Thursday, February 26, 2009

NWH carries Schlenkert lawsuit news

The Northwest Herald carried an article about fired Deputy Robert Schlenkert's lawsuit against the McHenry County Sheriff's Department on Tuesday, February 23, the day after it was filed.

Reader comments seem to me to be more local.

Check it out here: www.nwherald.com/articles/2009/02/24/r_l1blu6yreyopjh8eaqsuq/

Somehow, I kind of wonder about two of the UserIDs in use by those who are commenting. Pretty clever, though. "keithN" and "geneL" - probably not the Keith N. and Gene L. at the top of the heap at the sheriff's department.

The comments to that article are worth reading.

The Merit Commission either originally fired Deputy Schlenkert (although it really didn't, because it never was his employer) or supported his firing by the Sheriff. Go to the County's website, then to the Sheriff's webpages, and look up the Purpose of the Merit Commission. Did it give Schlenker a fair hearing and a fair decision?

I can't help wondering whether, had the McHenry County Sheriff's Department Merit Commission members been independently selected and appointed by the County Board, rather than hand-picked and appointed by the Sheriff, it might have made a totally different decision in Deputy Schlenkert's case.

I myself believe that it would have decided in Schlenkert's favor. But had it done so, would the Sheriff have filed suit in McHenry County to duke it out with the Commission of his own Department, thus still wasting taxpayer dollars? And would such a lawsuit have still been deemed "arbitrary and unreasonable" by the judge?

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