O'Dell death investigation report delayed

Today I learned that the investigative report by the McHenry County Sheriff's Department into the April 26th death of Tommy O'Dell is still "open". O'Dell died while in custody at the McHenry County Jail and being held in a cell in the booking area.

Why does this interest me?

When I read the investigation report into Thomas Puchmelter's February death in the Jail before the inquest for him, I found many discrepancies. The report was very complete for the events after he was found in his cell, but it failed to address numerous omissions by the evening jail staff that, in my opinion, might have prevented his death, had the evening jailers conveyed the information to the night-shift jailers. The report was completed in four days.

It has been six weeks since O'Dell's death. Two FOIA requests have been denied for the reason that the investigation is still open.

The Coroner's Inquest is scheduled for June 23rd at 1:00PM. It's hard to believe that the Coroner's Office would schedule the inquest without knowing that the investigation had been completed. A letter to me, dated June 8, informed me of the date of the inquest.

I believe that the report was done by that date.

However, if the Detective Division tells the FOIA officer that the investigation is still open and the report has not been finished, then she can truthfully tell me that the investigation is still open. And perhaps they are just waiting for toxicology reports. But how do they know those reports will arrive before the inquest?

I've been told that death investigations are closed after the Coroner’s inquest, and the report will be available some time after that. That certainly eliminates any possibility of raising questions or issues before or at the inquest. Will it reduce the time that a Deputy Coroner has to carefully examine the report and formulate questions for the investigating deputy?

Will the Deputy Coroner ask only questions that can be answered by answers read directly from the investigator's report? And will the investigator's boss be sitting in the room, to make sure the investigator doesn't stray from the written report?

I inquired about any communications between the Sheriff's Department and the Coroner's Office as to the status of the death investigation and the availability of the report. I was told that there are no letters, memoranda, file notes, or messages from the Sheriff’s Department to the Coroner’s Office.

Maybe they used the telephone, instead of email, to say something like, "Trust us. The report will be in your office before the inquest." Or maybe the Detective Division transmitted a message psychically to the Coroner's Office, so that no paper trail would exist. Is the report sitting on the secretary's desk, just waiting for the date to be penned in?

Is it the Coroner's job to look for errors, if any, made by the Jail staff that might have contributed to O'Dell's death?

Maybe I should get a badge made, engraved with the words "Conspiracy Theorist". That's the label hung on me by a Sheriff's Department commander on April 15, while I was in the Government Center. Should I wear the badge proudly, or was I slandered?

Signed, Gus Philpott, C.T.