ANOTHER THREAT: One personal injury win does not a legal mind make

Nasty kid.

Jodi/Jody Stifle. All he's missing is the drool.

CRAWFORD CO.—Let me offer a really brief explanation on a really complicated thing.

In 2007, there was an unfortunate gas explosion at an apartment complex in Robinson. One man ultimately died from it, and others were injured. Among the injured was Michael Stifle. They all took the complex—run by a private individual, not a government entity—to court, and apparently there was some sort of settlement with insurance. We’ve heard varying numbers on the settlements, and are checking into exact or at least approximate amounts. This settlement supposedly occurred in 2010. It supposedly made the Stifle gentleman a pseudo-wealthy man. At least, anyway, it paid off his medical bills. And then, like most downstaters who come into big money, he supposedly bought a whole bunch of things like cars, trucks and houses. Whether the money’s all gone or not, we just don’t know. We ordinarily wouldn’t care. Except for what has happened over the past 48 or so hours.

Jodi/Jody Stifle. All he’s missing is the drool.

Fast-forward to this weekend. There was a beating of the young girl, Harley Johnson, 20, in Oblong (Crawford County). She’s in Carle Clinic right now, stabilized. Numerous witnesses put the reportedly-rotten Stifle girls, Chelsea and Brianna, at the scene inflicting the blows; however, their dad/stepdad, Jody/Jodi Stifle (his court records show the name game) was arrested last night. The preliminary charge is Aggravated Battery for his alleged part in the beating. What exactly that was remains a matter of speculation, as we’ve not seen the police report yet. However, witnesses have come forward stating to police that THEY saw Stifle join his daughters in the alleged beating by kicking Johnson in the head. We’ll have more on that as it develops. Multiple sources, including Stifle family members, have contacted us saying that Jody/Jodi is related to the unfortunate Michael, although we don’t know how; we’re checking that.

After dealing with massive amounts of federal documents in that case for hours today, we looked at Michael Stifle’s state case and noticed that there wasn’t any mention of a settlement, and in fact, the case was dismissed “with prejudice” against Michael Stifle, meaning he didn’t have leave to refile.

The reason we were looking at all of this inclusively is this: people who know the Stifles were telling us since last night that the reason why a prayer page for Johnson was pulled from Facebook is because people were threatening the admin of the page. Apparently, they were also using the cops in the threat. And the page was pulled shortly before 9 p.m., before another was started up. We wondered aloud why such threats were taken seriously. We were told that because of the settlement Michael Stifle got, apparently that family, which APPEARS according to judici and other valid sources, to be little more than trash with more felonies than the Earps, and they now think their feces don’t smell….and so they think they’re untouchable and can issue threats with impunity.

Here’s the call we just got from  618-553-6545 on google voice, which, again, clearly states on the message that the call is being recorded and can and will be used in the course of news articles and website postings:

Call

Apparently the caller can’t read, as he’s referencing a Facebook post (at the top) wherein I’m merely asking about the settlement of Michael Stifle’s, since online documents don’t show it. I’m not saying anything untoward, not saying Michael Stifle had anything to do with the beatings, just asking questions…but this jerk is now making threats (“there will be consequences” is a THREAT). And this isn’t the only one. Many, MANY people around Crawford County, talking about this case on their own Facebook pages or in their own news reports (Robinson Insider is one) are getting threats as well, or at least nasty tirades as an invasion of their Facebook pages from the foul-mouthed, vulgar little girls alleged to have been involved in Friday’s beating, as below:

Nasty kid.

Of course, the law in Crawford won’t do anything about this. But maybe a terms of service report to Facebook is in order (to those of you who’ve been attacked), and then, those of us in other counties, well…we’ll protect ourselves.

But of all things, we’re not worried about “legal” repercussions, because all we’ve done is report the facts that have been made available to us. Opinions from other people are just that—opinions—and they’re protected speech. And just because a civil personal injury suit was won by one hayseed doesn’t automatically confer awesome litigious powers to the rest of his kin, contrary to what many who’ve been in such a situation seem to think. Remember: trash is as trash does. And trash issues threats on a phone line that’s recorded. That’s about as dumb as the day is long…especially when at the other end of the phone line is a news media with a reach into the thousands. So be careful, Stifles…that’s not a threat, that’s a word of caution. You all are stepping all over your own dicks, and we’d hate to see you end up in jail over said threats, which are felonies…wouldn’t we, readers?

We’d like to thank everyone for following this story throughout the weekend, and invite you to keep checking back. Also, don’t forget to pick up the current (August-September) edition of Disclosure available in Crawford County at Mach 1 Marathon in Robinson and Maxwell House in Flat Rock, as well as The Gas Station in Ste. Marie and Bottle Junction and MVP in nearby Newton; each copy you purchase for just $3 ensures that our work can continue, and each subscription you get (for yourself or a family member out of the area) or each membership for the e-edition aids in that continuation. Thank you all!

Short URL: http://www.disclosurenewsonline.com/?p=14956

Posted by Jack Howser on Sep 9 2012. Filed under Breaking, Crawford. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry