MCSD has Legal Affairs Officer - since when?

I wonder if McHenry County voters realize that the McHenry County Sheriff's Department (MCSD) now has its own Legal Affairs Officer. Did MCSD officially create the position? Did the McHenry County Board approve it? Or was the "title-creep" within the MCSD?

For years MCSD had an Equal Employment Opportunity "officer" (employee). This was a civilian position in the sheriff's department and apparently was established in response to a Court order in a Federal lawsuit. Then that employee retired a year or two ago. It's still a civilian position. It still doesn't require a lawyer as the employee. A clerk could do the job for $30,-40,000/year.

The sheriff expanded the job qualifications to something like "law degree preferred" and hired what must have been a pre-selected candidate who just happened to have a law degree, Donald B. Leist. And not only a law degree, but a desk just down the hall and down one floor, in the office of the McHenry County State's Attorney.

The position didn't require a law degree. The Department had gotten along just fine without it. After all, the Sheriff's Department has a lawyer - the State's Attorney. Nygren doesn't use Lou Bianchi much, though. Not with Jim Sotos standing by in Itasca to cash County checks. In fact, maybe the MCSD didn't even need the position at all, since McHenry County still has a Human Resources Department.

Leist recently identified himself as "EEO/Legal Affairs Officer" to the Public Access Bureau of the Illinois Attorney General's office. Leist's letter was the Sheriff's Department response to Scharff's appeal to MCSD's denial of FOIA information to Paul Scharff.

Paul, as you probably know, is co-author of Murder in McHenry and is trying to extract information from the MCSD about his father's unsolved murder in 1981. Except he knows it's not unsolved. Larry Neumann was fingered, after Neumann became enraged after his ex-wife, Debbie Neumann, called him. Both Larry Neumann and Debbie Neumann are dead now.

Scharff requested information under the Freedom of Information Act. MCSD denied his request. Scharff appealed to the Attorney General. They wrote to MCSD. MCSD replied to the Attorney General's office. Then the Public Access Bureau sent Scharff a copy of Leist's letter (response to AG request for reason(s) for denial) and told him he had seven days to reply. Only the AG letter didn't explain any decision on Scharff's FOIA request.

Read Paul Scharff's latest blog entry titled "Justice gone backwards. It’s a sad day for the citizens of McHenry County." Scharff's blog can be easily accessed and followed through the link on the right sidebar to McHenry County 1981.