Rodney Black's mugshot from booking at Saline County Detention Center
SALINE CO., Ill.---Despite what she had been telling people, the woman who was stabbed to death last Friday in Eldorado had never filed paperwork seeking an order of protection against Rodney Black.
LaTisha Reidelberger, from her Facebook page
Black, 56, is the man now charged with the homicide of LaTisha Reidelberger, 28, the woman in question who many friends and acquaintances have told Disclosure was "trying to get an OP against him but nobody at the courthouse would listen."
As it turns out, that's not exactly the case.
Authorities checked the record at Saline County Circuit Clerk Randy Nyberg's office, and neither Nyberg, nor any of the deputy clerks there, have on file any attempt by Reidelberger to obtain any kind of protective order against Black.
The clerk's office clarified that if a person seeks an order of protection, all they have to do is file a petition and request a hearing. If there is no judge available, a hearing will be set upon the next availability of any judge. But the paperwork is ALWAYS filed; no one at the clerk's office can or will prevent a petition from being filed, and paperwork for the petition is always supplied upon request.
This stands in contrast with what sources were claiming last Friday: That Reidelberger had told them she'd "tried to get an order of protection" against Black in recent months, those leading up to the alleged attack on the 17th. These sources said that Reidelberger told them she'd "been refused" an OP at the circuit clerk's office. As a result of this information, many friends opined that had Reidelberger been able to get the OP, she might be alive.
However, two points must be made: an OP certainly doesn't prevent an attack (reference the murders Gary Pate committed in White County in 2006, shortly after Kathleen Pate took out an OP against him); and the clerk's office doesn't "turn away" anyone seeking an OP in Saline.
Add to the situation the crisis the local women's center, Anna Bixby, is currently in right now...and the whole thing is a nightmare for those in Saline who are seeking assistance when there's a domestic issue the likes of which could turn deadly.
More information as we get it...check back frequently.