Midwest Accountability Official

10/18/2026

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — A 23-year Fairfax County police veteran assigned to the School Resource Officer Unit is charged with shoplifting from two Target stores on the same day — the first, police say, while he was in uniform and on duty.

Master Police Officer Scott Abram, 44, of Spotsylvania, is accused of covering an item's barcode with a cheaper item at a Burke Target self-checkout on Sept. 22 (~1 PM), paying for one item and leaving with both — then the same at a Springfield Target that afternoon, off duty. FCPD placed him on administrative leave; detectives charged him Oct. 8 with two misdemeanor shoplifting counts, and he was released on summonses. Chief Kevin Davis: “I am disheartened that a police officer has betrayed the public trust.” Next hearing: Nov. 19. Abram is presumed innocent.

Sources in the pinned comment.

10/18/2026

YPSILANTI, MI — The Sixth Circuit ruled Oct. 15 in Bailey v. Michigan Department of Corrections: “We affirm as to nine of the fourteen defendants but reverse as to five because the complaint makes only conclusory, non-fact-based allegations against the latter.” The court also held: “it is beyond debate that prison officials cannot ignore prolonged, involuntary exposure of anyone to an airborne pollutant that is substantially likely to cause serious harm.” Three women at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility allege pervasive toxic mold was ignored and painted over — allegations the case now tests in district court. IN PLAIN ENGLISH and both sides are in the pinned comment. Sources in the pinned comment.

10/18/2026

You don't say? 🤔

LEGAL SECRETARY ACCUSED OF HANDING CLIENTS FAKE COURT ORDERS WITH FORGED JUDGE SIGNATURES AND POCKETING THEIR CASH

People paid her to clean up their records. Prosecutors say what they got back was paperwork that was never real.

Heather Ann Textor, 37, worked as a legal secretary at a law office in Merrillville, Indiana. Now she's the one facing a judge, hit with a staggering 45 charges: five Level 5 felony fraud counts, 37 Level 6 felonies and three misdemeanors.

According to court documents, Textor took money from clients while telling them she was taking care of expungements, driver's license problems and other legal work. Investigators say some of those clients were handed expungement orders and other documents that looked like they carried actual judges' signatures. The problem? Prosecutors say none of it was ever filed with any court.

In one example laid out in the probable cause affidavit, a client paid $1,626 for an expungement. The firm's records show only $626 made it into the bank. The other $1,000 was never found.

She's also accused of forging bond assignment forms and using a law firm check to quietly refund one client without permission.

The case cracked open when a client walked into the Indiana State Police with expungement papers that didn't look right. The law firm fired Textor back in November 2023 after attorneys combed through receipt books and found more client payments that allegedly never hit the firm's account.

Imagine thinking your record was wiped clean, only to find out the judge's order was fake.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

10/17/2026

WOODBURN, OREGON — The State of Oregon and the Oregon Youth Authority have settled the first group of lawsuits brought by men who allege they were sexually abused as boys at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility by the facility's longtime doctor.

The settlement covers 11 men and resolves their cases ahead of a federal trial that was set to begin Nov. 2, 2026. The terms, including any amount, have not been made public. The suits allege Dr. Edward G. Edwards, MacLaren's chief medical officer from about 1977 until his retirement in 2017, used medical exams to abuse boys in his care, and that written complaints about him reaching back to the 1990s were handled internally instead of reported to law enforcement. Edwards died in February 2025 and was never criminally charged. These are allegations from civil filings — no court has found them proven.

Six more federal lawsuits covering more than 60 additional former MacLaren youth are still pending. Sources in the pinned comment.

10/17/2026

DEVELOPING STORY — Creve Coeur, IL: Oct. 1, emergency stalking no-contact order entered against former officer Dustin Ward on Aleshia Egan's verified petition (2026-OP-0001179, Judge Washington). Entered at the emergency stage on her sworn petition — court found two or more acts by Ward of following, monitoring, surveilling, threatening, or communicating — the order bars all contact, through third parties; sets a 1,000-foot stay-away from Egan, her home, workplace, and the children's school, and any place she is present; bars a FOID card and possessing/buying fi****ms. Summons served Oct. 9; expires at the plenary hearing Oct. 21, 1:15 PM. Petition alleges Ward tracked her repeatedly with department Flock cameras (via former Deputy Chief Dan Nelson, per the petition); a GPS monitor was placed on her vehicle, then removed; entering her property to plant listening devices was discussed, not carried out. Allegations, not findings. Update post follows the hearings. Sources in the comments.

10/17/2026

MERRILLVILLE, INDIANA — Indiana State Police announced Oct. 16 that a Lowell woman who worked at a Merrillville law firm faces 42 felony charges and three misdemeanors in an alleged scheme that gave clients fake expungement orders bearing forged judges' signatures.

Heather Ann Textor was arrested Oct. 15 and is held at the Lake County Jail. ISP's Organized Crime and Corruption Unit led the three-year investigation. Police allege she took cash from people seeking expungements, kept payments off the firm's books, and handed them documents never filed with any court. Some clients, believing their records were cleared, were later arrested or jailed, ISP said.

The firm, Weiss, Schmidgall and Hires, is not accused of wrongdoing and fired her in November 2023, per court documents. These are allegations; she is presumed innocent. Sources in the pinned comment.

10/17/2026

RIVERSIDE, ILLINOIS — The Village Board voted 4-2 on Thursday, Oct. 15, not to renew the village's contract with Flock Safety for its two license plate reader cameras.

The board made the decision by declining to fund the renewal in fiscal 2027. It is a non-renewal, not a ban: the contract runs to May 31, 2027, and the two solar-powered cameras at village entry points stay in use until then, unless the board votes on Nov. 5 to take them down sooner. Trustees also directed staff to look into alternatives, including locally controlled cameras.

Earlier this month the village cut off camera-data access for agencies outside Illinois and began requiring a police report number and a stated law-enforcement purpose for every search — after a resident's records request turned up Riverside data searched 153,600 times in August alone, including searches by an Indiana sheriff's office the village called inappropriate. Sources in the pinned comment.

10/17/2026

SHARONVILLE, OHIO — Sharonville Police Lt. Walter Cordes has resigned, effective Oct. 15, after his indictment on a felony charge over alleged misuse of Flock camera data.

Sharonville PD confirmed the resignation to WLWT. Officials told the Cincinnati Enquirer he resigned Oct. 15 after more than 18 years with the department.

Cordes, 48, was indicted Oct. 13 on one count of unauthorized use of a computer, cable, or telecommunication property. Prosecutors allege he made 29 improper searches, as a system administrator, to track the vehicle of someone he knew, from December 2024 through April 2026.

In his resignation letter, he wrote he regretted that his "poor choices have brought shame and embarrassment".

He was arrested Oct. 14, released after posting 10% of a $1,000 bond; next court date Oct. 27. If convicted, he faces up to one year in prison. The charge is an allegation; he has not been convicted.

Sources in the pinned comment.