February 2 Trial Date

On February 2 a jury trial may be set to get underway in McHenry County. Local county newspapers never printed information about the arrests of an elderly couple in March, so I can only assume they never learned of the arrests from the McHenry County Sheriff's Department.

In March 2008 McHenry County deputies holding an arrest warrant for a man in a cold domestic dispute went to the house of the wanted man's parents and alleged broke the glass at the front door and barged into the house.

In some places this would be called a No-Knock Warrant. Police execute such warrants when they have been able to persuade a judge that it's necessary to prevent evidence from being destroyed when the cops knock on the door. This was not the case. It is very difficult for law enforcement to get a no-knock warrant.

I got a tip about this case and was able to find the neighborhood, located in McHenry County just outside Crystal Lake's east city limit. The first time by the location, I was on my motorcycle. Seeing that it was a neighborhood of $600,000 houses, I opted to delay knocking on doors (and finding police surrounding me with drawn guns and hearing SWAT roaring toward me in its tank) and returned another day in my car.

By that time, thanks to a little super-sleuthing on my own, I had uncovered the actual address of the house, not just the neighborhood. When I knocked on the door and introduced myself, the owner welcomed me right in.

I explained the reason for my visit and that I had heard that deputies had broken into his house, and that there had been arrests. When he began to tell me what happened, I asked if he had an attorney and suggested that, before we talked, he might want to check with his attorney. What I did learn was that this man's wife, in her late 70s, was injured after the deputies broke in! His attorney requested that he not talk with me until the case is resolved, and I respect that advice.

How is it that deputies can break into a house, effect more arrests than are listed in the arrest warrant, and then the newspapers don't find out about it? How much "news" like this is managed in McHenry County?

A jury trial has been requested, and it has been on the calendar for February 2. Will the trial begin that day?

The deputies, experienced and new, are to be expected to testify truthfully about the execution of that warrant and also in their actions once they had left the scene.

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.