Edgar Co. (ECWd) –
Gary Hull was arrested for alleged criminal sexual abuse of a victim under the age of 9, with the formal complaint filed in the court docket on October 8th, 2025.
November 4, 2025, a hearing was held, and the “Court finds that no condition or combination of conditions can mitigate the real and present threat to a specific person and community, therefore the Petition to Detain is granted. Deft is to have no contact with minor victim. Order Denying Pretrial Release is on file.”
Can anyone explain how a court determination that a person is to be detained, one who has been found to be not only a real and present threat but also unfit for trial, can be ignored by the Edgar County Sheriff, Jeff Wood?
Sheriff Wood signed a release letter for Hull to be “dropped off” at the hospital for a medical appointment and indicated they would pick him up when he was done. While the letter is not dated, we have multiple sources that have indicated it was written on the same day the court ordered the defendant to be detained.
“This is to inform that Gary Hull is permitted to leave the Edgar County Jail for his appointments at the Horizon Health for his dialysis on the scheduled days. The Sheriff’s Department will drop him off at the time of his appointment and pick him up when he is done.”
Under what authority does a Sheriff release an alleged sexual abuser of a minor, whom the courts specifically denied such release based on a declaration that he was a real and present threat to a specific person and the community?
Who was the Sheriff informing in his letter?
It is our understanding that Hull was dropped off for his appointment and had to contact the Sheriff’s office to pick him up, which indicates he was not in any police officer’s custody during this hospital visit.
After this unauthorized release took place in early November, word got out about what the Sheriff had done.
The fix?
A docket entry like one we have never seen.
Edgar County States Attorney Philip Doblestein contacts Judge MLS (Matthew L. Sulliven) on December 06, 2025.
Over objection by the Public Defender, “Defendant is released from Edgar County jail for medical furlough. He is ordered to return to custody once he is released from medical care.”
“SA contacts Judge and, over objection of Mr. Harsy, Defendant is released from Edgar County jail for medical furlough. He is ordered to return to custody once he is released from medical care.”
So even the public defender representing the alleged sexual abuser of a minor doesn’t want his client released, yet an order is issued that this alleged sexual predator is to return to custody once he is released from medical care. If he is to “return to custody”, does that not indicate he is not in custody during his medical “furlough”? What is to prevent this person from walking out of the facility and harming those the court initially referred to?
Why would a Judge allow the release of a person he deemed a threat just a month early and do so without a specific custodial control in place?
Was the Judge aware that Sheriff Wood had already allowed such a release before the December docket entry?
Can it get worse?
The docket reflects that defendant Gary Hull has been found unfit for trial.
“Deft and State stipulate to fitness report. Report is adopted. Finding of Unfitness with Fitness Expected within 1 year and Order for Treatment entered. See Written Order. Case continued to 05/11/2026 at 2:00 pm for 90-day status hearing.”
Official Misconduct
(720 ILCS 5/33-3) (from Ch. 38, par. 33-3)
Sec. 33-3. Official misconduct.
(a) A public officer or employee or special government agent commits misconduct when, in his official capacity or capacity as a special government agent, he or she commits any of the following acts:
(1) Intentionally or recklessly fails to perform any mandatory duty as required by law; or
(2) Knowingly performs an act which he knows he is forbidden by law to perform; or
The Sheriff has a duty to follow court orders. By all indications, he did not. Is that not an intentional and reckless failure to perform his mandatory duty, which in this case is to ensure defendants ordered to be detained are in fact detained?
Considering Sheriff Wood was also a deputy for approximately 20 years, it should be safe to say he knows a sheriff can’t release an inmate without a court order. Such a release is forbidden without a court order.
The above two prongs, #1 and 2 of the Official Misconduct statute, appear to fit.
Is there any real justice in Edgar County?
Gary Hull Release Letter
