McHenry County Blog

You might be interested to know that the suit brought by Dr. Jerome and Carla Pavlin against the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department has racked up $186,148.46 so far.

The last time we checked in November, 2011), the total was $118,000.

Before you jump to the conclusion that it cost local taxpayers that much, you need to know that McHenry County had an arrangement with a risk management agency that “only” made McHenry County pay the first $100,000 in bills from outside attorneys.

So, as with the wrongful termination case Deputy Zane Seipler brought against the Sheriff’s Department, where total legal fees are over $881,000, taxpayers only are on the hook for the first $100,000.

The defendants were

• McHENRY COUNTY
• KEITH NYGREN
• JEREMY BRUKETTA, Star 1909
• KYLE MANDERNACK, Star 1726
• TREVOR VOGEL, Star 1773
• CHRISTOPHER JONES, Star 1877
• RYAN LAMBERT, Star 1941
• GREG PYLE, Star 1672
• DAVID SHEPHERD, Star 142

A settlement has been reached, but the details of how much it will be have not been made public. The $7 million settlement with two men in the Chicago Police Commander John Burge torture case was made public as the Chicago City Council prepared to pay it.

A person familiar with the case has written for following summary:

On March 14, 2008, Jerome, who was 80-years-old at the time, and Carla, who was 65-years-old at the time, were at their home located in unincorporated Crystal Lake.

At approximately 8:30 p.m., Jerome and his son, Carl, were sitting in the living room watching television while Carla was in the bedroom reading.

While watching television, Jerome and Carl heard someone banging on the front door.

As there is a large partition that separates the living room from the foyer near the front door, Jerome and Carl could not see who was at the door.

Carl got up and walked into the foyer to see who was at the door.

When Carl got into the foyer, he cracked open the front door and asked what the men at the door wanted.

Defendants Jeremy Bruketta and Christopher Jones told Carl that they were McHenry County Sheriff’s deputies and had an arrest warrant for Carl.

Bruketta and Jones then began to push the door open.

As a result of their pushing, glass on the front of the door broke.

Photographs taken of the scene show that the glass was broken from outside and not from the inside of Jerome and Carla=s home.

Bruketta and Jones then entered the Pavlin home.

Bruketta and Jones were never given permission to enter Jerome and Carla’s home.

Prior to coming to Jerome and Carla=s home, Bruketta and Jones both knew that Carl did not live there.

In fact, they knew that Carl lived at another address and was just at Jerome and Carla’s home visiting.

Bruketta and Jones only had a misdemeanor arrest warrant for Carl.

They did not have a search warrant for Jerome and Carla’s home.

The search included the second floor, as this Sheriff’s Department photo shows.

The misdemeanor arrest warrant for Carl did not list Jerome and Carla’s address.

After entering the Pavlin home, Bruketta and Jones placed Carl into custody.

Carl did not resist Bruketta and Jones.

While handcuffing Carl, Jerome walked towards the foyer because he heard the front door brake.

When Jerome got to the foyer, he saw Bruketta handcuffing Carl.

Jerome asked Bruketta and Jones what they were doing in his house. Bruketta and Jones told Jerome that they had an arrest warrant for Carl.

After Carl was handcuffed, Jerome told Bruketta and Jones to get out of his home.

Bruketta and Jones did not leave Jerome and Carla=s home as ordered. Arguably, and according to the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s office,

Bruketta and Jones had no legal authority to enter Jerome and Carla’s home in the first place.

After they had Carl in custody, they certainly did not have any legal authority to remain in Jerome and Carla’s home after Jerome told them to leave.

A short time later, Defendants Mandernack, Vogel and Lambert arrived at Jerome and Carla’s home.

Mandernack, Vogel and Lambert entered the Pavlin home.

Jerome again asked the Defendants to get out of his house.

At this time, Bruketta escorted Carl out to a squad car. Defendants Mandernack, Vogel, Lambert, and Jones remained in the Pavlin home. Jerome again asked them to leave.

They did not.

Instead, the offices told Jerome that they were going to search the home.

Jerome told the officers that they could not search his home and that they had to leave. Jerome also asked to see the search warrant that would authorize them to conduct the search.

