A press release from Republican McHenry County State’s Attorney candidate Patrick Kenneally:
DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR STATE’S ATTORNEY SUING ELDERLY WOMEN FOR REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE
PATRICK KENNEALLY EXPRESSES NEED FOR EXERCIZING FREE SPEECH
Prosecutor and Republican candidate for McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally today called on his Democratic opponent Jim Harrison to drop a lawsuit against a local senior citizen that wrote a letter to the editor opposing his candidacy.
“This meritless lawsuit appears to be nothing more than retaliation and harassment of the elderly women for speaking out against him,” Kenneally said. The consequence of the lawsuit is that others will now be too scared to express their political opinions publicly.”
The meritless lawsuit arises out of the senior citizen’s letter to the Northwest Herald pointing out Jim Harrison’s complete lack of experience as a criminal prosecutor and his significant campaign donations to former State’s Attorney Gary Pack.
Mr. Pack’s administration paid Democrat Harrison nearly $3 million of taxpayer money to act as outside legal counsel for the County.
After unsuccessfully running for Sheriff as a Republican (and then changing his mind and running as an Independent), it is strange that Democrat Harrison would decide to pursue another political position if he is so thin-skinned.
Politicians face criticism.
Critics should be engaged, not sued.
Free speech should be embraced, not litigated.
Suing a member of the community for something as trivial as a letter to the editor is shameful.
“The State’s Attorney is afforded an enormous amount of power under the law, and exercising this power with discretion and restraint is essential to doing the job,” Kenneally said.
“Democrat Harrison using the litigation in what appears to be an attempt to settle political scores is very troublesome.”
While Democrat Harrison may not like it, the fact that he has never prosecuted a single criminal case, his game of political party musical chairs, and relationship with Gary Pack that netted him millions in taxpayer money are going to be issues in this campaign.
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Below is Harrison’s suit:
There is another page, but it is just a copy of the letter from the print edition of the Northwest Herald.
The sheer lack of judgment speaks volumes.
I can hardly imagine something a State’s Attorney candidate could do that would do more self-injury than suing someone over speech.
The law suit alone, will do more damage to his reputation and his career.
This calls for a non violent protest, meaning don’t give Jim Harrison any business!
The chilling effect upon political free speech casted by Harrison should scare the hell out of everyone.
This is not good judgement.
What does this mean for the office who is in charge of prosecuting cases?
Anything and everything the women said was reiterated to me by insiders, which means People who had direct contact with Pack, Nygren, and Harrison.
LAND RECORDS PLEASE JIM HARRISON!
Free speech should not be attacked by anyone.
Right you are!
Thank you Mr. Kenneally for recognizing the importance of free speech and the right for people to express their opinion.
It looks like you will be and represent the States Attorneys office with fairness and integrity.
Cal you breed a special breed of ignorant people on your blog we are not talking about free speech we are talking about bullies who think they can say anything about anybody they want regardless of whether or not it is true.
We teach our children about the horrors of cyber bullying but so called adults on this blog seem to have no stop gaps whatsoever .
I respectfully suggest that Mike Walkup tie Jack Franks to Harrison.
Both are Democrats, both have gotten fat sucking from the public trough, neither was bold enough to list their names for a Primary election run, both are running for county offices.
Neither is out for anyone but themselves.
I’m sure others would be able to find other circumstances linking the two.
A) She never explicitly stated that there was a quid pro quo relationship between Harrison’s donations to Pack’s campaign, and Harrison receiving a bunch of legal work from him.
B) A statement that starts with “My recollection is….” can’t really be proven false in any case.
C) A public figure, which Harrison admits to being in his filing, has a very high bar to clear in a defamation suit.
I would be shocked if this suit went anywhere.
Like this?
THANK YOU MCHENRY COUNTY OBSERVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL
This is crazy.
WE SHOULD ALL GET OUR PERMIT TO PICKET THE COURTHOUSE FOR EVERY SINGLE HEARING!
YES!
ANYONE GOT A SIGN WITH A RAT ON IT!
JUST SO YOU ALL KNOW, I HAVE THE RIGHT TO NAME THE RAT ON MY SIGN JIM HARRISON!
IT JUST MIGHT BE A GOOD DAY TO BE HELD IN CONTEMPT OF COURT!
NON VIOLENT PROTEST OF COURSE.
BRING ON THE NEWS TRUCKS!
McHenry County Observer I LOVE the pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh my gosh those will look really good on signs in yards.
Harrison has a very tenuous grasp of the law like our previous office holder.
Harrison has a desire to be a petty thug and use the law to silence his detractors offering opinion like our previous office holder.
Harrison has few qualifications as a manager, administrator or legal mind like our previous office holder.
Then the heir apparent who is endorsed by our previous office holder waxes intellectual on the merit of Harrison emulating Patrick’s mentor in legal behavior.
This particular race has no adult.
Patrick may be the best qualified person to hold the office of States Attorney in recent memory but this whole episode doesn’t help him unless he distances himself from Bianchi’s behavior as well.
This response by Patrick was unnecessary and disingenuous.
Gross Jimbo….just gross
Why is everyone so outraged?
Have you all not learned by now that this is how DEMOCRATS operate ?
Vile thugs, the lot of them.
Yet one more reason why people and businesses are abandoning Illinois in record numbers year after year.
Have a safe Memorial Day holiday everyone.
If you give a guy enough rope, he’ll hang himself….every time !
Kenneally has nothing to worry about….
Let me be the first to congratulate Patrick Kenneally as The New State’s Attorney of McHenry County…..
Memorial Day……brings back memories of collecting signatures…..
It is legal for someone running for office to lie.
When a CITIZEN expresses their OPINION, they get sued?
If you are not familiar with the Gawker case, you may want to read up on it.
I strongly suggest you read the entire article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/26/business/dealbook/peter-thiel-tech-billionaire-reveals-secret-war-with-gawker.html?_r=0
Jim Harrison, and others, have the financial backing to file a lawsuit while the average citizen has been taxed out of the ability to respond with the same financial resources.
We need to have financial penalties legislated to stop these attempts at infringement of the First amendment.
For the “more-educated-voter”: Who is the real bully here?
File a counter-suit against Kenneally for punitive damages.
Find a lawyer willing to work on contingency for this slam-dunk.
The courts need to make an example out of these tender little high self-esteem politicians who sue the public over any hint of free speech.
Kenneally’s LOADED, I’d go for all of it…
Oops, sorry, I obviously meant HARRISON should be counter-sued, NOT Kenneally…
this is what I get for blogging without any caffeine in my system…
“tender little high self-esteem politicians”= ARROGANCE!
Thank you Robert!
Apparently, JiM Harrison is writing the book “POLITICAL CAMPAIGNING FOR DUMMIES PART 2”
DO WE HAVE TO TEACH THESE DUMB POLITICIANS EVERYTHING?
GEEZ HARRISON, KEEP YOUR FIGHTS INTHE KARATE ROOM NOT THE COURTROOM.
SOME HOW YOU JUST KNOW ZINKE AND HARRISON ARE COLLABORATING.
THAT IS ONE DANGEROUS COMBINATION.
He who represents himself has a fool for a client.
I pity the poor fool.
Don’t waste your time on that fool!
lol
Met him once during the election for sheriff.
He was pretty rude I thought.
Will not be getting my vote.
currently getting a price on yard signs. l.o.l.
Oh Good!