Friday, August 10, 2012

Sheriff: deputies "did nothing wrong"

Give me a break!

"Our people did the right thing." 
Sheriff Keith Nygren is quoted in this morning's Northwest Herald - Page B1) as saying "Our officers did nothing wrong." His statement was in the article about the $300,000 settlement paid to a couple who were roughed up by his deputies.

McHenry County just settled a lawsuit with Mr. and Mrs. Pavlin for $300,000.

Right, Keith. McHenry County just forked over $300,000 because your people did the right thing.

Hello? Has he paid any attention at all to the court cases of Jerome and Carla Pavlin against the McHenry County Sheriff's Dept., seven deputies and himself? (Photo credit (left), McHenry County Blog - Thanks!)

Keith Nygren has become the poster child for recall of Illinois elected officials.

Nygren is also quoted as saying, "Our people did the right thing, and I support them 100 percent." That's good, Keith. That's why the County settled for $300,000. Because Deputies Bruketta, Mandernack, Vogel, C. Jones, Lambert, Pyle and Shepherd did nothing wrong.
How about the illegal entry of the home? (A judge ruled on that one.)

How about excessive force?

One of your deputies, Keith, wrote in his report that he "assisted" Mr. Pavlin to the floor with an arm bar. "Assisted"? Anybody know what an "arm bar" is? As you watch the training video below, imagine a large male deputy grabbing an 80-year-old man who weighs about 150 lbs. Imagine the deputy "assisting" a slender senior citizen suddenly down onto a hardwood floor. Mrs. Pavlin told me the deputy slammed her husband to the floor.


Your officers "did nothing wrong", Keith?

Or how about refusing to leave the house after the wanted person was in custody and removed from the house? What right had the other deputies to stay in the house? Why did they want to search (illegally) the house of the parents of the person in custody, who was already in the patrol car?

Your officers "did nothing wrong", Keith?

Why would the Pavlins call the Crystal Lake Police Department for help and protection from your deputies, Keith? And why didn't Crystal Lake respond to a call for help, even though it was outside their jurisdiction?

And, Keith, why didn't you investigate the crimes committed by your deputies and charge them? 

McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren says he supports these guys "100%". Doesn't this worry anyone else?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

It pains me to use the term "to be fair" here....but it was the insurance company that settled, not the county.

Gus said...

MBlue, do you think the decision is really entirely in the hands of the risk management organization?

If the County really wants to manage risks, then it had better familiarize itself with what is really going on at the Sheriff's Department. And when the County employees (deputies or otherwise) are wrong, the "risk management" company had better hot-foot it to the injured party(ies) and make a deal.

Instead, Keith stands up tall, puffs out his chest and says that his boys didn't do anything wrong.

Can't wait to find out how much the premium or expense for the risk management firm will go up.

In this case it was obvious from Day One that the deputies were wrong.

Anonymous said...

I'm not disputing the facts, past court decisions, or defending MCSD in any way.. Just merely making a point. From my experience, once an insurer takes over the case the goal is to settle regardless of the merits (or lack thereof). I don't think the county had any input in this decision, and if they had been on the ball, this case would never have made it to a courtroom in the first place.

Curious1 said...

Doesn't if feel just a bit creepy taking the position that police should be nicer to wife beaters and those who protect and enable them? I mean doesn't that worry anyone else?

Gus said...

I recall reading a few years about a child's death in Florida, when the wrong chemical bottles were connected to air lines for anesthetics in surgery. The hospital staff quickly admitted its error and sat down with the child's family and attorney, and they settled the claim at the family dining room table in one meeting.

Could have happened in this case, if County executive management had stepped in and pushed the wrongdoers aside.

Will improvements be made at the Sheriff's Department?

Not so long as Number 1 stands up for the wrongdoers!!!

Gus said...

Curious1, what in the world are you talking about?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps if the Pavlins weren't harboring a criminal in the first place, this all wouldnt have happend and escalated.
It seems allot lately that crime "does" pay. DOH.

Gus said...

TMB, the Pavlins weren't "harboring" a criminal. Their son was visiting. Think there is a difference?

What if the son didn't even know there was a warrant out for him? I'll bet many (not all) warrants could be handled by a polite deputy on the phone.

If I received a call from a deputy that there was a warrant out on me, I'd call my lawyer, take the pizza out of the oven, turn out the lights, and get a ride over to the Sheriff's office.

Anonymous said...

Sorry... but ya got my bp up on this one buddy>>> "visiting"??? The son was a thug.
Hmmm lets look at "visiting" from another angle>>> the Colorado Batman shooter was just "visiting" the theatre.... the Oak Creek thug was just "visiting" the Sikh Temple... the Arizona whackjob was just "visiting" the shopping center...
Come on... I know you try your best at laying out the facts (sometimes as YOU see them), but you're too slanted on this one.
Its over with at $300k... spit in the bucket as far as payouts are concerned. Doh.

Gus said...

TMB, stop by and I'll share my bp Rx with you. No, wait; can't do that...

I've never met the Pavlin son. I have met Mr. and Mrs. Pavlin more than once, and I have no reason to think their son is a thug.

And there certainly is no reason to compare him with the Aurora shooter or the Oak Creek shooter.

I AM slanted on this one. I know more about some of the deputies who were at the Pavlin house.

Anonymous said...

If I was the Pavlin's, I too would be upset over officers breaking a door to get into my house... but to get at a wanted criminal. They obviously sided with their son and wanted to defend him. I had thought I read from you a long while back that the son had a "record", tho not anything felonious.
Anyway, I took my own meds and washed'em down with some C45 and I'm calm now! DOH!!!

Gus said...

The sequence of the attempted service of the warrant is important. A Federal Court determined that the deputies wrongfully entered the house. They had an arrest warrant, not a search warrant. They needed to catch the son outside, not bust into the house to grab him.

Mr. and Mrs. Pavlin were not trying to defend their son. He was already in custody and outside the house, and then the Pavlins ordered the deputies out. At that point the deputies had no right to be in the house. And it went downhill from there.

Thus, the $300,000 settlement. The deputies were wrong. Nygren doesn't want to admit it, but the world knows the deputies were wrong.

Without Nygren's acknowledgement of wrongdoing by his deputies, there is little reason to believe anything will change at MCSD.

Expect more similar actions, more lawsuits and more settlements, until McHenry County can get a new sheriff.

DColley said...

$300k isn't that large of a price for civil rights violations. The department got off very easy on this one.