Local charges - "waste of time"

Yesterday two cases against Timothy S. Smith were dropped in McHenry County Court. Smith is accused of murdering Kurt Milliman, 48, at the end of May (this year). That charge is first-degree murder.

The charges dropped stem from two separate incidents in Woodstock last year. In May 2010 Smith was charged by Woodstock Police with providing a fictitious name when he told an officer that his name was "Tim Bob". In October 2010 he alleged pushed Dan Hart, owner of D.C. Cobbs on Main Street, just off the Woodstock Square.

At a recent hearing related to the murder charge, Judge Condon announced that he had had his court clerk search for any other charges, and she had found these two. Judge Condon said he was going to have them pulled into his court, to be addressed with the murder charge. I predicted in an article last month that these charges would be dropped as part of a plea deal or conviction.

According to this morning's Northwest Herald article, "McHenry County Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Combs told Judge Joseph Condon that the misdemeanor charges were being dropped because Smith is in custody on a homicide.

“'They can be reinstated at any time,' Combs said. 'This was a waste of everybody’s time and energy.'”

Waste of everybody's time? Waste of everybody's energy?

Just who is "everybody"?

The Woodstock Police officers who were involved in May and October of last year? Dan Hart? On behalf of Kurt Milliman?

At the very least, it was a poor choice of words by Assistant State's Attorney Combs. Was that his professional opinion or his personal opinion? A better statement would have been, "At this time and in view of the pending first-degree murder charge against Timothy Smith, the State has decided not to pursue those charges. They were dismissed without prejudice, which means we can re-file them in the future."

Or will the murder charge drag for years in court and give Smith an "out" on those charges because of speedy trial or statute of limitation problems on those misdemeanor charges?

The State needs to explain to the public why Kimberly Smith hasn't been charged as an accessory or accomplice. At the inquest for Kurt Milliman, MCSD Detective Mike Quick testified that Timothy Smith and Kimberly Smith "panicked" and talked about what to do with Kurt's body.

At that point, Kurt had been shot but was still alive. How much time passed before Timothy called 9-1-1? During that time Kurt was on the floor of the Smith home and bleeding. Smith apparently did not tell the 9-1-1 operator that he had shot Kurt or that there was an injured man in the home, because Woodstock Fire Rescue was not called before deputies arrived.

So isn't there a conspiracy between Timothy and Kimberly to conceal what they thought was a death? Couldn't both be charged with failing to render aid to an injured person? Why isn't Kimberly being charged with more serious crimes?

I certainly hope that the investigations report at MCSD is in better shape than Det. Quick's oral testimony at the inquest. "Discombobulated" doesn't begin to describe his oral testimony, and he couldn't even tell the time of his notification correctly. Will they change that at MCSD? The court reporter for the inquest will certainly report accurately what he said about the notification time. (There is no such time at 2550 (or 2555) hours.)