From McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally:
McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office and Local Law Enforcement Collaborate to Combat Opioid Crisis, Achieving Significant Reduction in Overdose Deaths
In deep concern for the dire implications of the distressing opioid crisis, the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office took action in 2017, creating a drug induced homicide prosecution unit.
This unit collaborates with law enforcement to investigate every tragic overdose fatality in McHenry County, to identify and charge the source of the illicit drugs.
With the hard work of this remarkable drug prosecution unit, McHenry County has seen a nearly 50% reduction in overdose deaths between the years 2017 and 2022. [Emphasis added.]
Since then, the numbers have stayed steady at a rate lower than neighboring counties.
The number of overdoses has increased in Lake, DeKalb, Cook, and Kane counties; with Kane county’s overdose rate nearly doubling within that same timeframe.
Since mid-2017, the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office has charged eighty-one defendants with drug induced homicide.
While many charges remain pending at this time, suppliers of deadly drugs have thus far been sentenced to a total of nearly three hundred years in the Department of Corrections.
Other than charging drug induced homicides, the unit also gathers intel about known drug dealers and drug use trends and shares that information with law enforcement agencies around McHenry County.
This collaborative effort has resulted in the arrests of many individuals for not only just overdose related deaths but also general drug dealing as well.
However, as the opioid crisis continues to evolve, so too does the unit’s mission.
In late 2022 and into 2023, the drug prosecution unit observed that heroin laced with fentanyl had significantly declined as a cause of death in McHenry County, but crack and powder cocaine laced with fentanyl, as well as pure fentanyl being sold under the appearance of different substances, had taken hold as a leading cause of overdose deaths.
Seven people died of fentanyl overdoses in McHenry County between February 22, 2023, and March 21, 2023; with the majority succumbing to the deadly combination of cocaine laced with fentanyl. [Emphasis added.]
According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), because of fentanyl’s potency and low cost, drug dealers have been mixing fentanyl along with these other drugs.
Additionally, fentanyl being distributed in bulk will typically be mixed with other substances in order to increase volume to increase profits.
In response to this, the drug unit immediately notified law enforcement officers within the county of the discovered trends.
Officers were encouraged to target persons selling cocaine in an effort to curb the effects that the cocaine market was having on the community.
The McHenry County Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force in particular, took control of the situation, arresting numerous cocaine dealers throughout the county.
David Stodolny, for example, who was selling cocaine laced with fentanyl out of the Woodstock Super 8 Motel, has been recently sentenced to seven years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Prosecutions remain pending against other persons arrested this spring.
Between March 22, 2023, and the end of April, there were no confirmed fentanyl related deaths in the county. However, the toxicological analysis from one suspicious death during that timeframe remains outstanding. [Emphasis added.]
The State’s Attorney’s Office is confident that this drastic decrease in fentanyl related deaths was a result of the swift response of local law enforcement.
The State’s Attorney’s Office extends its heartfelt congratulations and wholeheartedly commends the unwavering dedication and tireless efforts of our local police departments.
Their exceptional commitment to upholding the law and safeguarding our community has undeniably made McHenry County a safer place for all its residents.
Working the small crowd as his alias ‘Jack N. Awlf’.
Same political hacks going to the same events.
They’re just shuffling the money back and forth.
I say we TAX PACs for each political contribution – at the SAME rate they hit us with property taxes.
We can “ASSESS the Value” of their PAC and hit that PAC with Propety Tax Rates.
Grab your pitch forks, folks.
Another case of politicians causing problems to keep big government rolling. What’s coming over the border again? It’s not just illegals.
Kenneally demonstrating to this Joe Brandon sized crowd his mastery of the game ‘Switch’. The guy in he white shirt looks amazed watching this Grandmaster of the Sphincter Arts. Gripping and two thumbs up IMO.
Thank you Pat for your commitment to our county and this crisis.
It’s great to see someone is continuing to push for reduction and unity to end this crisis for so many families.
You have been a great law enforcement leader and prosecutor on many issues, and you don’t buckle under political pressure like so many others elected.
Keep it up, we need your strong principled leadership in this county.
This idiot thought that the ‘mens rea’ was the second door on the right at the Court House. He’s no leader and turnover is high showing no confidence in this dipshit’s leadership IMO.
Maybe he should order a surprise full spectrum drug test if his staff. They all can’t be consuming 100-200 poppy seed bagels a day!