A good question was directed to me last week. "Just what does it take to prompt an internal investigation at the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department?"
The person posing the question asked why, when the Sheriff must have learned that a senior County resident had been injured and hospitalized as the result of an arrest warrant (not for her) in March 2008, he didn’t immediately launch an internal investigation.
You may recall that the newspapers carried no information about the injury or arrests of that couple. And the couple hasn't taken their case to the press, on the advice of their attorney. But their August 17 trial date is seventeen (17!!!) months after their arrests! There should be a royal battle in the courtroom, and their attorney should tear into the deputies who were there and rip their stories and reports to shreds.
When the deputies are separated at the beginning of the trial and do not get to hear what each other says on the stand, will their stories be consistent? Or, under careful and intense questioning, will the cracks begin to appear? Each will be sworn to testify truthfully. Will each do so?
If they know that their reports just don't match what happened, will one (or more) of them decide that telling the truth on the stand is much more in his interest than having to admit that his report wasn't accurate. How will they be certain that one of them doesn't 'fess up?
An forensics expert would be able to determine whether all the reports were written so as to agree with one another, like meshing gears of a clock. That was certainly the situation in a prior serious case. When I read the dozen or so reports by the several officers who were at that scene, I knew right away that something was wrong with the reports. There was just no way that five officers would have written their reports in so similar a manner of wording, phrasing, structure.
If the Sheriff had found that crimes against this couple had been committed, would he have charged some of those deputies?
Were there use-of-force issues that night?
Were there serious supervision problems at the scene?
Were there report-writing problems after that incident?
Were training problems identified?
Some departments separate deputies and require them to write their reports independently. Other departments put all the deputies in the same room to write their reports. (Kind of reminds me of a group term paper in high school.)
How many incidents have there been with the same group of deputies who were at that house in March 2008? Is anyone looking into the methods being used by some or all of that group?
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A misdemeanor warrant for domestic battery is a common warrant. It shouldn't require 5 deputies. Any deputy that can't talk a situation down with two senior citizens doesn't have the mental capacity to be a police office. These seniors were hurt for one reason, the deputies involved are morons! I guess all the UFC enthusiasm in the department is warping the deputies minds. Instead of fighting in Embry's basement they should try some verbal judo. That way a large segment of Nygrens voting block doesn't end up with artificial hips and kidney failure. Let's not forget that OC spray can permanently damage the soft tisssues of the eye. I wonder how many millions this civil suit will be.
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