me actually lost all pretense of maintaining professional courtesy when he hatefully outrighted yelled at me "An autopsy wont change my findings!" This took me, our 2 daughters, my mom, my aunt, and nearly 2 year old granddaughter off guard completely in his tone, his aggression, and his statement. This was the day after Ernie died, and way before we knew anything other than he died after having a heart attack, but Cherokee and I both were greeted with an Ernie who looked more like a car wreck victim with a massive head wound than someone who experienced a heart attack that he was walking and talking during just 90 minutes earlier. We wanted to know why his face was so bloody and his eyeballs were pushed out further than his nose. At that moment, nobody was questioning the heart attack.

As time went on, we learned he threw away Ernie's clothes. I have text messages and emails where he was interfering in the autopsy acquisition, lying to us, held control of Ernie's body, and withheld disposition permits until he was reincluded after I sidestepped due the deception and questionable actions I had been subjected to by him.

Despite the internal injuries, the video, the witnesses, the medical records, the scanner, etc the coroner's determination of heart attack is still the cause of death on Ernie's death certificate.

I have the whole original autopsy file including the glass slides, communications, photos, research, etc.

I also have the communication with IDPH EMS. Despite the video showing the first line of the paramedic report to be false, not withstanding the internal injuries of a heart attack patient, and other clear and present falsehoods in the patient report, Irene Wadhams of IDPH EMS closed the case with zero violations found after she collaboratedwith the Coles County Coroner. Mind you, just the falsifying the patient report is a crime as its a legal document. And Ernies entire patient run report is untrue, beginning to end. They made him walk to ambulance without even taking his vitals on a cardiac call, a clear violation of standards of care, which of course the video shows and their report lied about.

The Coles County Coroner has been reelected continuously and unchallenged since 2007. Hes proven himself untrustworthy of his oath of duties, placing his friendship with the paramedics over his oath and the trust his electors have entrusted in him. He has been the primary actor in the cover up, as the paramedics would have been incapable of manipulating the system without his help. This was not the first time either, not with the comfort and ease in which the paramedics and he quickly coordinated and acted in tandem.

Its time to change this. Its time to bring safety, trust, integrity and transparency back to patients and families during these crucial times in their lives, and bring accountability back to those who study for and choose this career. It's time for inquests to be called, evidence to be seen and heard, and for wrongdoers to face their negligence and malpractice. The victims deserve better. Coles County residents deserve better.

will help and support to elect any and all challengers to this coroner in every way the challenger or challengers may need. Murder has no statute of limitations. Its not uncommon for victims and families to have to wait years before justice and accountability happen, and we are prepared to not just wait but help elect a coroner that will handle Ernie's case properly. Ernie deserves to have the correct cause of death on his death certificate, as well as accountability from these people. And they deserve to have their names and actions known for what they did.

Coroner positions require high school diploma, no felony convictions, and its preferred but not required to have mortuary, law enforcement, ems, medical, forensic or some other experience, as you must be elected to the position before being able to go through the state licensing course and certification. That is required within 6 months of election.

11/02/2025

Tuesday, November 4, 2025 is the first anniversary of my husband's death. Its been weighing heavily on me, and Ive been missing him even more than usual. I miss our conversations and messages, I miss our constant companionship and perfect partnership. I miss our lo******ng. I miss our spats and arguments. I miss my soulmate.

He wasn't supposed to die that day. Coronary spasms are 100% survivable. The infarc was small and 30 minutes - 2 hours prior to death. Heart attack patients dont arrive at the hospital after 90 minutes in the back of the ambulance they are on video recording walking themselves to with severe internal and external injuries akin to a major car crash victim either. But what do I know? The county coroner, who yelled at me in front of our family at the funeral home intake appt when I was adamant about an autopsy that "an autopsy wouldnt change his findings" and is the one who signed the death certificate, was magically precognizant because amazingly enough those thousands I paid for an autopsy didn't change his findings at all.

Ernie's cause of death is heart attack. The blunt force trauma lacerating his liver 8" long and 4" wide from behind...internal hemorrhage...brain hemispheres separated and 3 brain contusions...grotesque bilateral proptosis with conjunctival hemorrhage...temporal hematoma and broken nose? Non-contributory.

