By: Diane Benjamin
h/t To a Reader
I could have titled this article: So you think you are above the law?
Or: Policemen are Saints!
Or: How does she still have a State job?
Or: This reporter can NOT be allowed to cover crime
Or: How did police know she wasn’t driving stoned?
The possibilities are endless.
The Facts:
Judith (Judy) Valente was stopped by ISU police on 3/28/18 for an expired license plate sticker. It had expired in December 2017. Judy was on her way to teach a class at ARC – Normal’s Activities and Recreation Center.
One of the officers involved is in training, he was riding with another officer. The videos below show Judy mentions the “trainee” more than once in derogatory comments. The original stop was by these two officers.
When Judy acted belligerent and the first two officers smelled cannabis in her car, they called for backup. Later when Judy claimed officers “put their hands on her”, they called for a Sergeant. Eventually 4 police officers were on the scene – all from ISU.
It gets better. Judy Valente is an ISU employee, a reporter for WGLT:
It gets even better:
Yes, the wedding was announced in the New York Times. She is married to retired judge Charles Reynard. He also showed up at the scene (see 25:00), he turned out to be the sane member of the family. He does mention he wasn’t surprised by the marijuana smell. That comment wasn’t pursued by the police. (see 27:50)
Below are three dash cam videos, one from each of the vehicles that responded. Audio is mostly when the officers are out of their vehicles. One video does not have all the audio. For instance at 15:30 on the first video, two officers are searching the car. Judy is on the sidewalk with the officer from the second car, so audio from their conversation is on the second video. The video cuts out at times because personal information was redacted.
Video #1:
At 4:20 an officer asks Judy if she has a medical cannabis card. She acted appalled at the question. She also tells the officers who she is and that she works at WGLT. Around 6:30 the officers are discussing the smell in the car. They then call for backup.
At 11:41 Judy makes the mistake of getting out of her vehicle. She claims her husband is on his way and he may be able to explain the smell. The “hands on her” happens at 12:45, it is nothing more than a light touch to keep her from getting back in the car. They already told her they were going to search it. She also drops the police chief’s name, evidently thinking that will help. At 13:26 Judy claims to be totally opposed to cannabis. This is a CAN’t miss part, if she isn’t high she thinks laws don’t apply to her. Keep watching.
At 15:29 the sidewalk audio can only be heard on the second video. That video is cued to start there.
Don’t miss the Judy rant at 24:00 on the first video.
Video #2
Judy appears to be calling her husband and she repeats that she will be calling the chief. She repeats numerous times an officer put his hands on her. She also asked the officer if “he is like 17”. Please note that NONE of these officers ever showed her anything but respect. She never returned any respect to them.
Keeping watching. Judy is taking video and the names of officers. Judy claims the ticket won’t “put a hole in her pocketbook”. She already knows it’s $120. She continues to claim an officer put his hands on her. The Sergeant arrives at 12:40. She must not know she is on both video and audio because what she tells him doesn’t match the audio or video. She AGAIN mentions the chief.
At 16:15, hubby tells her the police are just doing their job. That is exactly what they are doing.
This story never made the WGLT news. Maybe Judy’s boss watched the video and realized it isn’t a story. I need to FOIA any complaints she filed and the written police report.
Judy Valente obviously has no respect for law enforcement. WGLT needs to keep her from reporting on any stories involving police. She is not capable of fair reporting. All of her reporting should be suspect. Facts don’t seem to matter.
This is the dash cam from the Sergeant’s vehicle. It shows the judge arriving:
All she was charged with was the expired tags:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
So. It is who you know. And who yo bl’w
I’ve seen people kicked off this blog for less. What say you Diane? Stick to your past practices or ban HUGH Evans?
Only two people have ever been kicked off. One for vulgarity and the other lives 100 miles away and has no clue what she’s talking about. What exactly do you object to?
What does “who yo bl’w” mean to YOU Diane? Seems like enough to delete this comment.
Only in your world
Rich says:
June 1, 2018 at 10:10 am
Man…you and your commenters are mean. Maybe he’ll get cancer, too.
Just a reminder that Rich thinks Diane and all of us want Hales to get cancer.
Gaslighting that is as sinister and as over the top as it gets: See his own words below:
So either you don’t know. Or don’t care. Got it. I like the apostrophe method, though. You c’nt be k’ck’d off us’ng apostrophes. Good to know.
