Calls to Cook County residents about former Cook County Health and Human Services Director Josh Beck’s forthcoming legal case where he faces a variety of charges including allegations of child abuse have confused some locals.
Who is making the calls and why are they being made?
It turns out that someone—no one is saying whom—hired Zenith Research Group to place the calls.
The Duluth-based survey company asks locals what they know about the Beck case and follows by asking if you get your news about the situation from the Cook County News-Herald or WTIP or both sources. Then the caller asks if you know Josh Beck personally.
Confusion has come because some who have received the calls feel that WTIP is behind the survey.
“WTIP has no involvement whatsoever in the survey,” said Debbie Benedict, radio station manager.
Presumably, the calls are being made to see if there is bias towards Beck, and if that is shown, that information can be used to demonstrate that it will be hard to select an impartial jury here. If the court decides that information is correct, the court venue could be changed from Cook County to another jurisdiction outside of the county.
Josh Beck left employment as Cook County Public Health and Human Services director July 21, 2017 and has since taken a job in Gila, Arizona.
On August 1, 2017 Beck was charged with two felony charges and two gross misdemeanors alleging child endangerment. The charges included one felony count domestic assault by strangulation. One assault in the 3rd degree (past). A pattern of child abuse (past), which endangered a child and could cause harm or death; and another charge of endangering a child where the situation was such that it could cause harm or death.
Mr. Beck is scheduled to appear at an omnibus hearing on Monday, November 13 in Grand Marais. At his last hearing, he was present only through a live call while his attorney talked to the court on his behalf.
According to its website, Zenith Research Group began in 1983 and is Duluth’s oldest marketing and research group. It provides market research, conducting surveys, focus groups, customer tracking and more. It also provides qualitative and quantitative statistical analysis and offers strategic communications to help organizations get their messages to intended audiences.
When contacted, Duke Skorich, president and founder of Zenith Research Group, said his company was making the calls, but he wouldn’t say who hired him or how his client would use the information.
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