ILSAAP - what is it?

ILSAAP is the Office of the Illinois State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor. This has been in local news (sort of), because Judge Gordon Graham appointed Attorney (and former Judge) Henry Tonigan as Special Prosecutor to go after Lou Bianchi.

IlSAAP might have been available (unless there was a conflict of interest in using it) and the cost to McHenry County taxpayers would probably have been a great deal less than the $200,000+ in billings already received from Tonigan, and who knows how much more for the last four months of 2010.

How does ILSAAP work? From its website at http://www.ilsaap.org/ comes the following:

"The Special Prosecution Unit of the Agency consists of five experienced trial attorneys who assist in prosecuting criminal cases when requested to do so by and at the direction of the State's Attorney and solely prosecute criminal cases when duly appointed by a court having jurisdiction. The Administrator of the Unit is Charles R. Zalar, former State's Attorney of Grundy County. The other prosecutors are also former State's Attorneys. They are: Edwin Parkinson (Morgan County), Michael Vujovich (Assistant State's Attorney - Sangamon County), David Rands (Richland County), and Charles Colburn (Morgan County).

"If a conflict of interest arises in a State's Attorneys office, and the State's Attorney wants an independent, detached review and prosecution by an outside person, or if special assistance is needed due to the complexity of a case, the Agency makes the services of the Special Prosecution Unit available.

"The Unit has been particularly active in downstate Illinois, where personnel and financial resources are more limited than in the more populous counties. Trial assistance has been provided in numerous murder cases, cases dealing with official misconduct of public officials, as well as numerous other criminal and civil matters when the State's Attorney was unable to prosecute. During FY08, the Unit provided assistance to State's Attorneys in 358 cases in 69 counties.

"The State's Attorneys have found the services of the Unit to be particularly helpful to them. Frequently, when the Unit is asked to assist, the cases involve complex issues and trial experience is a absolute necessity. The five prosecutors have over 115 years of combined prosecutorial experience."

I guess they have really been busy, because they haven't updated their website to reveal how many cases were handled in FY09 or in Fiscal Year 2010 to-date.

Now, go back and re-read "If a conflict of interest arises in a State's Attorneys office, and the State's Attorney wants an independent, detached review and prosecution by an outside person, or if special assistance is needed due to the complexity of a case, the Agency makes the services of the Special Prosecution Unit available."

If and if and if.... isn't this exactly what we have here in McHenry County? A conflict of interest certainly arises in the McHenry County State's Attorney's office. How could we expect it to investigate - impartially - its own client, the Sheriff of the County.

And special assistance needed? of course. This case would be very complex.

Ah, but now the third "if". IF the State's Attorney wanted an independent, detached view and prosecution by an outside person." Why would an attorney want an independent, detached view and prosecution of his own client???

Are the if's all or nothing? Are two out of three good enough for The People? Yes!