MCSD - where's the broom?

I have written previously about the discretion that the Sheriff has, regarding discipline of deputies and when that discipline does (or does not) become public record. Here's another one.

Rumor has it that a deputy has been suspended for 29 days. Maybe for "another" 29 days, as one person told me. The comment was that he got caught "red-handed" and is in trouble "all the time".

True? False?

We'll never know, because he got a 29-day suspension. What is significant about the 29-day mark?

If it had been a 30-day suspension, then Sheriff Nygren would have had to take the disciplinary case to the Merit Commission, where five friends sit in judgement of anyone hauled before them. The MCSD Merit Commission is a "public body", meaning that its meeting are governed by the Illinois Open Meetings Act and that its proceedings are subject to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. By staying short of the 30-day threshold, the case remains (mostly) out-of-sight and definitely out of public view.

So, in what misdeeds did that deputy engage? I'm not going to name him, because he is not the only one to "enjoy" (if that is the right word) 29 days off without pay, instead of getting fired.

After a big drinking birthday party at the Red Mill in Woodstock (under its former management) (in 2007, I think it was), a number of deputies, including those of rank above Deputy, got slapped with disciplines just short of the Merit Commission threshold. Actions that should have been classified as criminal and so charged were, instead, swept under the rug and handled "administratively".

Now, you know who has been fired - Seipler (should have gotten 3 days off); Schlenkert (should have been taken back as soon as medically approved for duty); Milliman (didn't even get the required hearing); Anderson (well, okay; he deserved it).

But the way it works is, if you are on the A-Team, you accept a 29-day discipline and keep your job. You keep your mouth shut and feel lucky that you didn't get fired.

What's the rest of the story here?