Security upgraded at Lake County building

It became a little safer in the Lake County building in Waukegan this week.

New metal detectors at all the entrances were installed for use by Andy Frain Security officers who screen everyone coming into the facility.

Jim Ott, Frain's director of security operations for the central region, said the new machines are state-of-the-art devices manufactured by Astrophysics Inc., of California.

Ott said the machines offer improved visuals on widescreen computer monitors for officers who X-ray packages and briefcases being brought into the building.

The monitors can also be viewed by supervisors outside the building, Ott said, and the X-ray itself is more sensitive in outlining objects it is scanning.

And just to make sure the officers stay on their toes, Ott said, the new machines allow supervisors to project threats into packages being screened.

"From a remote location, we can make a gun appear inside a package or briefcase going through the machine," Ott said. "The gun isn't really there, but our people need to react like it is."

Justice delayed

It took a while for the law to catch up with former Waukegan resident Margarito Rodriguez, but the clock never stopped ticking.

Rodriguez, 36, was sentenced to nine years in prison last week after pleading guilty to a pair of crimes he was charged with in 1998.

Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Scott Hoffert said Rodriguez was arrested Jan. 16 of that year after he accepted a package containing 26 pounds of marijuana from a Lake County Metropolitan Enforcement Group agent posing as a delivery man.

He made bond and was awaiting trial, Hoffert said, when he bought five handguns during the summer of 1998 and passed them to his brother without completing any of the necessary paperwork.

Rodriguez was charged with gun running, again posted bond and dropped from sight not long afterward.

He surfaced again in 2004, when he was arrested on charges of selling cocaine in Tennessee, and the Lake County warrant on his local charges kicked in.

Hoffert said Rodriguez was sent to prison in Tennessee, and after completing his sentence there, was sent back to Lake County to face the music.

Wolf trial

Next Tuesday, one of the most famous criminals of all time will get another chance to convince a jury he has been getting a bad rap all these years.

The third grade students in Tamara Graham's class at Woodland Elementary East in Gages Lake will sit in judgment of The Big Bad Wolf.

School officials said the class has been studying folktales, including the saga of the wolf's altercation with the trio of porkers, and has had instruction in government and the judicial system.

On Jan. 20, Circuit Judge Raymond McKoski will preside over a trial in which the students will portray all the characters in the story.

The occasion marks the 12th time McKoski has volunteered to take part in the program.