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I now have the report of the investigating detective, Deputy Travis McDonald.
Remember what happened? On October 17 Deputy Smith arrested Steve Weber for stealing a campaign sign. Weber works for a sign company that was advertising the Dist. 1 campaign of incumbent Bob Bless. While Deputy Smith was transporting Weber to the McHenry County Jail, Smith got a phone call and was told to take Weber to investigations, where he would give a statement and be released.
Hello? On TV they would call this "The fix is in." Who pulled what strings???
Weber was not processed and booked in the Jail. Although he was arrested, he was apparently not finger-printed or photographed. He never had to post a bond. No record appears in McHenry County Circuit Court records for that arrest.
Det. McDonald's report says that while he was in roll call, Sgt. Cisner notified him that Dep. Smith was bringing Weber in. Dep. Smith took Weber to an investigations interview room and, when ordered, he uncuffed him.
Smith (remember, now; he is the suspect in a theft) told Det. McDonald that he didn't do anything wrong. (Gee, that's probably the first time McDonald ever heard a suspect say he was innocent. Right?) Weber told Det. McDonald that he was just being a good guy and was trying to find the person who lost the sign that he had found on the previous day and had put in his car. (I'll have to remember that "reason".)
Det. McDonald says that Steve "voluntarily provided a written statement". WAIT. Don't go away! And don't forget that Deputy Smith was told - while transporting Weber to the Jail - that Weber was going to give a voluntary written statement and then be released. The decision to release him was made before McDonald ever laid eyes on Weber!
Det. McDonald's report continues that Weber told him during the ride back to his car that "he had contacted his employer, who was going to make a phone call to the sheriff in an attempt to explain 'what was really going on'. The entire car ride to his vehicle, he proclaimed his innocence and told me that his employer's attorney, Mark Gummerson, had explained to the sheriff what had happened."
It takes about 30 minutes to drive from the 15.7 miles from 1075 W. Algonquin Rd., Algonquin, to the Jail. Weber is really lucky that he got hold of his boss, who got hold of Gummerson, who got hold of Nygren, who got hold of Cisner, who got hold of McDonald. Was there anyone else in the loop? Did I miss anyone? Did Nygren tell Zinke to "handle" it? There is still a chain-of-command at MCSD, isn't there?
Does this smell like a dead skunk to anyone else?
5 comments:
After-thought ... Why was the decision made to just take a statement and release Weber, before a detective ever talked to the VICTIM?
The next time you are arrested for something in McHenry County, just be sure your boss calls his well-connected attorney, who can call the sheriff (or the undersheriff, if the sheriff isn't around) and get the order given to release you before you ever get to the jail.
Don't ask rhetorical questions, people will answer them.
The decision to not talk to anyone else was because it was established that the owner of the property removed unautorized signs. I am sure once it was clear they were talking to the owner or his representative, there was nobody else they needed to talk to.
Oh, and another thing. You are not on the GUS P side of this. The GUS P side should be for the property owner's rights. I know this because I am a GUS P expert. I think the only reason he is on the other side on this one is that he hates the sheriff's department.
You missed it again, Ray. Steve was arrested for stealing the sign that he took the day before.
And, yes, I am for property owner's rights. The owner did the right thing by seeing that the sign was removed on the second day, after he got persuaded to write a note rescinding the permission he had previously given.
Now, to the "hates the sheriff's department" part. Somebody at MCSD made the decision to cut Steve loose before Deputy Smith ever got him to the jail. That happened because of the phone calls that occurred between the sign company owner, Mark Gummerson and the Sheriff (or his designeee, just in case the sheriff was unavailable).
It's higher than Dep. Smith, Det. McDonald or Sgt. Cisner.
I am sorry I was unclear, you love the Sheriff's Department, you hate everyone above, Lt.
But what about the Lt's and the Sgt's who do such a rotten job?
If there were real performance reviews, there would be a lot of empty chairs at MCSD.
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