Just a reminder that Rich thinks Diane and all of us want Hales to get cancer.
Gaslighting that is as sinister and as over the top as it gets: See his own words below:
Man…you and your commenters are mean. Maybe he’ll get cancer, too.
Lol, If I’d-a been one of those police officers after about the third time she back talked me, I think I would have wrestled her to the ground and tickled her until she laughed so hard she peed her pants. There, now go to your so important class with peed pants. Judith should be real happy she only got a ticket for the expired plates. What a hag!
If you have to say “Don’t you know who I am?” to police, they either – A. Honestly don’t know or B. Don’t give a flyin’ fece who you are. The reporter’s sniveling
during this stop did provide a good bit of on-the-job training for the rookie.
Judith needs to not report on anything, she obviously can’t tell the truth or is not in touch with reality. Maybe Mike McCurdy is her mentor. This is typical behavior of THE ISU ELITE.
Not all of us are “elite.” 🙂
Got any idea of how many aren’t? Counting you I can think of three total.
Well, if I had to guess, I would say pretty much all civil service employees, never interacted with a single one who thinks they’re elite. Many of the academic/professionals, like myself, although many do act in an elitist way.
Not even gonna touch faculty…:)
So once you strip the veneer of a WGLT elite you have a entitled pot smoking crazy woman who acts like a mafia don’s wife… “wait till Vito finds out you touched his wife…. yaaa… and the police chief works for my husband too, Copper… and he is getting a call in the morning”
Well isn’t she so important. I’m going to call Aaron in the morning. Lol. She is lucky they dudn’t Tear her car apart and bring a police dog to search her and the car. If it had been anyone else other than the judges wife, they might have. How disrespectful was she?! Above the law I guess. Don’t touch me. She could’ve been hit by a car. But she clearly must think she is too important to be detained or ticketed. Wow.
This video speaks volumes about the elites in this town. These are people who hate Diane and all of us. They have the money, the power and the connections. As you can see in this video they are not afraid to use all of them to get what they want. Phony nice to your face and ready to sell you down the river as they walk away. They are monsters in suits and dresses pretending that they care while they exploit the weak and powerless to secure their positions and enrich themselves. She is an example of what we are up against.
I have more – stay tuned
Perhaps she can write a poem . . .
I am a slunt, I smoked a blunt, I get litigious, because i am a psychopathic narcissist.
I like that one Katherine…
So, let’s guess what happens to her career: a) WGLT fires her like most private sector employers would (I know, I’m laughing too); b) WGLT comforts her and gives her a sabbatical to “heal” from which she comes back a hero for “those of us suffering from an affliction”; or, c) She writes and broadcasts about her “dramatic” experience and “police sensitivity issues”. Anyone? Wonder if her WGLT/government pals will defend her? – Carlo Rob-us-blind or R.C. McBrat
She is part of the establishment… she is untouchable… you or I would have had the dogs brought in and our cars searched…. there are laws for us and …. get of jail free cards for them… these are the people who have taken over our nice little towns. Look at the posts on her twitter page https://twitter.com/judithvalente?lang=en She is a spiritual liberal – and buy her books… her profile picture was taken before digital cameras… OMG…
She’s a liberal. WHY not scream RAPE and police brutality and blame it on TRUMP like the REST of the WGLT folks and MAYBE She would have gotten off, or at least had a good time!! WHAT a DOLT! Just ANOTHER reason that WGLT has lost ALL respect they EVER had! It’s NOT news anymore, seems that EVERY news cast starts out with “The Trump administration” Which I can honestly say is WAY more then they did for Obama! Maybe Trump IS newsworthy!
I think my favorite line is – “He needs to tone it down a little bit!” Umm, no Judy…you do. A lot. The only good thing about this entire interaction is the fact it gave the new guy great training. I mean really, if a 16 year old calls their parent to a traffic stop – no big deal. When an adult, educated, ISU employee, calls their recently retired Judge husband to the scene of a traffic stop? That’s a bit strange. But strange doesn’t stop there. Although we are left to guess with the redaction of audio – at around 6:30 you hear the training officer explain “If he was in the car it would be a different story” when they are discussing searching the vehicle due to the cannabis smell. This would lead me to believe that part of the redaction was that Judy named “someone” had a medical cannabis card – or – I guess it could mean if a retired Judge was in the car it would be handled differently. I believe the first is more probable. And at 12:20 Judy says “He may be able to explain that” regarding the cannabis smell. I assume she means Charlie can explain why the car smells like weed.
