Kevin,
Thank you for the quick reply.
So, I've removed the emails. Ran the cron manually and no dice, rebooted server as well for the heck of it.
Additionally and interestingly, it's not loading any new errors in the log.
I've also actually removed the banlist entry and put the original php files back into place.
Additionally with no luck on the emails. I'm thoroughly confused now as to why emails will not pull through.
There's got to be something stuck in somewhere, but I can't seem to locate it.