McHenry County Blog

It’s been over a year since McHenry County Sheriff’s Sgt. Greg Pyle was arrested for criminal sexual assault, but those with good memories might see some similarities with the problem facing the Lake County Sheriff’s Department in a Chicago Tribune story Friday.

First Sheriff Keith Nygren’s deputy was arrested in January, 2012, on state charges of predatory criminal sexual assault.

At the time, he was on the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force as a result of the job Nygren gave him.

Pyle stayed on the county payroll.

Then, in August, the Feds stepped in to arrest him for

• aggravated sexual abuse of a child and
• producing child pornography by the sexual exploitation of a child

Concurrently, the accused left Nyrgen’s payroll.

Now the Tribune is reporting that former Lake County Sheriff Lt. Rick White is being investigated for having sexual conduct with a teenage boy.

The internet Tribune headline reads,

“Prosecutors investigating allegation that former Lake County cop had sexual contact with teen, authorities say”

White was “on paid leave for two months” before he retired.

Not charged with a crime, the Tribune says.

But, White was an internet guy.

Similar job to Pyle’s.

A performance review, the Tribune reporters Dan Hinkel and David Heizmann found, said While was “a pioneer in the field of Internet child solicitation.

Last year’s fund raiserfrom McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi was a victory celebration.

It was also the day he announced his candidacy for a third term in office.

It came within days after his second criminal case was dismissed without having to put on any evidence.

Judge Joseph McGraw had rendered his second directed verdict and 300 or so of Bianchi’s loyal supporters gathered at the Boulder Ridge Country Club for a big party.

This summer’s Festa Italiana was even bigger.

People who came after six had trouble finding seats.

Some estimated that the number attending was one-third more than in 2011–around 400.

It was a consolidation of power party.

Indeed, in his speech to the crowd Bianchi talked about “winning the war.”

“You can win the battle, but lose the war.

“We won two huge battles in a grand manner,” the State’s Attorney said.

“But I wasn’t sure we would regain the confidence of the community and the voters.

“You are the ones who made sure the community would Stand by Lou.

He characterized the lack of a Republican Primary Election opponent and a November Election opponent as “confirmation” that the bond of trust with the community had been reaffirmed.

Bianchi argued that trust was “proof that putting good people who have good intentions on the ballot and into office” was the way to good government in McHenry County.

As previously, Bianchi outlined his accomplishments.

He summarized the keeping of his 2008 campaign goals in that year’s slogan:

Promises kept. Justice for all.

He pointed out that

• the State’s Attorney’s Office had gone from the five trials a year during his predecessor’s years to “fifty per year”
• $500,000 a year is being saved by having in-house attorneys do work that outside attorneys used to perform
• he had helped establish the
  - Mental Health Court
  - Drug Court
  - First Offender Program
• $272,000 had been recovered from people who wrote bad checks (one woman who benefited from the program wanted me to take her picture with Bianchi)
• a program he helped start has resulted in the collection of $494,000 in fines that otherwise wouldhave gone unpaid
• his office was enforcing new statutes to take gangs off the street

Politicians aplenty were in attendance.

The man mile award went to Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran.

He wasn’t the only one from out of the county, but he was the only elected official I noticed.

McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren was missing.

So was Undersheriff Andy Zinke, a declared candidate for Sheriff in the 2014 Republican Primary Election whom Nygren has endorsed to replace him.

Announced candidate Jim Harrison did attend.

So did 2008 candidates for Sheriff Zane Seilper, whom Nygren beat and Democrat Mike Mahon.

I spied Judges Bill Caldwell and Michael W. Feetterer.

Anne Majewski, the uncontested GOP candidate for Coroner, was the only countywide candidate I spotted.

County Board members and candidates (asterisks next to their names) included

• Bob Bless
• Tina Hill
• John Jung
• Ken Koehler
• Donna Kurtz
• Nick Provenzano
• Michael Rein*
• Sandy Salgado
• Mike Walkup*

State Senate candidate Karen McConnaughay and State Rep. candidate David McSweeney were at the event.

There were some municipal officials, including Woodstock Mayor Brian Sager, McHenry Alderman Andy Glab and Hebron Trustee Mark Shepherd.   Probably others whom I did not recognize.

I noticed Grafton Township Trustees Rob LaPorta and Betty Zirk, Clerk Harriet Ford, plus newly-announce candidate for Grafton Township Supervisor Marty Waitzman.

There were lots of Republican Precinct Committee. They got the deal of the night. $25 for two. And that included beer and wine.

Missing was McHenry County Republican County Chairman and State Rep. Mike Tryon and State Senator Pam Althoff.

The McHenry County Sheriff’s Department won’t reveal where in McHenry County Registered Sex Offender Trystan Weeks was arrested without my filing a Freedom of Information request.

The McHenry County State’s Attorney announced Weeks indictment for failure to register Thursday.

His address on the State Police web site was updated June 28th, an employee there told me.

It is 37,095 Piper Lane in Lake Villa, the same address that appears on the indictments.  It was reported to the State Police by the Lake County Sheriff’s office on June 28th, after Weeks’ McHenry County arrest.