The county coroner, who works closely with the two paramedics, is documented throwing away Ernies clothes in the hospital records. I mean, why wouldnt he? Ernie no longer needed them, and despite my repeated requests for them I clearly couldnt use them as they were cut off of Ernie, so he was clearly using his authority to be nice and save me an additional hassle from unclear decision making in my grief, right? They were now just tattered rags of no evidenciary value, naturally, so he could do that. Silly grief-stricken gay husband was just being dramatic, after all...something not at all unexpected from someone like him, right?

Paramedics SAVE lives after all, and couldnt POSSIBLY have acted recklessly negligent by failing to seat belt him to the cot and then sliding off the road driving too fast for the cold rainy morning. They never would make a decision to deliberately let a patient die by creating a false narrative about a widowmaker heart attack he wasnt having because he only had 20% blockage and drug eluding stents from a 2011 heart attack. Its just an insignificant fluke the paramedics document his cardiac arrest as vfib which is in line with the STEMI they so easily and accurately diagnosed better than the ER doctor, who received Ernie experiencing PEA, a trauma based cardiac arrest that someone with internal hemorrhage and traumatic brain injury would experience. The paramedics spent 50 minutes on the side of the road only 6 miles from the hospital they passed, and the ER doctor only spent 10 minutes with Ernie before declaring his death so those paramedics and that coroner definitely know more than him.

One year. Its been one year since my world fell apart, and I stepped into the twilight zone. Between us are 6 kids aged 38 to 20. 10 grandkids aged 20 to 1. One year since the strangest heart attack ever recorded in history took one of the most beloved, kindest, generous, devoted, funny, well known and respected, biggest hot mess but loving men out of our world.

I love you Ernie. Each breath since your death has been a traitor to my heart. I miss you so much it physically aches in my chest. Im sorry I called the ambulance instead of taking you myself that morning. I hate myself for that. I hate myself for needing to stop for gas instead of being directly behind the ambulance. I hate myself for failing you.

08/08/2025

The last 10-15 years has really dumbed down our country with such notions as "alternative facts" and evidence meaning or routinely altered. You are free to believe however you like. You are free to believe anything you want about me, or Ernie, or the paramedics. It is your Constitutionally given right as an American, at least for now anyway.

However there are some universal, inescapable truths.

Heart attack patients dont experience massive internal injuries.

Those who have reason to fear the consequences are those who speak falsehoods the most.

May safety and protection be with everyone always.

08/04/2025

Ernie was killed 9 months ago today. It just seems surreal that hes been gone that long.

Its even more surreal those responsible for his death have still not been held accountable.

06/12/2025

Forgetting for a moment all the technicalities, I can not accurately put in to words the toll this had taken on me and our family.

November 4, 2024 was traumatic.

Imagine the worry starting with the initial coronary spasm, and the relief to have him call from the ambulance sounding incredibly better...no distress, no weakness in his voice, the nitro having worked perfectly as he relayed where they were taking him and his looking forward to seeing us shortly, and his love. Imagine the shock and confusion 10 minutes later getting a phone call he was in cardiac arrest and the paramedics needed assistance because they weren't equipped. Imagine pulling up behind 2 ambulances and a fire chief and sitting on the side of the interstate for 20 minutes before moving towards the hospital they passed and were only 6 miles from.

Imagine being told in a busy hallway of the ER your loved one had been lost, with people walking by, only 10 minutes after your convoy arrived. Imagine the emergency room doctor pulling the curtain back to reveal a loved one who looked like a car wreck victim, bloody face and horrorifically protruding eyeballs, not the "heart attack fatality" you were shocked and still trying to understand in such a short amount of time.

November 4 2024 was traumatic in so many ways.

And so has the unraveling since. Imagine being yelled at at the funeral home by the coroner that an autopsy "wouldn't change his findings" because you wanted answers for the extreme unanswered injuries. Imagine being told by the ER nurse your loved one arrived at the funeral home naked because hospital reports show the coroner threw away the clothes you had requested. Imagine having to sell belongings and memories to pay for the autopsy and final arrangements. Imagine when the autopsy does happen weeks later, it reveal even more horrorific injuries: liver with a huge laceration from behind, internal hemorrhage, brain hemispheres separated, brain contusions, broken nose, an ante mortem bruise on the temple that appeared post mortem. Imagine being told by the forensic pathologist on the phone directly that it was not a fatal heart attack, and his 7 years as Cook County ME experience he was positive it was a blunt force injury from a fall onto the back.

Imagine having to beg the county coroner to allow the cremation to occur, as your loved one had been in a cooler for almost 6 weeks and your family wanted him home for Christmas.

