FEN sues Nygren, MCSD

FirstElectricNewspaper.com (FEN) has filed a lawsuit against Sheriff Keith Nygren and the McHenry County Sheriff's Department (MCSD) over Nygren's refusal to respond to a FOIA request.

Pete Gonigam, publisher of FEN, previously filed a FOIA request to get the investigative report by the Sheriff's Office into Undersheriff Andy Zinke's outing of the DEA investigation of drugs headed for RITA Corp. in Cyrstal Lake. MCSD denied the FOIA request. That's the one in which Nygren said there was no wrongdoing by Zinke.

Gonigam appealed the denial to the Public Access Bureau (PAB) of the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, and that Office told Nygren to comply and provide the response.

Unfortunately, a directive from the PAB doesn't have any teeth, and it appears that Nygren & Gang just put their hands over their eyes and over their ears and went on about business as usual (used loosely, of course).

Gonigam's recourse is the McHenry County Circuit Court, and yesterday he filed his case. Case No. 13MR000309 can be inspected at the McHenry County Government Center.

A date to hear a motion is set for July 10, 9:00AM, in Judge Meyer's courtroom, 201. The next date after that is September 17, 9:00AM, same judge, same place.

The way things go in McHenry County, Nygren will be out of office by the time this case gets resolved. Thirty-day-period after 30-day-period will come and go; there will be delaying tactics designed to drive up Gonigam's costs. Your tax dollars will be hard at work to keep this report, if there even is a report, out-of-sight.

What could happen, of course, is that Judge Meyer could aside one hour on Friday and tell both sides, "You each get 20 minutes, and I get 20 minutes. And then the Sheriff's office will comply, or Sheriff Nygren goes to jail."

Read the whole story on FirstElectricNewspaper.com