Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Sheriff Nygren sued AGAIN

Answer to "A Simple Question", asked last week in this blog.

Sheriff Keith Nygren, Undersheriff Andy Zinke, Cmdr. John L. Miller, Bryan Krause, Sgt. Steven Schmitt, Lt. Ken Nielson, and the County of McHenry are the named Defendants in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Rockford by former Deputy Scott Milliman.

Milliman was a deputy in good standing at the McHenry County Sheriff's Department, until he gave a deposition in November in the lawsuit for Zane Seipler against Sheriff Nygren et al. in his wrongful termination lawsuit, also in the same court. Have you ever been deposed? The person giving the deposition is sworn in; i.e., he is expected to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So, if that truth is "x" and if you are asked a question about "x", then you tell the truth.

The Northwest Herald carried a story late today about the lawsuit, but it didn't provide all the allegations made by Milliman in the lawsuit. Cal Skinner is writing an article and will publish a copy of the lawsuit. See www.mchenrycountyblog.com and the article for a link to the copy of the filing.

In that deposition Milliman gave a sworn statement pertaining to excessive force being used by deputies; retaliation against Milliman and others for reporting unlawful conduct by other deputies; allegations that Nygren was directly involved in ticket-fixing; that Nygren accepted bribes intended to influence his actions as Sheriff; Nygren's "involvement in a scheme to fraudulently procure SBA loans for individuals and share in the proceeds of the loans knowing that the loans were going to default"; Milliman's cooperation with the FBI about corruption in McHenry County; racial profiling by deputies; and general corruption within the Sheriff's Office.

I say that it's too bad that our county's daily newspaper didn't give readers the whole story.

Milliman was placed on administrative leave in November and on December 23, 2010, Miller stripped Milliman of his badge and Department ID.

Milliman was ordered by the sheriff to undergo psychological testing, and then MCSD's Cmdr. Miller is alleged to have contacted the psychologist to provide false, negative information about Milliman to influence the outcome of the testing. I didn't see this in the Northwest Herald article, either!

The lawsuit alleges that Nygren and Miller provided the psychologist with a copy of his November deposition in the Seipler lawsuit.

Milliman's lawsuit contains several Counts -
I. - Freedom of Speech
II. - Freedom of Association
III. - Civil Conspiracy - State Law Claim
IV. - 745 ILCS 10.9-102 State Law Claim

Trial by jury has been requested. Milliman is represented by Thomas C. Crooks, Esq., of Chicago. The Federal Case Number is 3:11-cv-50361, which also was omitted from the Northwest Herald article.

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