As the officers did not have a search warrant, none was produced and the officers did not leave.

At this time, Carla heard commotion in the foyer.

Carla exited her bedroom and walked into the foyer.

A view from outside the front door.

Jerome told Carla to call 911 and request the assistance of the Crystal Lake Police Department because the officers would not leave his home.

Carla called 911 and asked for police assistance.

The dispatcher told Carla that since they live in unincorporated Crystal Lake, that the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office is the only police that would respond.

Carla was speechless as it was members of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office that she and Jerome needed protection from and needed to get out of their home.

On the 911 recording, you can actually hear the officers going through the Pavlin house searching and touching objects.

Additionally, you can hear an upset Jerome telling the officers not to touch anything and get out.

After getting nowhere with 911, Carla and Jerome again asked the officers to leave.

Jerome stood right in front of Mandernack, who appeared to be the instigator of the search and refusal to leave the home, and once again told him that they needed to leave their home.

Carl was already in handcuffs and outside in a squad car.

Their arrest was made and Carl was in custody.

The officers, however, would not leave.

While Jerome was telling Mandernack and the other officers to leave, Mandernack and Vogel grabbed the 80-year old Jerome and violently knocked him to the floor.

Mandernack and Vogel then kneed Jerome.

Lambert also came over and grabbed Jerome.

Jerome screamed out in pain for the Defendants to stop.

Defendants Jones and Burketta stood by and did nothing.

Since Jones and Burketta did nothing, Carla went over to where Jerome and the officers were and tried to stop the officers from hurting Jerome.

Carla touched Mandernack on his uniform in an attempt to gain his attention.

Carla was successful.

Mandernack turned and violently punched Carla in the chest.

Carla was knocked against a granite counter top that is attached to the partition that separates the living room from the foyer.

Carla severely injured her back.

Photographs taken of Carla shortly after the incident depict a large bruise on her chest and a large bruise on her back.

Mandernack’s claim that he pushed Carla and she simply fell back on her butt is not supported by the evidence and, in fact, the evidence contradicts Mandernack’s claim.

At this time, Defendants Pyle and Shepherd arrived on the scene.

Carla was unable to get up and the Defendants called for an ambulance.

Mandernack handcuffed Jerome extremely tight.

So tight that the handcuffs cut into his wrists.

Jerome told Mandernack that he was injured. Mandernack ignored Jerome.

Later, Mandernack claims he noticed that Jerome’s arms were bleeding, Mandernack then decided to take Jerome to the hospital.

Carla was taken directly to Northern Illinois Medical Center for medical attention.

As both the 80-year-old Jerome and 65-year-old Carla were injured and receiving medical attention, the Defendant-Officers had a big problem.

In an attempt to solve their problem, the Defendant-Officer came up with a plan to falsely claim that is was the Jerome and Carla that attacked them.

Mandernack, therefore, signed criminal complaints against Jerome and Carla for felony aggravated battery and resisting arrest.

After being processed and falsely charged with aggravated battery to a police officer and resisting a peace officer, Jerome bonded out of jail.

Carla did not go to the McHenry County Jail that night as she remained hospitalized due to her injuries.

Carla was treated for swelling, bruising, chest pain, and anxiety.

After leaving the hospital, Carla went to The Fountains at Crystal Lake where she remained for treatment.

Carla’s injuries rendered her immobile for approximately two weeks.

Carla was also treated by her primary doctor, Dr. Eduardo Palanca, regarding the injuries she sustained.

Jerome was treated at Northern Illinois Medical Center for lacerations to wrists, bruising to his chest, bruising to his arms, bruising to his back, and neck pain.

Jerome also received follow-up medical treatment from his primary doctor.

Jerome and Carla=s allegations are corroborated by witnesses, the medical records, and the photographs of their injuries.

Zane Seipler

Additionally, Wendy Wesolek, a probation officer for McHenry County, informed Assistant State’s Attorney Ryan Blackney, who was handling the Pavlin case, that one of the Defendants, Ryan Lambert, told her that he was upset about the Pavlin arrest and that the arrest reports were written together and changed at the direction of supervisors.

