Nygren not to be probed, says Bianchi

The request for a Special Prosecutor to investigate sitting Sheriff Keith Nygren of the McHenry County Sheriff's Department is still alive. Yesterday the case (10MR000011) was continued yet one more time.

You can read something (not everything) about it at www.nwherald.com/2011/03/03/bianchi-no-plan-to-probe-nygren/as4b1a1/  Hurry, though; you'll have one week to read it online. After that, the Northwest Herald will ask you to pay to read it. The headline is "Bianchi: No plan to probe Nygren".

OK, you can stop laughing. Now! Stop laughing!

If you wish to read the archived article and have a Woodstock Public Library card, use it to read the article without paying. Go to http://infoweb.newsbank.com/signin/WoodstockPublic, enter your library card number, select Northwest Herald, and start your search.

Judge Meyer refuses to kill off the attempts to investigate Nygren. According to today's Northwest Herald article, "However, Meyer said he was troubled by an affidavit signed by Horwitz indicating that Horwitz and Bianchi had discussed the “clear policy” of Bianchi’s office that it would not prosecute or investigate the sheriff at any time.

"Meyer said that might be inconsistent with what previously was argued before him when Assistant State’s Attorney Don Leist said the office chose not to investigate Nygren but there was no legal impediment stopping them. "

I don't know what is so hard for "people" to see. How could the McHenry County State's Attorney possibly investigate ("probe") Nygren without its being a conflict-of-interest. The SAO is the sheriff's attorney; well, the legal counsel for the Sheriff's Department. It would be investigating its own client.

Next time up to bat? April 1st. No foolin'. Let's hope on that date that arguments by Blake Horwitz, attorney for Zane Seipler, are clear and convincing to Judge Meyer and that he will appoint a Special Prosecutor.

The Northwest Herald understates the allegations against Nygren. It's not just about mis-using the emblem of the Sheriff's Office. Nygren uses a look-alike, seven-point star, including the name of the Department and the Seal of the State of Illinois, on his campaign literature, on Department vehicles and within the Sheriff's Department. The official badge has five points.

A Special Prosecutor ought to also investigate why the Sheriff didn't investigate and charge one of his own employees, who came into possession of the flash drive containing all the documents that Amy Dalby carried out of the State's Attorney's office. Why didn't that employee immediately turn it in as evidence? Instead, he told a State Police investigate that it was in his safe deposit box. Somehow, the flash drive got lost between his safe deposit box and the hands of an Illinois State Police investigator.

An investigator who, by the way, never should have so generously allowed that employee time to retrieve the flash drive on his own. The investigator should have escorted MCSD employee Michael Cooper to his safe deposit box on the spot!