Who investigated Novak's actions?

You'll want to read Cal Skinner's McHenry County Blog article today about the Chicago Tribune article today about McHenry County Sheriff's Department's former Detective Jason Novak. Okay, confused enough?

I had read the Tribune's article earlier but, as I re-read it on the McHenry County Blog, I got to thinking about what agency should have investigated Novak's activities in regard to the confidential informant.

What caught my eye in the Tribune article?

(McHenry County Assistant State's Attorney Michael) "Combs, chief of the criminal division, argued against letting the defense see Novak's personnel file or the results of the internal investigation of the matter, saying they were irrelevant to the charges against the defendant."

How about "...the results of the internal investigation of the matter..."?

First, you'd have to know whether the "internal investigation" was credible in the first place? What kind of internal investigation would result in a ten-day suspension for something like this? And only a transfer from narcotics to patrol?

If the public can ever get a look at the "internal investigation", it will quickly form an opinion about how exhaustive the investigation was.

In the September 14 edition of the Northwest Herald Sheriff Nygren said, "We will deal with transgressions when they come to our attention." Transgressions? Transgressions?

Nygren further said, "It would have been easy to cut the guy some slack, but we didn't do that here."

The public will get a chance to agree or disagree, if we can get at the disciplinary file.

I suspect many already believe that "Slick", as the C.I. called him, got a lot of slack. So much slack, in fact, that he still has his job.

Sheriff "Seldom Seen" said that Slick's actions were a violation of the department's rules and regulations. Okay - What rules? What regulations? How many did he violate? Did he get one day off for each violation?

Look at Nygren's record for firing deputies. If you blow the whistle on racial profiling, you get fired. If you blow the whistle on murder-for-hire, illegal trafficking, and other serious crimes, you get fired. If you can't run fast enough, you get fired.

If you have sex with a C.I. when you are a narcotics detective, you get ten days off.

Why wasn't the internal investigation handled by the Illinois State Police?