Furthermore, Zane Seipler, the now-reinstated McHenry County Sheriff’s Deputy, spoke with the Pavlin’s criminal defense attorneys and informed him that he witnessed the meeting where the reports were falsely prepared.

As a result, the bogus charges against Jerome and Carla were nolle prosequied with prejudice by motion of the state on July 14, 2009.

Even though Jerome and Carla knew they did nothing wrong to warrant the arrest and excessive force, they still feared people in the community would read of their arrest.

This concerned Jerome and Carla very much as they are a well respected family in the community.

They also were concerned of the possibility of being found guilty based upon fabricated testimony of the Defendants.

The charges against Jerome and Carla carried sentences of 2-5 years in prison.

Use of force by Mandernack is a serious issue.

Although in his verified discovery answers, Mandernack denies that there have ever been any allegations made against him involving the use of excessive force, we know that not to be true.

Once such allegation of excessive force is the arrest of Bradley Mitroff on February 22, 2007.

That allegation was sent to the Illinois State Police to do an investigation.

A second allegation surfaced after the arrest of Sean Connell on January 9, 2008.

Additionally, ASA Blackney told Mrs. Wesolek that during the criminal trial Mark Gummerson had subpoenaed prior misconduct of the Defendants.

After an in camera inspection of the documents produced by the Sheriff’s Officer, there was not prior cases of misconduct discovered.

Mrs. Wesolek was surprised and responded to Blackney by saying, “AI wonder what happened to that.”

A press release from Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore:

Trustees Bankrupting Grafton Township with Budget Plan

Over $500,000 was spent by Trustees Zirk, Murphy and LaPorta on the failed effort to build a new town hall before I was sworn into office.

Now these same folks are planning to budget an additional $200,000 to feed their addiction to legal fees.

This will cause the township to have a deficit budget.

Two hundred thousand dollars equals about 20% of our town revenue for the year.

Despite having already spent nearly $350,000 in legal fees they propose to add $200,000 to the current budget for future legal fees.

By the end of this year, the Trustees will have spent over half a million dollars of taxpayer money on legal fees.

Combined with the failed attempt to build a new Town Hall, the Trustees have squandered over a million dollars from the Township.

The Trustees continue to use Township dollars without regard to the benefit to its citizens, even after a court ruled against them. Because of this, the Trustees face a possible contempt finding.

To resolve this, they propose to spend more fees with the same lawyers.

These same lawyers charged fees that were 700% higher than those charged by the successful attorney hired by Linda Moore, Grafton Township Supervisor.

Now the situation is dire.

If the budget passes as proposed, the Township might be bankrupt and not be able to pay its bills by the end of the fiscal year.

Government should not plan to spend more money than we take in.

The Town Board will consider this budget proposal on June 14, 2012.

A copy of the draft budget is enclosed for your review.

Please contact the township office 1-847-669-3328 if you have any questions.

A press release from Grafton Supervisor Linda Moore:

GRAFTON TOWNSHIP TRUSTEES ADDICTED TO LEGAL FEES

Supervisor Linda Moore said today that the Grafton Township Trustees,

• Rob LaPorta
• Betty Zirk
• Barbara Murphy
• Gerald McMahon

appear to be addicted to spending taxpayer monies for legal fees.

Supervisor Moore clarified there is only one lawsuit pending between her and the trustees.

That lawsuit started when Moore was unlawfully evicted from her township office while the township board tried to usurp her duties by the unlawful appointment of a town administrator, Pam Fender.

Those problems were aggravated by the failure of Attorney Keri Lynn Krafthefer to leave when Supervisor Moore fired her.

Judge Michael Caldwell ruled in Moore’s favor on all of those issues.

The total cost of the litigation to date is $400,426.00.

Of that amount, $347,194.28 was paid to the trustees’ attorneys and $53,231.72 was paid to Supervisor Moore’s attorney.

“Why are they appealing every order Judge Caldwell entered against them?” Supervisor Moore asked.

The attorneys’ fees on appeal will be astronomical.

Moore clarified that her current petition and motion are filed in the existing lawsuit and are directed at further attempts by the trustees to do her job.

“Keep in mind,” Moore said, “…the trustees have filed these same kinds of motions against me in the case already.

