The defense has asked for another continuance in a rural New Boston man’s meth manufacturing case. A May 17 pre-trial conference was set for 53-year-old Lester Ward Tuesday in Mercer County Circuit Court. He was charged with the Class X felony after Mercer County Sheriff’s Deputies, Quad Cities MEG agents and Illinois State Police executed a search warrant at his residence in January of 2020. Ward is free after posting ten percent of his $400,000 bond last year.
