The argument advanced by former candidate for McHenry County Sheriff and Deputy Zane Seipler’s attorney Blake Horwitz that State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi’s refusal to investigate Sheriff Keith Nygren about anything seems to have struck a cord with Associate Judge Thomas Meyer.

See January 19, 2011, article entitled:

Seipler Uses Bianchi’s Refusal to Investigate Nygren as “New Evidence” for Special Prosecutor

Since the last hearing when Associate Judge Thomas Meyer denied the request for a special prosecutor to probe any use by Sheriff Keith Nygren’s of county resources for political purposes, Bianchi told Horwitz of his office’s position and the reason behind it.

If Bianchi investigated Nygren, private attorneys would have to be hired to represent Nygren in the cases in which assistant state’s attorneys now provide legal services.

One of the planks in Bianchi’s platform in 2004 was that such work would be brought in-house.  Bianchi pointed to over $1 million in such outside legal fees resulting from private attorneys representing the Sheriff’s Office under predecessor Gary Pack.

Today, while Assistant State’s Attorney Don Leist was ready for oral arguments on Horwitz’ most recent filing, Judge Meyer wasn’t.

“I may have to invite you to file a written (reply),” the judge said right up front.

“I’m troubled that I have a statement of policy that is inconsistent with what you’ve presented to the court, ” Meyer told Leist.

During the previous hearing, Leist had said that Bianchi could investigate Nygren, but chose not to with regard to Nygren’s alleged use of county resources for political purposes.  (Bianchi, it should be noted, was indicted on similar charges.)

Leist argued that Horwitz’ filing was not in proper order, that his quoting of Bianchi’s positino was not notarized, that it was “hearsay of hearsay,”that he was seeking “two bites at the apple,” that Horwitz should be forced to start over with a second case, but Judge Meyer didn’t agree with Leist’s reasoning.

With regard to the hearsay argument, Judge Meyer said, the filing “seems to suggest Mr. Horwitz heard these statementsHTTP/1.1 200 OK
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