Pyle court date yesterday

A "routine" court date (if there is such a thing) was scheduled yesterday for Greg Pyle, former (?) Sergeant of the McHenry County Sheriff's Department, who was arrested last January on ten counts of predatory criminal sexual assault (victim under 13). He was jailed (ever so briefly) in McHenry County Jail and released on bond.

Questions linger about his pay status and employment status. Sheriff Nygren placed Pyle on paid administrative leave. It must have been paid leave, because the sheriff has never taken Pyle disciplinary case to the Merit Commission, where matters involving discipline greater than 30 days are heard and become public record. No termination event has ever been heard by the Merit Commission. Even if Pyle resigns, the Merit Commission is to know about it.

Maybe that's something that the sheriff's EEO officer ought to be dragging across the street. Like, maybe at the December 13 regular monthly meeting of the Merit Commission.

Then Pyle was arrested by the Feds.

Nygren made some inane statement following Pyle's arrest by the Feds that he was going to "let" Pyle resign. I guess this is how you handle things when an employee who is in the in-crowd gets arrested. Supposedly, Pyle was receiving sick pay and vacation pay and, when that ran out, he was going to resign. The Feds, by the greatest of coincidences, just happened to arrest him on the day those benefits ran out.

In fifty years of working I had never once heard of an employee being able to claim sick and vacation pay while still employed. I thought you had to quit or retire to get that and, then, it was paid in a lump sum and subject to payroll taxes.

Pyle's current address is at the Boone County Jail in Belvidere (Ill.), because a Federal judge has refused to grant release on bond.

Pyle's next McHenry County appearance is scheduled for January 10, 2013, which is just one year after the local felony charges were filed against him.