Inappropriate Email Use by Woodstock Policeman Story Has Legs

The Tribune wrote a story Sunday about the Woodstock policeman's request for "sexy pictures" from a 12-year old girl.

The Tribune wrote a story Sunday about the Woodstock policeman’s request for “sexy pictures” from a 12-year old girl.

When the Chicago Tribune broke the story about Woodstock Police Sergeant Charles Amati the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we were on vacation.

The story was about how the policeman had texted the 12-year old daughter of a now-former girlfriend.

One, according to the Tribune article said, “Send me some sexy pictures!”

(The Northwest Herald picked up the story later that afternoon.)

Illinois State Police discovered that Amati had utilized the law  enforcement LEADS data base, which is for official use only.

Those who use it to find out who owns a car with a particular license plate have gotten in trouble.  Official misconduct, a felony, can be the criminal charge.

The Woodstock Police and Fire Commission suspended Amati for thirty days, which he can take one at a time, as long as they are all taken within a year, the article said.

The McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute.

That resolution did not please some, including the hacker group Anonymous

Someone tweeted out the phone number and email of the Woodstock Police Department, the Tribune’s Sunday follow-up article said.

It went to a  million or so recipients, but the article says a city official said there were only about 50 calls and 30 emails.

From a political point of view, Woodstock city officials would care most about ones from constituents.

Emails from Europe, for instance, wouldn’t have much influence.

 

 


Comments

Inappropriate Email Use by Woodstock Policeman Story Has Legs — 15 Comments

  1. Would we really expect a different response from the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s office?

  2. Most people do not realize what level of evidence is needed for a charge and ultimately a conviction.

    Armchair lawyers really know nothing about criminal law.

    The real issue here should be with the Woodstock Police Dept.

    They should have fired him and had the power to do so.

    A much lower level needed.

  3. According to the Tribune “McHenry County Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Combs has said prosecutors considered the fact that Amati would face departmental discipline before deciding not to charge him with anything related to conduct revealed by the investigation”

    Michael Combs needs to get his priorities straight..

    this is coming from a prosecutor that had a single parent arrested 9 times.

    The charges were brought by Police Officers that were friends of the defendants ex spouse and were Facebook friends with one of the ex spouses relatives.

    The defendant was found not guilty on all of the charges once the Judge recognized the connection between the officers and the ex spouse

    The case resulted in 9 arrests from 2005-2009 with over 70 court dates.

    Now really Michael Combs if you can’t handle the heat get out of the kitchen.

    Maybe if you don’t know how to recognize a criminal case Michael Combs you should retire and find another line of work.

    The tax payers have had enough of Michael Combs…

    Bye Michael Combs no one will miss you…

    Well except of course those officers you sided with regardless of the evidence..

  4. The stories of police misconduct come out daily across the nation.

    It is not a shock men and women in any profession are just as sick as the rest of society.

    The shock is when those police departments, and governmental agencies who oversee them, see fit to leave dishonored and dishonorable people in any position of public responsibility.

    Especially where children are concerned.

    Woodstock is a sick town without any ethic or honor if they leave a predator of children on the police force.

    No child or parent should trust any officer of this department until they clean out this horrible blemish from among them.

    It speaks volumes about the total lack of respect law enforcement has for the people they are charged to protect when prisoners have more honor than Woodstock and McHenry County Law Enforcement where it pertains to predators of children.

    Where is the outrage from the citizens of Woodstock?

    Are The People so beaten by unions and the “blue wall” they fear speaking out about this sickness among them?

    Don’t fear these sick people!

    Hold them accountable!

    Remove them from their public positions and remove them from among you!

    It never ever can be cured. Only cut out.

  5. This is kind of reminiscent of the Catholic Church looking the other way with their child molestation issues.

    At least they didn’t completely cover it up like the church did.

  6. Here we have another perfect example of corruption in the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office under the leadership of Mr. Corruption himself, Louis Bianchi.

    As we are all aware of, Mr. Corruption is the main driving force to elect Bill Who for Sheriff of McHenry County.

    This is Mr. Corruption’s attempt to spread the infection of corruption in the Sheriff’s Department.

    STOP Corruption and join the fight against Corruption in our county by voting for Undersheriff Andrew Zinke for Sheriff.

