Grow house not in Woodstock

This morning's Page 1 article in the Northwest Herald reported on a "three-county pot-growing scheme" and identified grow houses in Woodstock, McHenry and Johnsburg that were allegedly run by two men from Palatine who were arrested last week.

The first problem with the story is that the grow house at 10315 Arabian Trail is not in Woodstock; it is in McHenry County. It has a Woodstock mailing address (i.e., is served by the Woodstock Post Office), but it is not within the city limits of Woodstock. This location is north of the intersection of Route 120 and Charles Road and on the west side of Greenwood Road. It's well out of Woodstock.

Woodstock catches enough erroneous crime reporting because the courthouse and sheriff's department are located in Woodstock. Many story lines in the Northwest Herald carry Woodstock as the location, because the person quoted in the story (e.g., a sheriff's department spokesperson) is in Woodstock.

But story content should be clear on the jurisdiction. In this case the location of the grow house is in the jurisdiction of the McHenry County Sheriff's Department.

A second grow house, being in McHenry, is described in the story. In the continuation of the article on Page 15A, the reporter informs readers that charges against Gordon Schwanter, 26, of unlawful possession with intent to deliver were dropped. Schwanter was described as the sole person on the lease of the property at 6712 Homestead Drive, McHenry, which is located north of Bull Valley Road and between Draper and Curran Roads.

Now, it may be that Schwanter sublet the house and was not involved in the grow operation. If so, that should be disclosed. Otherwise, what are the reasons for dropping these charges?

If Schwanter was arrested in January and the men from whom he leased the house were arrested last week, did he provide information that aided in their arrests? But didn't he have several court dates himself between January and November? How did it happen that charges against him were dropped? Were they dropped because of cooperation or for lack of evidence against him?

Is there any connection between these grow houses search in January and the revelation last week that 76% of the search warrants issued by McHenry County Court judges are sealed? Was the search warrants for that house sealed?

The Northwest Herald is apparently still experiencing problems with its website search engine, because a search for "Schwanter" reveals no stories, not even this morning's article. Previous reporting of Schwanter's arrest after the grow house was discovered in January either did not occur or cannot be found on the Northwest Herald website without a useful search engine.