“The fees in these straight forward requests will be much more reasonable than the trustee’s appeal,” Moore added.

“I am raising issues that the cancelling of a township credit card has no basis other than harassment,” Moore opined.

“You only need to watch one of our meetings online to get a flavor of the abuse I receive at the hands of the trustees.

“Why else do they refuse to pay for the Huntley Police to be there?” Moore asked.

“They say I am too tough and unbending,“ Moore said.

“My answer is that I stopped the waste of taxpayer’s monies of $5 million plus, for an unnecessary new town hall.

“If I was not this tough, Trustee Gerry McMahon’s screaming and the board’s monkey shines would have driven me from office long ago.

“I am not going anywhere.”

Two local official holders in opposite factions of the McHenry County Republican Party have had legal expenses in the last half year, McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi and McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren.

We know where Bianchi’s legal fees for defense attorney Terry Ekl came from.

$275,000 was approved by the McHenry County Board in return for indemnification and a cut of any winnings from a civil law suit against Special Prosecutors Henry Tonigan and Thomas McQueen, plus their investigative firm Quest International.

Nothing was advanced from his campaign fund, which ended September with $93,700 in the bank. (The report due January 16th has not yet been filed.)

Nygren has engaged attorney Mark Gummerson to represent him in former Deputy Zane Seipler’s attempt to have a Special Prosecutor named to investigate whether the Sheriff used taxpayer resources to advance his campaign.

The Sheriff has almost $12,300 in his campaign checking account and has spent $1,300 in the last three months of 2011, but none says, “Legal Expenses.”

So, unlike Governors George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich, neither McHenry County politician spent contributors’ money to defend himself from legal challenges.

The Northwest Herald’s Kevin Craver had an exclusive yesterday about a deal being considered by the McHenry County Board to dig itself out of the financial hole its unquestioning members have dug.

Without demanding detailed bills from Judge Gordon Graham, the County Board authorized payment of several hundred thousand dollars of legal and investigative fees to Special Prosecutor Henry Tonigan, Thomas McQueen and Quest International.

As someone who has stopped counting the amount spent on divorce lawyers when the total reached $100,000, I can tell you I have never paid an attorney a dime that did not have itemized backup.

Yet, the McHenry County Board did just that.

Until McHenry County Blog published Quest International’s billings, County officials had no clue that subpoenas were being served at sometimes ten times the cost the Sheriff’s Office would have charged.

Clearly the Special Prosecutor was not treating his fiduciary duty to the taxpayers seriously.

Now McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi’s spectacularly successful defense attorney Terry Ekl has made an offer the county can’t refuse.

It doesn’t involve a horse’s head in the bed either.

He is offering to go after Tonigan, his assistant Special Prosecutor McQueen and investigative firm Quest International in a Federal Civil Rights violation case with the taxpayers getting a substantially reduced fee for defending Bianchi and his secretary Joyce Synek first.

$280,000 would have to be paid upfront, but of any money won on Bianchi’s and Synek’s claims, the county would get the first $298,000.

In addition, McHenry County would get two-thirds of anything won on its separate claims with Ekl getting one-third.

By accepting the proposal, the county could end up paying far less for this fiasco than if it just continued writing checks for unitemized legal and padded investigative work.

Otherwise, Ekl plans to ask Judge Joseph McGraw for something in the neighborhood of $650,000 for his and Ernest DiBenedetto’s defense work. There is no additional request to pay investigators on the defense side of the case.

With Tonigan-selected investigative firm Quest having billed about $300,000, does anyone think the total bill from the Special Prosecutors won’t exceed $1 million?

So, let’s assume the county has $1.6 million–both sides of the case–that it will have to pay, if the board does nothing.

The county will not have to pay any of Ekl’s legal fees in Federal Court. He would be representing Bianchi and Synek, plus McHenry County on a contingency fee basis.

To repeat, the county would get the first $298,000 to repay the reduced legal fees of Ekl and DiBenedetto. That would come from the winnings Ekl believes that will result from Bianchi’s and Synek’s claims.

In addition, two-thirds of any money recovered beyond that amount on the separate claim(s) of the county would go into the public treasury. Elk would get the othe one-third.

