Ex-judge angered by burglaries at family farm

COLLINSVILLE — A former Illinois appellate judge is complaining that police aren't doing enough to protect his family farm from burglars he says have "raped" the property of everything from American Indian artifacts to his Purple Heart and an estimated $100,000 in collectible guns.

Collinsville police counter that investigators are doing everything they can to crack the burglaries that date back to January and have stoked the ire of Gordon Maag, a former Illinois Supreme Court candidate who says the farm has been in his family since the 1940s.

"We have spent dozens of man-hours investigating the break-ins at that property," Police Chief Scott Williams told the Belleville News-Democrat (http://bit.ly/qZirBC ). "It has not been a lack of effort on our part," with investigators having collected evidence, contacted gun dealers and shops that peddle military collectibles and checked a police database for any signs of the missing guns turning up at pawn shops.

"His frustration is real, and I don't blame him for being upset, but we're not magicians up here," Williams said.

Maag said the farm, which was once the residence of his late uncle, has been pillaged at least five times.

"They destroyed the place. They took a wonderful home and they weren't content to just steal; they had to smash the place up, and nobody cares," Maag said. "I'm tired of being raped."

During one of the break-ins, burglars fashioned a ramp out of boards to haul a large safe from the basement that Maag said contained guns and about 500 pounds of lead. Also stolen were the uncle's Purple Heart from the Korean War and a collection of Indian artifacts his uncle collected while farming the land.

Thieves made off with a canoe during a break-in discovered in March. Outbuilding doors were raised, which left Maag thinking suspects were after a boat, farm equipment and recreational vehicles that had been stored there. Maag had already cleared out those items.

Burglars in August stole boxed-up items including china. And earlier this month, a large amount of steel pipe — by Maag's estimation, enough to fill two tractor-trailers — was carted off from one of the outbuildings. An empty shed also was broken into.

Police during one investigation found an energy drink can and soft drink bottle, which produced DNA evidence that didn't match any profiles of offenders logged in the Illinois State Police's DNA database. Neither item contained fingerprints usable for comparisons.

Maag is a Democrat who served on the state's Mount Vernon-based 5th District Appellate Court from 1992 to 2004, when he ran unsuccessfully for an Illinois Supreme Court seat in a $9 million race that then was the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history.

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Information from: Belleville News-Democrat, http://www.bnd.com