Zane Seipler
McHenry County Deputy Sheriff Zane Seipler’s attorney Blake Horwitz looked a bit like a cat that had swallowed the canary after the Monday hearing on Special Assistant State’s Attorney Bill Caldwell’s motion for sanctions.
Judge Thomas Meyer suggested Caldwell might want to go talk to his client and told Horwitz he didn’t have to file a brief.
You can read Monday’s article here.
Now I learn that his reticence was well-placed.
The County Board is backing off on its attempts to get paid for Special Prosecutor Caldwell and the time Assistant State’s Attorneys spent on the case.
Filing of the motion was authorized by County Board Chairman Ken Koehler. I have found no other County Board member who was consulted prior to the decision. Indeed several expressed outright surprise at not being consulted.
Seipler’s effort to get a Special Prosecutor named to investigate whether Sheriff Keith Nygren used taxpayer money to advance his re-election effort was filed shortly before Seipler lost the GOP primary election to Nygren.
As of this moment the NWH has not printed an article.
I predict it will be well hidden and very generic, then over the weekend there will be some kind of anonymous opinion piece bashing Seipler and what he has tried to do.
Got to love the NWH aka Nygren’s Wretched Henchmen.
Irish — Amen.
So the judge pulls the opposing attorneys into chambers and says something to Caldwell that makes him go to the powers that be and this motion is now being withdrawn. As a layman let me take a shot at explaining this.
1.) Seipler accuses the Sheriff of crimes and asks for someone to investigate.
2.) Seipler presents evidence that he believes shows the Sheriff is committing crimes.
3.) The judge says he won’t consider the evidence when he ruled that the State’s Attorney has the ability to do his job and investigate the Sheriff according to state law. At this time the judge and the S/A still have not and will not look at or consider the evidence Seipler presented.
4.) Caldwell at the behest of the County Board Chairman files a motion saying Seipler’s allegation were frivolous and that he should have to pay for the county’s expense regarding this litigation.
5.) Seipler’s attorney doesn’t respond until the day of court and asks that the motion be dismissed because it is a frivolous motion. Meaning that the allegations against the Sheriff are true and not frivilous based on the evidence presented.
6.) The judge considers what Seipler’s attorney says and calls the two lawyers in the back so they can speak off the record.
7.) Seipler’s attorney comes out smiling and Caldwell leaves the building to discuss what the judge has said.
8.) Next day motion is withdrawn.
Seems to me that the only logical thing to assume from all this is that the judge has now decided he has to consider the evidence and warned Caldwell that if the evidence is considered he would dismiss the motion because Seipler’s allegations are not frivilous. That could only mean that the Sheriff did commit the offenses Seipler wanted investigated.
So Nygren gets a free pass from Bianchi. Caldwell is warned by Meyer that if you pursue this any further it won’t bode well for his client, the county. Seipler gets stuck with attorney fees yet we still have a Sheriff who is possibly defying the law.
The law abiding, moral and ethical taxpayers are getting the shaft, a complacent county board and a cowardly State’s Attorney allow corruption while a good cop puts it all on the line to fight that corruption.
McHenry County, the bottom rung of Illinois politics.
And the legend grows
Always a good day when your opponent runs out of a courtroom scared.
TRUTH is not a legend.
Steve,
Here’s my take:
1-Seipler falsely issues tickets to passengers, in lieu of doing his sworn duty.
2-Seipler gets caught and gets disciplined.
3-Seipler complains of racial discrimination (ironic since he ticketed white passenger instead of arresting hispanic driver…).
4-Seipler fights his discipline and makes an run for Sheriff, files lawsuits against Nygren for the # of points on a badge.
5-Seipler loses race of Sheriff.
6-After lengthy appeals, Seipler gets his job back.
7-Seipler alleges his wife copied a lot of internal Sheriff Office memorandum and discipline measures to a webpage he was purported to be running.
8-Seipler’s attempts to get to Nygren over the # of point on a badge gets dropped b/c Bianchi doesn’t want to touch it, the Feds couldn’t care less and the judge rules that, if the case was to go anywhere, Bianchi would prosecute.
9-Koehler charges Seipler wasted a great deal of resources over this mess and wants to get the costs back to the County.
10-Caldwell, after hearing from the Judge, realizes Koehler lacks the authority to sue Seipler on behalf of the County and, just as likely, couldn’t recover the costs because US/IL jurisprudence would allow it-thereby costing the County even more money if the matter was pursued.
And, at the end of the day, all you can prove is that Nygren may have used a 5 or 7 point star and no criminal authority is going to touch it…
Guess following that logic, a criminal case should be opened against all politicians who use the US flag when mugging for campaign literature-since it could be inferred as a tacit support of the politico…
I will never understand why Seipler, et al, continue with this “scandal”…Perhaps I lack the capacity of grasp the not only why, but the how, the number of points of a star can ever equate with campaign corruption…
Word is out. Zinke will not be running unopposed in the next primary election. The big “Z” is on the march!!!