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One bad guy, two states, many chances

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By Barb Ickes | Wednesday, March 26, 2008 | 7 comment(s)

Call it foreshadowing. When the chronically criminal Pachino Hill was finally tracked down by police and arrested at a downtown Davenport hotel in August 2006, then-Police Chief Mike Bladel said, “I hope the judge takes account of everything if he’s convicted.”

But Hill’s extensive record didn’t intervene in his getting probation then, and it isn’t getting in the way now — at least not in Scott County.

Hill’s long list of troubles didn’t sway Scott County Associate Judge Christine Dalton, who sentenced him to a church counseling program and eight weeks of Sunday services for his most recent attempt at running from police.

Church is not what the former police chief had in mind.

“Let him pray in prison,” he said Wednesday.

But Hill, 29, seems to have a knack for eluding police and jail time.

He got his first big break when he was 14 years old, and former County Attorney Bill Davis became squeamish about sending a kid up the river for first-degree murder. He settled on manslaughter, instead.

Hill was back on the chief’s radar about five years ago when he was accused of shooting at a cop.

“You’ll never convince me Hill didn’t try to take the life of one of my officers,” Bladel said.

About a year after the charges in the cop case were dismissed, Hill was accused of having a role in a fatal shooting in Davenport but was not convicted. A short time later, he admitted to shooting another man in the thigh, but the year of probation he got evidently didn’t set him straight.

Later that same year came drug, child-endangerment and domestic assault charges. He got probation on the first two. The assault charge was dropped when his 16-year-old girlfriend recanted.

A second attempt last year to elude police is what landed him in church.

Even the prosecutor, Marc Gellerman, agreed to keep Hill out of jail. But he said his position was as much about the church as it was about Hill.

Gellerman said he decided to go along with the recommendation that he attend Third Missionary Baptist because it would give him some exposure to a Quad-City powerhouse with great potential to turn him around: the Rev. Rogers Kirk.

“I gave great weight and credence to input from Pastor Kirk,” he said. “He is inarguably one of the leading members of our community. He’s done a lot for people — bad people and good people.”

Besides, he pointed out, if Hill screws up again, he goes to prison for at least two years.

But Hill won’t get complete sanctuary at the church.

Rock Island County Circuit Judge Charles “Casey” Stengel this week rejected a plea deal that would’ve landed Hill in jail for 120 days in the same eluding case, saying it wasn’t enough. So it’s going to trial.

The former police chief will watch from a distance.

“I’ve got a lot of history of being a church-and-state separatist,” he said. “I think the guy (Hill) earned his way into some serious sentencing.”

Amen, Brother Bladel.

Barb Ickes can be contacted at (563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com. Comment on this column at qctimes.com.