Imagine having all this horror suddenly and inexplicably walked back on and the coroner's "findings" the heart attack again being the cause of death despite all these internal injuries.

Imagine having a loved one killed like this, knowing your loved one should have lived.

Imagine the heavy toll of having your loved one's killers having received zero repercussion.

There are no accurate words for how traumatic, how deeply affective, how shockingly horrorific, and how nauseatingly surreal this entire time has been. The toll it has taken on me and our family has rendered us unable to heal, unable to grieve, unable to move on. I can not count the number of times Ernie's bloody face and bulging eyes have invaded my memories and my dreams.

We simply seek justice and accountability for Ernie, and with that justice and accountability for us as well. We can not heal, we can not move past this until that has occurred.

We can not let this happen to anyone else.

06/08/2025

Let's present the information as a challenge of reasoning and logic.

The reports provide that a 59 year old, well nourished, well developed man presenting typical for his age, showing multiple evidence of proper self care such as cleanliness, grooming, proper and regular medical care, and with loving family not only aware of, accurately reciting, and supportive of his medical history but also showing their willingness to advocate for and fight for him, has died and undergone a family paid for autopsy. The man did have a cardiac history of Myocardial infarction with stent in 2011, with no medical records indicating any subsequent events, lapse of follow up care, negligence, or high risk behavior in the almost 14 years between that event and his death. To the contrary, all medical records, tests, and examinations in the intervening years indicate overall good health with awareness and proper ex*****on of health and lifestyle maintenance. The man did experience another cardiac event on the day of his death, with the forensic pathologist is on record as having occured between 30 minutes and 2 hours prior to death, occured as a much smaller second infarct within the area previously infarcted in 2011, and due to the lack of plaque, clots, occlusions, or significant narrowing was a coronary spasm. Coronary spasms are 100% survivable, with the 5 year survival rate of worst, most obstructed patients at 87%.

The autopsy was requested and paid for by the family to explain the extremely unusual injuries he was witnessed as having in the Emergency Room at the time of his death, namely extreme bilateral proptosis with conjunctival hemorrhage and fixed, pinpoint pupils...in other words, his eyeballs were bulged grotesquely far out of his head and he had no whites left in his eyes due to the amount of blood, and his pupils were barely visible little black dots. The autopsy records reveal the man had also suffered a blunt force injury consistent with a fall that bruised the interior of his back muscles, caused a significant laceration to the back of his liver that hemorrhaged blood into his abdominal cavity, caused organ pallor, as well as showed the two hemispheres of his brain were separated, 3 areas of contusion to the brain, he had a large circular bruise on his temple, and his nose was broken.

Video evidence shows he had none of these external injuries when he walked to the ambulance that he arrived to the emergency room 5 miles from his home in almost 90 minutes later.

The emergency room doctor documented the medical discrepancy between the paramedics report and medical narrative of the days events, and the tests he ran before declaring the man deceased. As a result of the incongruent medical narrative and medical test, the emergency room doctor was not able to provide a diagnosis beyond cardiac arrest of unknown cause.

The paramedic report shows inconsistencies with evidence such as how the man was treated and loaded into the ambulance, the type of cardiac event and subsequent cardiac arrest documented, drugs documented as being administered but not showing in the toxicology report, and does not explain how the patient suffered the visible injuries while in the ambulance.

If the man died from a Myocardial Infarction as the paramedics reported, how did a heart attack patient sustain such extreme and deadly injuries while in paramedic care in the ambulance? Why is the paramedic "diagnosis" at such extreme odds with the significant amount of provided factual medical evidence? Why would paramedics fail to not only document the cause of obvious, visible injuries occurring in their care but also fail to report the injuries to the ER doctor who took over the patients care from them?

In a challenge of logic and reason regarding this case, which party has acted deceptively? Which party has failed to properly fight for and advocate for the life of the patient? Which party has legal liability if their actions or lack of actions led to the injury and/or death of the patient? Which party is at odds with willfully and publicly provided evidence? Which party has something to gain by manipulating evidence?

Furthermore, why would the family publicly provide all the evidence, including that which upon first glance casts doubt upon the integrity of the patient? If the patient were truly guilty of engaging in a high risk behavior would the family not try to hide that evidence, rather than confronting it with the same open, honest, and evidence based debunking they have every other aspect? Does the family have anything to gain by wrongfully advocating for a justice that would be unjust?

