SALINE CO.—An accused rapist who has had serious surgery due to a skin cancer created concern among his alleged victims and their families in late April after they claimed authorities weren’t accounting for his whereabouts.
Matthew Connors, 42, of Carbondale, had been held at the Saline County Detention Center after a March 15, 2012 incident in which he was charged in that county with two counts of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Assault involving Bodily Harm, Carrying or Possessing a Knife with Intent to Harm, Domestic Battery with Bodily Harm and Knowingly Damaging Property. He was accused of sexually assaulting the woman he was living with, harming her, threatening her children and damaging her property.
However, during that time, a melanoma that Connors was suffering grew exponentially, and long about the end of March, it became apparent that something was going to have to be done with the cancer or Connors was going to die in jail.
Because he had an Illinois medical card (being indigent and all, as he showed on his financial affidavit that he didn’t work), he was approved for surgery to remove the cancer, as it was an imminent threat to his health.
Connors’ court-appointed attorney, Lowell Tison, filed to allow Connors to be released on a recognizance bond (no cash put up) so that he may seek medical treatment, this being done in late March.
Released for St. Louis
On or about April 23, Connors was released to go to pre-op consultation, ostensibly in St. Louis.
However, Connors reportedly “couldn’t get a ride” to the hospital in St. Louis where this pre-op consultation was going to be conducted…and he returned to his mother’s home in Carbondale, where he proceeded to post online about how he was “coming home to die” and he and a handful of others were soliciting donations online in order to cover whatever costs of the surgery the state (the taxpayers) wasn’t going to be paying for.
Authorities had previously advised Disclosure that the surgery was expected to run in the range of $470,000.
When on Saturday, April 27, Connors’ panicked alleged victims in two counties (Saline and Jackson) contacted Disclosure, they advised that they didn’t believe he was going to have the surgery at all, and, released on his own recognizance, they were in fear that he was going to track them down and do them (or in the case of one of them, her child) harm.
No threat anticipated
Saline County authorities stated that this simply wasn’t the case.
Extra police vigilance, if not outright protection, had been requested for at least the Saline County alleged victim, and authorities were aware that the pre-op consultation was merely a requirement before the surgery and meant that Connors would have to remain out of jail and available when the surgery was scheduled.
And, as it turned out, where.
Connors ultimately had the surgery the first full week of May. Saline authorities advise that it was performed in a hospital in Springfield, not in St. Louis. According to these authorities, surgeons “took off nearly half of Connors’ face” in an effort to get to the melanoma.
He will remain on the recognizance bond during post-op procedures, including radiation treatment.
There have been no future court settings in the Saline County case; and no charges have been filed in the Jackson County case, pending the outcome of the surgery and treatment.