Two days after Kurt Milliman was murdered at a house on Woodstock Doty Road, I filed a Freedom of Information request with the Sheriff’s Department for various information.

Although testimony which I assume duplicates what I requested was given at the McHenry County Coroner’s inquest, so far nothing has been provided.

Naturally, I appealed to the Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor.

Late last week I received a letter from Senior Assistant Attorney General John Schmidt which contained part of the response sent by McHenry County Sheriff’s Department FOI Officer Jan Weech. It was dated June 28, 2011.

The June 28, 2011, letter from the McHenry County Sheriff's Department explainng what is available to be released to the public, what isn't and the reasons why. Click to enlarge.

She explains I asked too early, that “we were not prepared to release any further information at that time.”

She says she attached a printout of some of the information I requested, but the Public Access Counselor’s Office did not forward it with his letter.

The letter was written about a month after the murder was committed, but the Sheriff’s Department says, “The police report has not been completed…”

Not knowing much about police procedure, I’m not sure whether is unusual or not.

The same paragraph (separated below to make its content easier to read) talks of the 911 call/recordings I requested:

“The 911 call/recordings concerning this homicide is a very important part of the evidence in this case.

“The release of the 911 recordings at this point would interfere with any pending charges and there is a strong likelihood that the information contained there could potentially affect the jury pool if released, thereby depriving the Defendants of a fair trial.”

There is another interesting sentence:

“We do not have any recordings of phone calls from the scene as cell phones were used.”