NWH finally covers FEN's suit against Sheriff

What is it about the end of the business day at the end of a business week that makes that a good time to release a story? At 5:00PM today the Northwest Herald published a story about the lawsuit by FirstElectricNewspaper (FEN) against the McHenry County Sheriff's Department.

Publisher Pete Gonigam is trying to get the report of Sheriff Nygren's investigation of Undersheriff Andy Zinke, who outed a confidential DEA investigation involving illegal drugs enroute to the RITA Corp., whose president is Brian Goode. Goode is a member of the Sheriff's Merit Commission, a b-i-g financial contributor to Nygren's political campaigns, and a donor of $5,000 to Zinke's political campaign a couple of months after Zinke told him about the drugs headed toward his company.

Don Leist, EEO Officer for the Sheriff's Department and the man to whom Nygren gave the task of investigating Zinke, had this to say (in the article) about FEN: "I've learned to just ignore those blogs. They're full of erroneous and half information."

As Ray Stevens sings in one of his popular songs, "Ayy-yup."

A funny thing ... if "those blogs" were full of erroneous and half information, we'd be in court, not the sheriff and Leist. I wonder if we'll find out that Leist's report on the Zinke investigation, if there even is a report, is "full of erroneous and half information". 

Leist is identified in the first paragraph of the Northwest Herald as "an attorney within the Defendant". Wait! Maybe we don't have to wait for his report to become public. How about erroneous and half information?

Yes, Leist is an attorney; that is, he has a law degree and he was an attorney with the McHenry County State's Attorney Office. But, so far as I know, he is not an attorney within the Sheriff's Department. He holds a civilian's job and does not provide, to my knowledge, any legal service or legal advice to the Department. I don't think he is an attorney for the Sheriff's Department. He is a desk jockey for Equal Opportunity.

When Nygren wanted to hire Leist, he had a job description for the EEO position written to read that a law degree was preferred. It was not required. The previous occupant of the office (for how many years? 10?) was not an attorney. The job probably isn't even needed any longer.

How Leist got in the middle of the FOIA spat is anyone's guess. Mrs. Jan Weech is a very capable FOIA Officer for the Sheriff's Department. Who knows? Maybe she felt that the investigative report should be released. Will she be retiring quite soon?

I think it's very likely that Judge Meyer will hammer Nygren and Leist over their refusal to provide the investigative report on Zinke to FirstElectricNewspaper.com and Pete Gonigam. Case No. 13MR000309 has a court date on July 10 and another one on September 17. This is the type of case that could be heard in its entirety on July 10 and be over (but it won't be).