The case against those involved with prosecuting Bianchi, Synek, Ron Salgado and Mike McCleary might be challenged on the basis of fraudulent and unnecessary billing.

It might include the assertion that the case should have been quickly closed because the charges made by Amy Dalby were all outdated, that is, barred by the statute of limitations.

Maybe a breach of fiduciary responsibility will be included.

= = = = =

A note about confidentiality. Those who participate in Executive Sessions (that is, secret meetings) are not prohibited by law from sharing what is discussed with others. Ask former Crystal Lake Park Board member Leona Nelson about that.

Social pressure certainly can and is applied to keep the public from knowing what the “insiders” know.

So, how did the Northwest Herald reporter get his inside information?

My guess is that, with primary elections coming up, someone want to gain his favor.

The sources for this story, by the way, was neither the Northwest Herald nor any county board member.

The legal bills of Grafton Township for March and April, 2011, follow:

The analysis shows that of the$16,313.20, 82.3% was billed by Ancel Glink, the law firm representing Grafton Township’s Trustees.  The dollar amount is $13,430.05.

John Nelson, attorney for Township Supervisor Linda Moore billed $2,883.15.

All the air was sucked out of the 7 PM Annual Town Meeting of Grafton Township as Linda Moore’s opponents won the vote in the Special Town Meeting that started an hour before.

The Annual Town Meeting started about twenty after seven and was adjourned without any real business being done at 7:55.

At issue in the earlier meeting was whether the Township Board should be mandated to repay the $700,000 loan from the Township Road District (a separate governmental entity) to build a new Township Hall in a lump sum or whether the three-year payback contained in an intergovernmental agreement reached between Road Commissioner Jack Freund and the four Trustees was good enough.

Jim Kearns, the same man who was elected Moderator of the last year’s meeting, which Moore’s forces dominated, won that vote against Huntley School Board member Mike Skala for the six o’clock meeting.

When the time for repayment debate came, however, supporters of the Trustees managed to frame the issue.

They seized the initiative.

A drum beat of comments were made referencing the lack audits for the last two years and, because of that, not knowing if the township had $700,000 with which to repay the loan.

[No one mentioned that just-resigned audit firm Wayne Brown & Company refused to perform the audit until Moore's separation of powers litigation was concluded. Moore won that case in which Judge Michael Caldwell ruled that the Trustees overstepped their authority.]

Both the Trustees and Moore have selection of an auditor on their dueling agendas for the next regular township meeting on Thursday, April 14th, at 7:30 at the Huntley Park District building.

(After the meetings were over, Moore insisted that the Grafton Food Pantry account had been removed from the Quick Books data base after she defeated John Rossi for Township Supervisor. She said that Wayne Brown keeps the books for the Food Pantry.)

Trustee Barb Murphy lead the attack on the lump sum motion, defending the Trustee’s actions and blaming Moore for the not repaying of the first installment of $200,000.

“The Trustees are not refusing to repay the loan. The Supervisor is,” she said.

Tammy Luecht, one of Moore’s allies, outlined how the bank will not accept partial payment of the $700,000 loan, how the township will be paying $2,600 a month in rent to the Road District, plus running up interest on the loan for the three years.

She also pointed out that there was $611,000 sitting in the bank that could not be spent for anything but loan repayment.

“We’re going to be very, very short of funds,” Township Trustee Betty Zirk, going on her 12th year on the Board said.

One CPA told the audience,

“One payment just appears to me, based on Ms. Moore’s own numbers, to be an incredibly bad idea.”

A woman questioned a telephone transfer of the $611,000 made by Moore.

Moore explained that she put in a money market fund so it would earn interest.

“If indeed we haven’t had an audit, any of us who run a business wouldn’t run our business that way. I don’t think we ought to ramrod paying something off (without it),” a Sun City man stated.

A second Sun City businessman immediately added, “Why haven’t we had an audit?”

A woman on the pay-back-immediately side argued, “It’s not ours to do anything with. It’s not our money. Give this money back.”

A blond woman replied, “Last year we didn’t vote for a lump sum (repayment). We don’t have a 2009 audit. A 2010 audit is due soon.”