The arrest, presumably on June 22nd,  was made by McHenry County Sheriff’s Deputy Michelle Asplund, so Weeks must have been somewhere in McHenry County.

The Sheriff’s Department has until next Friday to reply to my Freedom of Information request.

Meanwhile, if you have an underage teenage girl, you can hope he wasn’t arrested near you.

Pretty strange that the Sheriff’s Department won’t reveal where a sex offender was arrested without a Freedom of Information request, don’t you think?

Especially, since Weeks is not incarcerated in the McHenry County Jail.

He posted $4,000 (10% of his $40,000) bail and is out of jail.

Update of June 15, 2012.

There is now a way to find people in the McHenry County Jail.  Look here for the link.

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A friend of McHenry County Blog was trying to find out if someone was incarcerated in the McHenry County Jail.

There was nothing on the internet, as there is for the Illinois Department of Corrections.

If someone is in state prison, you look for the “inmate locator” portion of the web site, type in a last name and everyone behind bars with that name pops up.

It must be a pretty popular question, because it’s the top Google item for IDOC and there’s even a separate listing.

But, there’s nothing like that for McHenry County.

I looked at other big counties and here’s what I found.

Lake County has a “prisoner locator” place.

Kane County has one.

DuPage County makes it easy to local those in jail.

Same with Cook County.

Winnebago County even has one and it’s smaller than McHenry County.

But not McHenry County, even though we are the sixth largest county in Illinois.  No county outside of the Chicago metropolitan area is larger.

I decided to look south of I-80.

The first county I checked was Sangamon, where Springfield sits. It has no easy way to find out who is in jail. The last census showed it smaller than McHenry.

Next I tried Madison County, near St. Louis. Nothing there, but Madison has about 50,000 fewer people now than McHenry. It used to be larger, but McHenry County has really grown.

Onto its neighbor, St. Clair County. Couldn’t find anything there either.  St. Clair has about as many people as Madison.

Couldn’t find any way to find an inmate in the Peoria County Jail, but that county is now much smaller than McHenry.

So, it looks as if bigger counties have prison locator functions that can be accessed through the internet, but smaller ones don’t.

I thought McHenry County was considered one of the bigger counties now, so I filed this Freedom of Information request:

“Most of the large counties in Illinois have an Inmate Search function.  Under the Freedom of Information Act, I request any documents that exist concerning McHenry County’s developing such a service to the public.”

Here is the reply I received from the Sheriff’s Department:

“The McHenry County Sheriff’s Corrections Division does not have any documents concerning the development of this service.”

A Chicago Tribune article I didn’t find in that newspaper today says that McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren is going to have his deputies start checking the names of those arrested with suspects’ names in Department of Homeland Security files.

So are Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran and Will County Sheriff Paul Kaupas.

The three join the sheriffs of DuPage and Kane County in the “Secure Communities” initiative.

That will result in everyone booked being checked to see if they have immigration violations, regardless of the charge, including traffic stops.

Allen County, Ohio, Sheriff Daniel Beck explained to Midwest Minutemen how he was doing that over two years ago. Nygren did not attend the meeting, but has apparently now adopted Beck’s approach.

During the Republican primary campaign, challenger Zane Seipler outlined what appears to me to be a similar policy.

Articles on the general subject that you might find of interest follow:

What Daniel Beck Told the Minutemen at MCC – Part 1 – Fighting Local Republican Corruption

What Daniel Beck Told the Minutemen at MCC – Part 2 – Motivation

What Daniel Beck Told the Minutemen at MCC – Part 3 – The Rule of Law

What Daniel Beck Told the Minutemen at MCC – Part 4 – Enforcement Techniques

What Daniel Beck Told the Minutemen at MCC – Part 5 – Identity Theft Enforcement

What Daniel Beck Told the Minutemen at MCC – Part 6 – Other Crimes by Illegal Aliens

What Daniel Beck Told the Minutemen at MCC – Part 7 – Terrorism and Bondage

What Daniel Beck Told the Minutemen at MCC – Part 8 – The Critics

What Daniel Beck Told the Minutemen at MCC – Part 9 – What Wouldn’t Fit Elsewhere, Including Retirement Plans

Dissatisfaction Expressed with Sheriff Keith Nygren at MCC Minuteman Meeting

The Goals of Mexico

“So Many Illegals, I Could Not Get a Job”

“Driving While Latino”

“Driving While Black” or “Profiling Caucasians?”

In 2007, Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran got a lot of press for seeking Immigration and Customs Enforcement certification to deport illegal alien criminals after they have served their sentence.

It’s tough to find something that is newsworthy at the end of a campaign, but I think Long Grove Village President Maria Rodriguez has managed to do it.

She announces today the endorsements of the top two law enforcement officials in Lake County.

Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran, who switched from Democrat to Republican when it was not a popular thing to do, and State’s Attorney Mike Waller.

Rodriguez is pretty much the Lake County Establishment’s choice, so many the endorsements are not a surprise to anyone but me.

