Court asked to hold Nygren in Contempt

In a filing with the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Western Division (in Rockford (Ill.)) Zane Seipler's attorney has asked the Court to hold McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren and MCSD Lt. John Miller in contempt of court for releasing copies of a confidential, protected deposition to non-parties of the case.

The court document filed by Attorney Blake Horwitz reads, in part, "Defendant Nygren invited non-party Jose Rivera to review the transcript (Def Resp., Exhibit G, Nygren Affidavit, para. 5-6) and Zinke gave the transcript to Rivera at Mr. Nygren's request. (Zinke, Id., para 5-6)". Rivera is a Crystal Lake (Ill.) businessowner and friend of Sheriff Nygren.

According to the filing, "The three non-parties who received a copy of the transcript are Under Sheriff Zinke, Sgt. Ellis and Jose Rivera."

Horwitz is also attempting to obtain an affidavit from Jose Rivera as to whom he may have given a copy of Milliman's deposition. In other words, how did the Northwest Herald end up with a copy of it?

The document states that Lt. Miller gave a copy of the deposition to non-party Sgt. Ellis.

The document also refers to data, in the form of 5,239 new tickets containing descriptions of drivers' race, that were not provided by the Sheriff's Department until January 2011. These data were provided last month, rather than with original responses in 2010. A second investigation into racial profiling is now underway at the McHenry County Sheriff's Department, where Sheriff Nygren said last year there was no evidence of racial profiling.

A hearing is scheduled in Magistrate Judge P. Michael Mahoney's courtroom in the United States District Court in Rockford for Wednesday, February 16, at 2:00PM.