  7. “Fukoku” = Kim Zinke you just get whackier by the day…

    Your husband Andy Zinke does not belong in office…

    Just because Michael Combs made the decision to act like he doesn’t know the law, does not mean that Bianchi condones his behavior…

    That is all you have is false allegations against Bianchi..

    Stop corruption in McHenry County by voting for BIll Prim who has no connections to corruption.

    Kim just a reminder: Rita Corporation and Brian Goode.

    Let me guess, you still think Zane is Duncan.

    http://www.zinke4sheriff.blogspot.com

    http://www.mchenrycounty1981.com

  8. By all means, vote for Zinke to ensure phone calls are made to companies prior to a raid!

  9. Sure Fuk – we can have more Zinke comments like ‘It is a domestic incident” when one of his pal deputy’s is raping little boys!!

    Then the perp can surrender a few days later with his bail money in hand BEFORE even sitting in jail for one minute or going before a judge.

    Posting then walking out to live with friends in the county.

    THEN lets keep paying this guy for a year.

  10. A few observations… and no, I am not defending the efforts of WPD or MCSO.

    Unfortunately, collective bargaining and the UPODA (http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=736&ChapterID=11) mandates officers are ensured certain rights in every discipline situation and regardless how creepy, perverted or heinous the conduct. It’s also important to realize there is a distinction between internal discipline and criminal charges–the quagmire can be quite confusing to the uninitiated. In any event, a huge part of these rights is Due Process (along the same exact lines as the US Constitution…) since discipline is a sanction from the government- administration needs to have everything lined up before moving to terminate-this is why public sector employees are suspended with pay pending discipline…so, sorry folks an email–regardless how repugnant and disgusting it is–is just an email (Don’t think an attempted possession of child pornography would work here). We all have an idea what ‘sexy’ means, but the law generally wants a lot more to sustain any kind of charge (local Appeals Court Case People vs Walter from 1999). Unfortunately, it would have taken either this girl sending an inappropriate pic or Amati taking things farther, for something more to happen to him. I know, it’s disgusting and morally wrong-but that’s what it is.

    As for Zinke’s ‘it’s a domestic incident’–my two cents is that Zinke most likely didn’t want the public to think Pyle was running around molesting the neighborhood children and used that designation to reflect the fact there was no indication of more victims (although one is more than enough…) and to put some (emphasis on some) semblance of ease to the public.

  11. Duncan…so the States Attorneys Office refuses to charge this creep for his despicable actions and it is all the underlings fault and the States Attorney can’t do anything?

    Come on now, how can you even type that silliness?

  12. Really? is probably right, and all of us to step back and understand.

    Collective bargaining of public employees is a clear and present danger to a decent society. There are stories across America where people engaging in this behavior have more protection than the citizenry they are supposed to serve.

    This is why we are beginning to see an epidemic of citizen abuse by entire swaths of the public sector.

    Is an educated populace in the public interest? If so, then allowing teachers to strike (for any reason) is against the public interest.

    Is it in the public interest to strip budding sexual predators of their public jobs and lucrative pensions. If so, and legislative “protection” from “collective bargaining” is against the public interest.

    If you want to take your government back from the people who have turned into a protected money laundering scheme, you need to start showing up at municipal elections and strip these people of their jobs.

    You then need to start telling Franks, Althoff and Tryon that if they won’t roll back the greed and power of the public sector, you’ll find someone who will.

    And if you aren’t up for this kind of fight, then IL will continue to circle the drain. It’s time to understand the true nature of the battle. This Woodstock Cop story is only one of many. The true size of the problem is avoided and evaded by all, as they pick small targets to avoid the necessary, big, battle.

  13. When I was on the grand jury in McHenry County last year I got the impression that sexual predators were a big deal, but apparently I was wrong.

    As so often happens, the uniformed bullies that go by the name of “police officers” can get away with anything.

    Amati needs to go, but so does his awful police chief who suggested he go to Bible study rather than suffer any real punishment.

    Michael Combs and his boss, Lou Bianchi, need to be fired as well for refusing to do their job.

    Get rid of the Police union and we can start taking out the trash, get rid of their pensions, and put the Illinois budget in order.

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