The entrance to the McHenry County State's Attorney's Office.
Special Prosecutor Henry Tonigan and his team have been hard at work since August and the man he first indicted, State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi is due for a court date this afternoon at 2, but bills for the last six months still have not been presented for payment by the McHenry County Board.
“No additional legal bills have been forwarded to the County from Special Prosecutor Henry Tonigan since the January billing which you have been provided,” Freedom of Information Officer John Labaj emailed me this morning.
Cal,
Bianchi’s secret special prosecutor David O’Connor did not submit any legal bills until a year and half after he was appointed and the prosecution was comletely finished. No one was even aware that O’Connor had been appointed as a special prosecutor until 15 months later. I don’t remember a similar outcry for transparency by you and your fellow bloggers then.
So, why the complaints about lack of transparency now? In comparison to Bianchi’s private political witch hunt, this one has been a glass house of transparency.
The Dalby investigation did not involve all of the “extra people” that were hired on for this. Tonigan and Graham wanted some quick payment and made us aware of the extravagance. Now, it should be handled differently and accountability is expected by the tax payers. Some due diligence is appropriate by our county board elected officials.
vastare, Judge Graham is getting payment for this? Is that permissible?
It has been interesting how it seems all the pro Bianchi didn’t complain on bit about the delayed billings from O’connor. They neve seemed to once request itemized billing. Many of them complained that the investigation did not spend much more money going after more of Bianchi’s political critics. Yet now that the wheels of justice have turned the other direction we seem to get almost daily demands that the special prosecutor investigating Bianchi’s office be held to a higher standard than the one that was targeted at his political opponents. We would have probably been better of as a community without either special prosecutor but Karma is sometimes cruel.