Kudos to Judge Reynard for being a good voice of reason. Maybe he was calm for a good reason! But I question his remark about the cannabis smell, “From there to home, not surprising to me” when discussing the cannabis smell. I’m not sure what that means. What I do know – it is obvious two trained officers smell cannabis. I don’t doubt that one bit. The only question is who has been passing the joint in Charlie and Judy’s car?!
The other highlights from Judy are:
“I hope you feel good about yourself”
“Now I know what the students say when they complain”
“We can file complaints too, you know.”
“I’m warning you now! I’m warning you!”
And maybe the good Judge can explain she was wrong when exclaiming “You can’t take my license anyway for this. You think you can take my license, but you can not!” But I’m guessing it is difficult to tell Ms. Valente that she is wrong. And through this entire encounter she was just that. Wrong.
She should not work for ISU. I’m sure this little incident has been cleaned up. It shouldn’t be. It is a perfect example of what Lawrence describes as elites. And the best part is – Judy threw her elitism out there time and time again. On tape.
In Judy’s own words “We can file complaints too, you know.” We all should. To WGLT if she continues to work there. Although I know how far that will probably go.
Diane – thanks for the story.
I’m surprised she didnt demand their badges ! Must be nice to be one of the untouchables!
Untouchable? She got the ticket, didn’t she?
congrats Rich – your last comment got deleted.
She needs to check her privilege, for sure. Wow! But what she did get away with? She got the ticket and because of her actions, the stop lasted 3 times as long as it should have. And I’m not sure smearing ALL of WGLT’s staff and what it does because of the actions of one person is fair. That’s like saying all cops are dirty racists because of the actions of a few.
People have a problem with WGLT because the guy in charge of reporting news also makes the news. As long as he is on the Normal Town Council everything they do is suspect.
Ooookay. But what does Judy’s stop have to do the rest of the GLT staff?
Looks like a pattern is developing. She did make a point of telling the officers where she worked.
I’ll bite. Who else working at WGLT has been pulled over or has unduly exercised privilege. One instance of anything ain’t a pattern.
You are so silly! Ethics are in short supply at WGLT. They do have one good reporter though.
Lol, Rich you are one dumb fella. Car smells like dope because she was smoking dope in the car! Or, because it was all over her clothes because she smoked the dope in those clothes. However if the smell lingered once she got out of the car, it would be reasonable to assume that she smoked the dope in the car, most probably while sitting in the car and/or while driving which would mean that she was driving while impaired!!! Another possibility, although I doubt it, is that someone hitched a ride with her and smoked some dope in the car while she was driving (of which she could have gotten a contact high) and got out of the car. Anyway, she dropped names and called her husband the judge hoping not to get busted for the drug charge which seemed to work because NPD has a reputation for busting impaired drivers. That’s what she got away with Rich. For anyone else that didn’t have connections, no doubt the NPD K-9’s would have been summoned to the scene. Caught on tape, the local elite get away once again. And then the irony of her bio,,,ya can’t make this stuff up. It’s rich, Rich! Lol.
It was ISU police.
ISU cops have issued their share of DUI’s as well. Even so, I’m willing to bet that NPD knew about the traffic stop while it was ongoing, but thanks for the correction. ISU police surely could have summoned K9 and mostly would have had it been a non-connected person.
Hey Rich. Let me KNOW hat HAPPENS IF you get pulled over for CANNABIS!
Second MY Hubby has some pull, and I’m a pissed off women, so you NEED TO let me go!
Whats THIS BS???
He put his hands on me? WHY would ANY sane guy wanna touch a crazy Bit** like this??
IF she acts this way around police IMAINE what she’s like at home !! HELL ON WHEELS!
was funny how in the beginning she drove like she was in a hurry , maybe trying evasive without too obvious .. ,, certain folk know , some get treated better than others ..but it is what it is ,, innocent till other wise the test or dog say so ..lol..
“I’m Judy Valente from WGLT radio” she says.
LOLOLOLOLOL. Ooooooooo.
Why do I think that if I was stopped and my car reeked of pot that the dogs would have been called on me? After all I am Lawrence from the real world. Now, I think these policeman handled this really well and I commend them. But the fact that they didn’t bring in the dogs says volumes about how “they are also afraid” of the elites and their power.