Madison Record Events

2002 Aug Gary Peel sues high school on behalf of teacher
The August 2002 lawsuit was filed by Peel, 62, on behalf of high school teacher Deborah Pontious, who he later married. It maintains her suspension and removal from the Effingham High Sch...
2005 Dec 15 Illinois Supreme Court overturns Price v. Philip Morris ruling
The marketing of "light" cigarettes is not hazardous to the health of the largest U.S. tobacco company: the Illinois Supreme Court has overturned a $10.1 billion Madison County bench verd...
2006 Mar 18 Gary Peel indicted on bankruptcy fraud, obstruction of justice, child pornography charges
Attorney Gary E. Peel of the Lakin Law Firm has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of bankruptcy fraud, obstruction of justice and two counts of possession of child pornogra...
2006 Aug 14 Tom Lakin loses law license
Once the most powerful lawyer in southern Illinois, Lowell Thomas Lakin has voluntarily given up his license to practice law in Illinois. According to the Attorney Registration and Dis...
2006 Nov 27 U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear Price v. Philip Morris
WASHINGTON-The United States Supreme Court refused to hear arguments that a lower court erred when tossing Madison County Circuit Judge Nicholas Byron's $10.1 billion verdict Marlboro and...
2007 Apr 9 Gary Peel taken into custody
Gary Peel turned himself in late Monday morning to federal authorities who will hold him in detention until his June 25 sentencing at the Melvin Price Courthouse in East St. Louis. Pee...
2008 Oct 8 Tom Lakin pleads guilty, sentenced to six years in prison
U.S. District Judge J. Phil Gilbert sentenced Tom Lakin to six years in prison this morning after Lakin plead guilty to drug charges. "This is a pretty far fall from grace," Gilbert sa...
2009 Jan 23 Ricki Jones Pleads Guilty
Rick Jones (left) and Tom Lakin are cover models in a 2005 calendar "Real Men of the Riverbend." The background --Deer Park in Wood River -- was an area slated for contaminated soil cl...