If I had such endorsements early on, I would have used them before this point in the campaign.

Rodriguez’ press release follows:

Prominent Law Enforcement Officials Come Out
for Maria Rodriguez for Congress

LONG GROVE – Today, Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran and Lake County State’s Attorney Mike Waller endorsed Maria Rodriguez’s bid to win the Illinois’ 8th Congressional District Republican primary on February 2.

Mark Curran, the popular first term sheriff, stated in his endorsement,

“I’ve known Maria Rodriguez for years.  She is an effective, capable mayor with strong integrity.  When she makes a commitment, she always comes through.  Maria Rodriguez has made a commitment to the 8th district to be a strong fiscal conservative focused on protecting our nation and rebuilding our economy.  I am happy to join her team.”

Mike Waller is the Lake County State’s Attorney.  In endorsing Maria Rodriguez, Waller stated,

“We could use Mayor Rodriguez’s high level of integrity in Congress.  She will be a strong, honest voice for her constituents and put the people first, not herself.”

Probably not, but it’s certainly shows the guy didn’t read the article before posting.

It did make me laugh. The Daily Herald did a follow-up article about a Grant High School teacher getting arrested (again).

In the story, Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran was quoted like this:

“”We have the statement where she has admitted to doing this. Somehow, this is being spun out there that there isn’t much there. But, it was publicly stated in bond court that there is a two-page written confession that she did this.”

So what does blogger “concor” comment:

“I dont beleive she did this. I want proof that she confessed.”

The above quote is literal. Not my spelling or typing error.

If you read the article, the question that isn’t asked is

Who hired this teacher?

Can the public know just in case the hiring administrator gets promoted?

School districts do not regularly conduct random drug tests on their teachers.  The state is going to test high school athletes, as is Huntley High School…after the football season is over.  The District 158 policy includes all participants in extracurricular activities.

Apparently it’s somehow better public policy to be reading an article like the ones the Daily Herald published about this teacher than have a preventative policy.

There’s two words to explain the “Why not?”

Teachers unions.

Is there a single school district in Illinois that does random drug testing on teachers?

If there is, let me know.

Meanwhile, if anyone finds out how long it will take the school board or superintendent to fire this teacher, will you also let me know?

It wouldn’t take long if she worked in the private sector.

They may not know it, but the Republican Assembly of Lake County may have as its guest speaker a future Republican candidate for congress.

With Congressman Mark Kirk obviously preparing to run for the United States Senate instead of undergoing another grueling campaign for re-election, national Republicans are looking for a replacement.

Lake County Sheriff Mark C. Curran, Jr., the RALC Ronald Reagan Day Dinner speaker, might be just that person.

Curran, you may remember has recently become a Republican, after being elected as a Democrat.

He came to my attention when he announced he wanted to gain the ability to enforce immigration laws.

The next September he ripped Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.

Unheard of from a Democrat.

Then, last December, Curran announced he was switching to the Republican Party.

Today is the last day to make a reservation for the $40 Vernon Hills White Deer Run Country Club. Call 847-367-5231 or 847-331-0300 or email raymon8844@aol.com.

The Chicago Tribune reported yesterday that Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran is seeking Immigration and Customs Enforcement certification to deport illegal alien criminals after they have served their sentence.

Curran is a member of the Democratic Party.

Perhaps he should contact Allen County, Ohio, Sheriff Daniel Beck.

Beck has figured out how to deport those who have served time for serious crimes like murder, sex crimes and assault without his employees having attended the ICE training course.

His people fill out the paperwork and deliver the criminals to the local ICE detention center after they serve their terms.

The McHenry County Jail has such an ICE detention center on its fourth floor.

Not much of a drive.

Although criticized, the sheriff stood firm:

“This was not open to discussion; no one’s going to bully us. It’s the right thing to do.”

The Waukegan City Council caused an uproar last summer by voting to seek the same training. Thousands demonstrated against the proposal.

City officials said attempts would only be made to deport those convicted on crimes.

Links to the, can be found here.

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The ICE detention pod in Woodstock seen above is empty because the detainees have been locked down for shift change.

The Chicago Tribune reported yesterday that Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran is seeking Immigration and Customs Enforcement certification to deport illegal alien criminals after they have served their sentence.

Curran is a member of the Democratic Party.

Perhaps he should contact Allen County, Ohio, Sheriff Daniel Beck.

Beck has figured out how to deport those who have served time for serious crimes like murder, sex crimes and assault without his employees having attended the ICE training course.

His people fill out the paperwork and deliver the criminals to the local ICE detention center after they serve their terms.

The McHenry County Jail has such an ICE detention center on its fourth floor.

Not much of a drive.

Although criticized, the sheriff stood firm:

“This was not open to discussion; no one’s going to bully us. It’s the right thing to do.”

The Waukegan City Council caused an uproar last summer by voting to seek the same training. Thousands demonstrated against the proposal.

City officials said attempts would only be made to deport those convicted on crimes.

Links to the, can be found here.

= = = = =
The ICE detention pod in Woodstock seen above is empty because the detainees have been locked down for shift change.