Ex-McHenry Policeman Dale Hojnacki has been indicted by the McHenry County Grand Jury136
The thirty-five year old resident of McHenry has been charged with two counts of theft and five counts of official misconduct.
All are felonies.
Ever see an indictment?
Thought you might find the prose and contents of interest, so it is posted below:
The biggest headline I have even seen in the Northwest Herald.
As you can see, the Northwest Herald scooped other media on the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s having concluded that former McHenry Policeman Dale Hojnacki “may have tampered with narcotics evidence.”
The paper even published a copy of the letter to Jamie Rein, President of the McHenry County Bar Association.
The added value that McHenry County Blog can offer is an internet searchable copy of that letter, which you see below. It came as one long paragraph, which I have separated into one-sentence paragraphs in order to make it easier to read.
Jamie Rein May 1, 2012
President McHenry County Bar Association
110 South Johnson Street, Suite 211
Woodstock, IL 60098
Re: McHenry Police Officer Dale Hojnacki
Dear Ms. Rein,
I need to inform you of potentially exculpatory evidence involving all arrests made by the McHenry Police Department.
I will be filing a supplemental discovery motion in every case involving an arrest by the McHenry police department, but I want to make sure that you are aware of potential evidentiary problems and I would respectfully request that you share this information with all bar members.
Recently, Officer Dale Hojnacki resigned from the McHenry police department.
His resignation was prompted by an internal investigation which resulted in his being accused of stealing United States Currency from an evidence locker.
Officer Hojnacki has been charged with multiple counts of the felony offenses of theft and official misconduct (12CF352) for that conduct.
A subsequent investigation has revealed that Officer Hojnacki may have tampered with narcotics evidence. The McHenry police department has reason to believe that Officer Hojnacki has been opening sealed evidence bags and removing narcotics.
An audit will be performed by an outside agency and I expect to have the results by the end of June. The results of the audit will be sent to you at a later date.
While he is presumed innocent of all charges and allegations, evidence of his alleged misconduct may be admissible in cases involving arrests by the McHenry police department because of the potential for a violation of chain of custody involving evidence.
I am sending this correspondence pursuant to my obligation under Brady because I believe that Officer Hojnacki’s conduct has potentially compromised the evidence against any person who has been arrested by the McHenry police department.
Please contact me directly at 815-334-4936 with any questions or concerns. I will contact you at a later date when I have more information.
Respectfully,
Michael Combs
Chief, Criminal Division
One of the refrains during the first criminal trial of McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi was that Special Prosecutor Henry Tonigan had not handed over evidence in a timely fashion.
Or, maybe not at all.
Today, Judge Joseph McGraw ruled that Bianchi attorney Terry Ekl has the right to depose Quest officials about that evidence.
The order Judge McGraw issued today concerning the motion sanctions for discovery violations by the special prosecutors is below:
“Our motion included a request that the Quest investigators be required to testify under oath concerning the discoverable material not turned over to us,” Ekl explained.
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