” My son does audits and they find things wrong. I don’t know why we can’t wait until after the audit is submitted,” another woman added.

The elephant in the room was brought up by Tom Legowski (?):

“A lot of the money we don’t have is because of the litigation. I think it would be a wonderful idea if they start representing the people, rather than their own interests.”

“We’re trying to save the township from bankruptcy,” Trustee Murphy said in her second trip to the microphone.

“I’m tired of the bickering,” a life-long resident said. She said the $700,000 loan was “illegal. It is wrong.” [A story about Judge Caldwell's decision overturning the former Township Board's decision to borrow the $700,000 can be found here.]

“I don’t know how you can drain all the money. Right now, I wouldn’t trust any figures,” a Lakewood man replied.

A CPA from Lake in the Hills noted the over $65,000 a month “burn rate of cash.”

He said, “Mrs. Moore is absolutely correct (re having enough operating money), but suggested going with “what the Trustees have done. He then mentioned the quarter of million in legal fees.

“I’m absolutely not trilled with either side.”

A Huntley man observed, “We now have $611,000. If we don’t (fall) short before June (when real estate tax money comes in), we’ll have to borrow less than $700,000.

“If we hadn’t spent $485,000 in legal fees since this started, we’d have plenty of money.

An amendment was offered something during the debate to require the repayment “sixty days after completion of the audits for both years.”

A voice vote on the amendment failed.

The vote on the lump sum repayment failed 140-85 [I got a larger number of positive votes last night after asking for verification of the tally.]

As the tally was announced, part of the crowd cheered loudly.

The next motion talked about personally penalizing township board members who didn’t follow the directions of the Annual Town Meeting.

Road District Attorney Coen took the floor and said,

“What you’re voting on electors don’t have the authority to do.”

The motion disappeared under the weight of that opinion.

And, at about 7:20, the six o’clock meeting was adjourned.

At that point, a lot of people started leaving the room.

How many?

Remember how the vote for the early lump sum motion was 140-128.

Mike Skala won the moderator post for the Annual Town Meeting 42-38.

Over half the people filed out during the intermission.

Reports from the Township Supervisor and Road Commissioner were read.

Someone wanted to ask Moore about the audit situation, but she had stepped out of the room.

During the public comment period, Lake in the Hills’ Bruce Augustine tried to make a motion to add an agenda item to discuss the audit, but was ruled out of order by Skala.

A female ally of the Trustees said, “The Trustees have not initiated any single law suit. They did not want to spend a half million dollars on law suits. The Trustees had to pya for their defense. Please stop bringing lawsuits against (the Township). ”

She added that she’d like to have the Forensicon audit to be completed and paid for.

A man retorted, “For the last six years what the Board has done has been illegal. It was proved in court and the appellate court.

“They’re still fighting. The $611,000 could only be paid for the loan. It should not be in the General Fund.”

A young woman pointed out that the lump sum payment had been voted down at the previous meeting and added, “I’d like to find a way to force Linda Moore to get the audit done.”

Tom Halat, who was one of the people whose suit resulted in the John Rossi Township Board having acted out of accordance with state law when it borrowed the $700,000 made this reply:

“The former administration perpetrated illegal acts. Ancel Glink twice said it was an illegal act (at the Annual Meeting last year). In December, Judge Caldwell said illegal, illegal, illegal. They spent $300,000 of our tax dollars defending their illegal activities.”

It was Trustee Murphy to the microphone again.

“Hiring Pam Fender was not an illegal act. It’s just the Supervisor had to do it…(what) Mr. Rossi (and the former Township board did) wasn’t illegal. It was two items done improperly.”

Luecht took the floor saying she had read the minutes of the Township meetings and “”There was never an action taken by the Board to separate the Food Pantry from the township.”

She said she was still waiting for the Food Pantry records to be included in the audit.

Trustee Betty Zirk took the floor saying she was going on her 12th year and

“The Food Party never had a line item on the (Township) budget.  It was housed by the Township, run by volunteers, some of our employees helping out.  the Food Pantry never was part of the Township.”

A man from the other side of the room noted, “It’s been a whole year and nothing has been paid back. How can we trust people when they continually  (against the voters’ wishes).

