Stone Admits Smoking Marijuana, Calling 911 35 Times

As a Lake County judge granted an order of protection against former Buffalo Grove trustee Lisa Stone on Thursday, upholding an emergency order requested by her stepmother last month, he also questioned whether she is fit to take the stand on related charges. 

During the hearing, which lasted more than two hours, Stone admitted to using marijuana and to making 35 non-emergency 911 calls between Jan. 13 and March 12. 

“I didn’t count (how many calls I made), but I was on a mission,” she said, explaining that she placed the calls to express concerns about drugs, pedophilia and other issues.

She provided the information in response to testimony from her stepmother, Mundelein resident Barbara Shuman, and Shuman’s son — Stone’s stepbrother — Jacob Fine. Shuman requested the emergency order of protection against Stone on behalf of herself and Stone’s father, Hurd Shuman, after receiving what she described as threatening and harassing phone messages from Stone.

Shuman said she remains fearful of Stone. “I’ve seen her erratic behavior and I don’t want it,” she said. 

Fine, who served as a witness for his mother, shared his recollections of Stone’s erratic speech and behavior and claimed that during a recent visit to Stone’s home he saw a glass pipe with residue in it. He said Stone invited him to smoke marijuana with her. When he declined, he said, “Lisa hit me in the face.”

He did not call the police, he said, because he didn’t want Stone to face legal repercussions. “She’s not a bad person who deserves punishment,” he said. “She’s a person who needs help.”

Stone didn’t deny using marijuana, telling the judge, “I only experiment with pot for hypertension.” She said she takes various prescription medications, but that she does not use illegal narcotics.

Stone insisted that she would not physically harm her father or stepmother and suggested that the order of protection should be dropped.

“That message was strictly verbal,” she said. ‘I’d never hurt my father.”

“I think the words that were used by Lisa were hurtful … but I don’t think it rises to the level that an order of protection is required,” said Stone’s husband, Gary, who served as her attorney.

Gary Stone also said that Lisa Stone’s concerns over the care of her father, who suffers from Parkinson’s, “may have been overblown.” Some of Stone’s communication with her stepmother was in regard to her father’s care. Shuman and Fine insisted that Hurd Shuman receives proper care. Hurd Shuman, who they said is in a nursing home recovering from a recent accident, was not in court Thursday. 

Barbara Shuman testified that she and her husband have seen Stone only twice annually over the last five years. She said she recently began receiving weekly phone calls from Stone, who then began calling more frequently. She provided a tape recording of three voice messages that Stone left on her phone in early February, just before she requested the emergency order of protection.

“They were all very insistent. She was going to call the FBI, drug enforcement, she was going to report me to elder abuse,” Shuman said. Her husband, too, “was very upset,” she said.

Barbara Shuman, who was represented by attorney Beth Deucher, ultimately asked the court to lift the order of protection for her husband, allowing him to have contact with his daughter if he desires. The order remains in place between Stone and her stepmother.

Stone agreed to only contact her father directly via his cell phone to avoid contact with her stepmother.

Stone spoke calmly from the witness stand, as she replied to questions from her husband. However, some of her answers strayed from the questions as she mentioned the research she’s collected regarding water, heroin and other concerns. 

“Stop talking on like that,” Lake County Judge George Strickland told her at one point.

Strickland later questioned whether Stone would be fit to take the stand in her criminal case, expressing concern over the “rambling, incoherent, paranoid” messages she left on Shuman’s phone. 

Stone, who is accused of calling her father three times after she was served with the order of protection, faces three charges of violating the order. She pleaded not guilty earlier this month. She’s scheduled to appear in court again May 1.

“I do find at this point that she is unpredictable,” Strickland said.

Stone defended herself after the hearing, saying, “I’m not delusional. I’m telling the truth.”

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