The seven-pointed star appears on this letter of endorsement GOP primary State's Attorney candidate Dan Regna by Sheriff Keith Nygren. Click to enlarge.
December 15, 2010, there was a Rockford court hearing in which 15-year McHenry County Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Milliman’s sworn deposition testimony was discussed in Zane Seipler’s wrongful termination case against the Sheriff’s Department.
Seven-pointed star can be seen to the left of the entrance to the McHenry County Jail.
Now the arena moves to Woodstock where Zane Seipler attorney Blake Horwitz has filed a request to broaden his request for a special prosecutor to investigate McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren.
The motion outlines Horwitz’ previous allegation:
“Pending before this Court is a Petition to Appoint a Special Prosecutor with regard to theft of services concerning the illegal use of the Seven Point Star for both political and official purposes.
“New allegations have now surfaced warranting the supplementation of the second with additional data in support of the pending Petition.”
The motion continues,
“Since the most recent hearing in this cause, a transcript of a federal civil rights action involving Sheriff Nygren, has become publicly available. [A footnote here reads, “The transcript contains the proceedings of a court hearing before Federal Magistrate Judge Mahoney of the Northern District of Illinois held on December 15, 2010 in a cause entitled Seipler v. Cundiff, et. al,, Case No. 8 C 50257. The transcript of this hearing is attached hereto as Exhibit A.”]
Page 1 of Zane Seipler's December 27, 2010, motion. Click to enlarge any image.
Continuing the motion reads,
“The transcript discloses statements made by Deputy Scott Milliman, a 15-year veteran of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department, which reveal previously secret criminal conduct by Sheriff Nygren. Specifically, the transcript discloses deposition testimony by Deputy Milliman in Seipler v. Nygren, et. al., regarding criminal activity by Sheriff Nygren to which Mr. Milliman was a witness. The transcript also establishes that a code of silence exists in the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department and discloses that seven other officers set forth that they will be retaliated against if they break this code. The transcript also reveals that Sheriff Nygren was observed to have committed and/or participated in the following:
Page 2 of Zane Seipler's December 27, 2010, motion.
- “Engaged in ‘Solicitation of Murder,’ in violation of 720 ILCS 5/8-1
- “Facilitated and promoted the trafficking of illegal aliens from Mexico to McHenry County, in violation of 720 ILCS 5/8-2 and the Federal Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. Par. 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv)(iii)
- “Covered up racial profiling in the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department where at least one member in 2008 falsified the race of Hispanic drivers on at least 140 occasions, in violation of 720 ILCS 5/8-2.1 and
- “Participated prior to 2007 in a pay-off scheme with a member of the McHenry County State’s Attorney Office, whereby pending criminal prosecutions were dropped as nolle prosequi in exchange for money, in violation of 720 ILCS 5/33-1 and 720 ILCS 5/33-2.”
“The specific facts attesting to the criminal allegations noted above are subject to a protective order in Seipler v. Nygren, et. al., and therefore are not publicly available. Hence, Petitioner cannot tender these additional facts to this Court at present, but can and does refer to the publicly-available hearing transcript discussed above.”
Under the heading, “Other Information in the Public Domain,” Horwitz notes, “There is one other item of information that is in the public domain regarding Sheriff Nygren’s alleged criminal participation in a conspiracy to murder: Deputy Milliman testified that one victim of attempted murder was a political adversary of Sheriff Nygren.”
Page 3 of Zane Seipler's December 27, 2010, motion.
The next paragraph reads, “With regard to the trafficking of illegal aliens, it is well-established that Sheriff Nygren developed an exchange program between a local police department from Zacatecas, Mexico and McHenry County. Petitioner has sound reasons to believe that this exchange program facilitated the transportation of illegal aliens to McHenry County.”
“With regard to the pay-off scheme (money for case dismissals),” the December 27th motion continues, “if current members of the McHenry County State’s Attorney Office were also involved in this scheme, it would be prudent for this Court to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate this matter on behalf of the People. [A footnote here says, ”The appearance of impropriety mandates the appointment of a special prosecutor. See People v. Lang, 805 N.E.2nd 1249, 346 Ill. App. 3rd 677 (2nd Dist. 2004); In re Guardianship of Angell, 26 Ill.App.2nd 239, 243 (State’s Attorney has an allegiance to the People); Fleming v. Kane County, 1986 WL 1414 (N.D. Ill 1986) (accord).”]
“Lastly, given the gravity of the offenses that have been alleged by Deputy Milliman, it would be in the best interest of McHenry County for an independent Special Prosecutor to further investigate these matters.
“WHEREFORE, Petitioner respectfully requests that this Honorable Court appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate allegations of criminal wrongdoing by Sheriff Nygren.”
This motions is signed by Blake Horwitz, Zane R. Seipler’s attorney.
Seipler attorney Horwitz concludes that “given the gravity of the offenses that have been alleged by Deputy Milliman, it would be in the best interest of McHenry County for an independent Special Prosecutor to further investigate these matters.”
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See these posts by McHenry County Blog, which reprint the first parts of the transcripts of the December 15, 2010, Federal Court hearing before P. Michael Mahoney:
The rest of the over 10,000 word transcript will be published in bite-sized pieces as the days roll on.
Has the new large sign ” Now accepting applications for Sheriff of McHenry County” been put up yet in front of the courthouse.
I guess when he ran on “experience counts” he didn’t specify if it was legal or illegal experience.
Holy tin foil hat Batman! No wonder this bunch is working so hard to proactively throw dirt at the Sheriff’s department psychologist. Last thing these conspiracy nuts want is a psychologist that has previously evaluated them going on record.
but — you keep stepping in it!!
Shadow…Meyer is a licensed and in good standing in both Illinois and Wisconsin. He is Fellow of the American College of Forensic Psychology
and has been approved by the State of Illinois Sex Offender Board.
Years ago he was once reprimanded over an alleged brief of confidentiality in a custody hearing, but even the state licensing board only went as far as calling it “alleged” thus the slap of the hand.
It seems very telling that this longtime respected expert witness is suddenly under attack with his sworn testimony about a certain local conspiracy theorist soon to become known in more detail.
I hear they already have an appointment for Milliman with doc Meyer. They have to make Milliman look crazy and discredit his story. Too bad that releasing any medical reports about Milliman would be against the law. Maybe the report will mysteriously leave one of the desks at the SO and find its way into the wrong hands like other reports have. If I were Milliman I would bring a good lawyer and a recording device to the doctor appt. . Zane has already deposed doc Meyer.
Nygren decided that Milliman was incapable of doing his job only after he found out that Milliman was testifying against him. What is the official reason (excuse) Nygren suspended Milliman?
It is a pretty good guess that all 7 of the officers testifying against Nygren will be accused of being medically unstable. Either Nygren has a history of hiring unstable officers, or it is just another cover up attempt. Either way, Nygren is doing something seriously wrong over there. I look forward to everything finally becoming public.
There is no record of 7 officers “testifying against Nygren”.
I understand there were a few officers that referred to different versions of an unofficial code that officers cover each other frequently. Are you breaking news that Nygren is the guy who created this common practice and perhaps wrote some policy they had to follow?
Just more silliness…Next thing you know these couple of conspiracy theorists are going to claim Nygrens the mastermind behind cops liking donuts and coffee in an evil plot to shorten deputies lives and get kickbacks from some guy who owns a donut shop 😉
AreYou, the truth is Nygren ate ALL the donuts. The evidence is clear. You can tell he brought some home to the wife also. Numerous deputies have been deposed by Zane’s attorney, and most did not paint a pretty picture of the Nygren run SO.