The biggest question everyone in Charleston, Mattoon, Coles County, and the State of Illinois should be asking and wanting an answer for is: Why, in a system that so prolifically operates upon and actively seeks verifiable evidence for the protection of it citizens, has so much detailed, factual, and provided concrete evidence been overlooked in favor of a narrative that benefits and protects neither the patient involved nor the citizens for whom precedent is being set regarding their lives and treatment?

05/31/2025

Again, thank you to everyone who has made positive comments, shared their stories or offered their support and sympathies. This has been a very very hard time on not just myself, but also our kids, kid in laws, and grandkids. The ring widens to siblings, in laws, nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, and acquaintances. Beyond that is the ripple effect into the community.

The nastier comments I won't respond to. I don't need to. I've been posting the evidence. I've been tackling this the entire time head on publicly with integrity, dignity, and resolve. Character assassination and victim blaming is to be expected in these situations, as the vast majority of people do understand, and Im revealing it all with nothing to hide. It's true when you step back and look at the entirety of the picture, the flow of the details, you will see it's about as obvious and predictable as if the coverup, evidence tampering, and smear campaign came right out of a playbook created from past real life failed coverups. As far as the the people leaving those comments, trying to get me worked up on top of our already stressful circumstances and to defend things evidence and logic has already proven false, I will not say anything bad about any of them, but I will sincerely send my deepest and most genuine best wishes that "you" and "your family" never find "yourself" in the same situation as us. I honestly mean that.

The story is reaching more and more people every day, fortunately. The citizens need to know what their tax dollars are funding, how perilous it is to everyone by having this level of corrupt disregard for human life, the laws of the state, and public welfare every time someone calls 9-1-1.

The citizens need to know every lie, every injustice, every disrespect we have endured, and still we plod on. The citizens need to know that silence is the fuel to keep these patterns that threaten them going.

The citizens need to know that before November 4, 2024 ... we were citizens just like all of you, needing to know all of this too. Had we known, had the silence before us not been so deafening, our outcome would have been different.

Again thank you for your support, your stories, your positivities. Most of all thank you for continuing to refer the page and story to others, for helping teach the truth of the lethal corruption roaming behind the false smile of EMS in Illinois. The more who know, the less people will utilize the system until reform, justice, and accountability have returned to protect us, the vulnerable innocents, not the people killing people and getting away with it.

= Justice For Everyone

05/28/2025

The fight for justice and accountability is left to the action of challenging the cause and manner of death in a legal suit held in another county, what will effectively amount to civilly convened but criminally effective Grand Jury of the 5 most hands on perpetrators in the death and cover up of Ernie. At this point expecting any remorse or sudden change of heart of any of these individuals is clearly not something to hold our breaths on, especially as that would mean coming clean about their illegal activities and willful failures in investigating this case and protecting the citizens, such as throwing away evidence as documented at Sarah Bush and the witnessed interference in obtaining the autopsy that should have been ordered in the first place in accordance to the visible injuries in the ER, to the refusal to apply the laws in face of the evidence supplied, to the refusal to properly and medically investigate the cause and manner of death as required by law. It's sad but true we have to fight so hard for the truth of what happened in that ambulance to take legal hold and undo the character assassination that has taken place against him and us since. Especially in light of the medical records and scanner recordings and extreme internal injuries suffered and video and photographs showing the amount of dishonesty and attempts to escape accountability.

I urge the citizens of Coles County to use private transport until such a time there is accountability and reform in our EMS system. Not only to prevent such unwarranted abuse, disrespect, and callous treatment perpetrated upon you and yours as Ernie and his loved ones have experienced, but due to the actual better outcome. Hospitals can legally turn away ambulances and do daily, but they can not turn away anyone who arrives by private transport. Then you also avoid the same level of misconduct perpetrated upon Ernie and those who love him in the months since his death. We feel the drive to protect everyone as we were not, but the suggestion with the posted evidence is yours and yours alone to decide if you accept the risks so clearly and mortally involved in using Charleston Fire Ambulance Service and by proxy the Mattoon ambulances services with the current county coroner involved in these types of cover ups. We have nothing to gain in advising you of the risks, but you may very well have everything to lose just as we have lost by utilizing such corrupt services we erroneously believed were to protect us and our loved one.

Justice For Ernie

11/03/2025

11/02/2025

08/08/2025

08/04/2025

06/12/2025

06/08/2025

05/31/2025

05/28/2025

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