RICHLAND/LAWRENCE COs.—The saga of a 29-year-old Olney man, a purported teenage babymomma, numerous Orders of Protection and allegations of sexual misconduct and weapons violations runs across two counties this month following the arrest of Zachary Leaf.
Leaf was arrested in Richland County in late April after an April 25 set of charges was filed against him in two separate filings.
The first accuses Leaf of Unlawful Possession of a Weapon by a Felon in that on April 15 of this year, in Richland County, Leaf was in possession of a Colt Huntsman .22-cal pistol and had previously been convicted of a felony in Illinois.
That same day, Leaf was also charged in a separate count in Richland with Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse of a victim under the age of 13, this alleged sex act (stated as Leaf intentionally touching the sex organs of a minor, H.S. for the purpose of Leaf’s sexual gratification; court documents do not state whether H.S. is male or female) occurring according to documents at a residence on North Monroe in Dundas on or about the years 2011-2012.
A third count, this one a Class X felony punishable by no less than 6 and no more than 60 years in DOC, was also filed: Predatory Criminal Sexual Assault of a Child, the alleged act occurring with the same victim, H.S. (this time identified as a female via the description of actual sexual intercourse between the two) during the same time frame but not specified as limited to the village of Dundas….just “in Richland County.”
In Illinois legal parlance, the “predatory” added to the charge is significant: This would explain a pattern of behavior on the part of the perpetrator that warrants a lifetime status on the state’s sex offender registry if convicted.
False accusations: they happen
However, sources close to the situation advise that Leaf may have been falsely accused.
According to these sources, the alleged victim in the case herself may not be the one pursuing the charge, nor her mother…but the charge may have come about as the result of a complaint issued to Richland County authorities by the girl’s father—who is now deceased.
Nevertheless, there exists the weapons charge…which plays into a recent Order of Protection petition that was granted on an emergency basis in neighboring Lawrence County back in March.
There, Leaf’s current girlfriend Kynlee York, the mother of his one-year-old daughter, who, sources advise, is only 18 years old and would therefore have been 16 when impregnated by Leaf in June of 2011 (when Leaf was almost 27), took out the complaint March 21 in Lawrence County.
Sources advise the complaint iterates threats made against York and the couple’s daughter, who was born March 2013; stalking; and a statement that Leaf allegedly made that he’d “tie bricks to their (York’s and the baby’s) feet and throw them in the river.”
York happens to be a daughter of on-leave Lawrence County deputy Dennis York, who remains suspended following the late March 2013 incident in which he’s alleged to have slammed Lawrence County prosecutor Chris Quick’s hand in an office door in a fit of rage, resulting in felony battery charges a year later and York’s suspension.
Official accounts of the incident have it that York was being questioned by Quick at the time over York’s absence in court the day before, where York was to have assisted in testimony during a preliminary hearing for a defendant.
York had taken the day off without clearing it with anyone…because of the birth of his first granddaughter, Kynlee’s and Zachary’s kid.
Court records show that Kynlee York didn’t show up for the plenary (two-year) OP hearing on April 10, and the two reconciled and are happily announcing on their Facebook pages that they are residing together in Bridgeport (presumably for ease of Kynlee’s graduating from Red Hill High School in that town), despite the current charges.
Seizures get him released
But the story gets more strange from there.
Leaf, who claims to work for Air Evac as an EMT, upon being jailed on the Richland County charge, was almost immediately released on a temporary basis when he was taken to the hospital in Olney with seizures and was subsequently transferred to Good Samaritan Hospital for treatment.
The same sources close to the case advise that the seizures are a pre-existing condition and that authorities were erring on the side of caution by releasing Leaf (as Richland County would have had to pay for his medical if he were “in custody” while in the hospital, and they can ill afford that), but that the seizures may or may not be real.
“These are ‘pseudo-seizures,’” the source said, “meaning they are psychological. He can cause them/bring them on himself, just as (Kynlee) can. They are real seizures but are controllable and can be triggered by stress or anxiety, much like anxiety attacks, hyperventilating, etc.”
The source advised Leaf was at a Good Samaritan location both Friday and Saturday, May 2 and 3 after a May 2 hearing on the sex charges, but it’s unclear where he was between those dates and his next court appearance, May 9.
At that time, Leaf’s retained attorney, David Benney of Newton, heard a motion to reduce bail put forth on April 30.
At the May 2 hearing, the bond was reduced to $7,000 cash under the additional conditions that Leaf have no contact with the alleged sex abuse victim; that he sign a pretrial waiver of extradition; and that he shall have no unsupervised contact with any child under the age of 18 (must have another adult present).
Interestingly, also on that date Judge Larry Dunn was asked by the state to take judicial notice of a felony case against Leaf in 2002 which was not available to Disclosure as of press time…and might be the case that garnered Leaf the “felon” status that prompted the possession of weapons by a felon charge.
It’s unclear whether or not that’s a sex charge, but Leaf is NOT on the state’s sex offender registry.
Kynlee York was reported as telling people that the sex charges were going to be dismissed on May 9 because “there’s no one to give testimony” against her errant babydaddy.
That, however, turned out to not be the case, and both the weapons charge and the sex charges were set for pretrial on July 25, and a status hearing on October 21, so despite the best efforts of one of the most noted criminal defense attorneys in downstate, both cases are going forward in Richland.
Richland County jail confirmed on Saturday, May 10, that Leaf was not being held at the facility on the charges, so the OR bond is still in effect