“They are a bunch of liars.  What makes you think they’re going to pay it back in three years.

“Betty, you’ve been there twelve years too long.”

That earned him an admonition from Moderator Skala.

“The Trustee have attempted to pay back the money.  It has been blocked by the Supervisor,” Augustine retorted.

“I’ve worked for public bodies. My understanding is there is supposed to be an audit every year.  I don’t now how you can operate.  I don’t understand it.”

Jim Kearns took the microphone.

“I understand that the $700,000 will be held in the Road fund for three years because the bank will not take back anything but a lump sum.

“I’d like to see everyone start getting along and stop this bull.

“You need to start growing up, you guys.  That goes for everyone.

“Start doing it today!”

Another man advanced the opinion that it was “time to have a recall and start over again and get people in office to be stewards of our tax money.”

[Recall is not an option in Illinois.]

“‘Liars’ is a pretty strong statement.  I’d hate to think an elected official is a liar.”

 

At this point someone moved to adjourn and the motion passed.

= = = = =
Want to know how the missing part of the $700,000 was spent. Here’s the only place you’ll find out.

“Spending Our Loot Will Get You the Boot,” reads the sign carried by one man in last week’s pre-Island Lake Village Board meeting demonstration in front of Village Hall.

Citizens backing opponents to Village President Debbie Herrmann turned out in force to express their opinions over what they considered excessive legal fees paid to Ancel Glink.

A video can be found here.

I can’t remember more picketers outside of any other local village or city hall.

Yesterday, McHenry County Blog showed you the legal expenses resulting from the dismissal of Sheriff’s Deputy Zane Seipler. That case has been through arbitration, which Seipler won, circuit court, which Seipler won, and is now in the 2nd Appellate Court.

It is my understanding that if Sheriff Keith Nygren loses at that level, Seipler’s legal fess will have to be paid by county taxpayers.

Aside from that suit, however, there is a much more expensive one going on in Federal Court in Rockford.

There Sheriff Nygren is being defended by attorney James Sotos. While it is a wrongful termination suit, most of the case has revolved around whether the Sheriff’s Department was involved in racial profiling.

In any event, the over $400,000 in bills paid so far follow.

County government seems to be in “free money” land now.  As the accompanying email points out,

“Please note in the case of Seipler v Sherifff’s Dept & County et. al the self insured retention (deduction) has been paid by the County.  ClaimOne is the third party administrator for Illinois Counties Risk Management Trust (insurer) and is responsible for cost above the retention level.”

That deductible is $100,000.

This case, of course, has not yet gone to trial.

It is still in the discovery stage.

McHenry County Blog posted the legal fees paid by county taxpayers recently in the case re-instating Sheriff’s Deputy Bob Schlenkert.

Although Schlenkert won the case almost eleven months ago, Sheriff Keith Nygren hasn’t settled up on issues of back pay and attorney’s fees. Of the $31,000 in fees, $14,000 were incurred after the appellate court upheld Schlenkert’s reinstatement.

A similar case involves Nygren GOP primary opponent Zane Seipler.  Take a look at the legal fees that county taxes have paid for the county’s defense:

$23,573 so far, if one rounds up to the nearest dollar.

= = = = =
In the comment section below, Zane Seipler corrects my terminology with regard to the suit:

Cal, you use the words “county’s defense”.

I don’t consider that to be accurate. I n both Circuit Court and in the Appellate Court Mchenry County (Keith Nygren) is the Plantiff.

I never sued anyone to get my job back.

Instead of going through the Merit Commission (Nygren’s Buddies) I chose the Arbitration route.

That was an option because of the change in the law that went into effect in 2008.

I was awarded my job back because the arbitrator said Nygren’s termination of me was UNJUST.

McHenry County (Keith Nygren) then sued me (FOP) as is allowed by said law in an attempt to overturn the arbitrators decision that said Nygren’s termination of me was UNJUST.

Fact of the matter is McHenry County (Nygren) made the decision to spend this money.

It was not a defensive response to a case that I brought before a formal court of law but instead an offensive action to keep me from returning to the Sheriff’s Department.

Now the Federal lawsuit is a different story and a much more interesting one.

Check out the latest filing when you get a chance.