Remember reading the news over the past 3-4 years about how Zane Seipler got fired - twice - by the McHenry County Sheriff's Department.
You probably believed what you read; right? Well, now the record will show that he resigned and even got a letter of recommendation!
Be sure to read McHenry County Blog, which reports the conclusion to Seipler's wrongful termination Federal lawsuit against Nygren and MCSD. And when you go to the polls this fall, remember which County Board members approved the re-writing of history.
After you read the McHenry County Blog article, think about this.
Remember the allegations against Nygren, stated in one of depositions in Seipler's case? In a December 3, 2010, letter to the Chicago office of the FBI, McHenry County Undersheriff Andy Zinke informed the FBI of allegations about Sheriff Keith Nygren: "...corruption,
mortgage fraud, trafficking illegal aliens and soliciting murder." Rather than investigating these allegations, Zinke told the FBI, "I assure you
these allegations are untrue." Keep in mind that Nygren had just taken office after being re-elected, and he was off on a 30-day cruise through the Panama Canal.
Now read The House's Money, by Owen Sullivan. Although fiction (published in 2012, but the story precedes the recent housing boom and bust), the story is about mortgage fraud, fraudulent house sales, over-appraising, dummy buyers, houses purchased on "stated-income" claims when the buyer had no chance of ever making the payments, inflated prices, mortgage-based securities, high rollers, murder.
People are still asking me, "Where is the FBI?" Good question!
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14 comments:
Gus, I am unfamiliar with this story. A brief history please? Why was Seipler fired?
Big Daddy, Zane Seipler documented racial profiling by MCSD deputies and complained about it. Then he wrote a couple of tickets that backfired. Nygren fired him. Seipler sued.
In Federal Court, when I was there and won a Motion to Quash a request for 27 months worth of blog documents, Nygren's attorney told Federal Magistrate Judge Mahoney that "Mr. Seipler was fired for complaining about racial profiling."
I've always felt Seipler would have won his case that day, if his own attorney had been there.
In a separate action (arbitration) Zane got his job back, but he continued his Federal case. Then he got fired a second time.
Now MCSD is "re-writing history", and the official version is that he resigned.
Thanks
The County spent almost one million taxpayer dollars on this? That's obscene Gus and heads should roll for it. That's one example of what I mean by corruption.
The real cost to MCSD is now not very far down the road. The County's deductible on defense WAS $100,000. Now it's $250,000. That'll probably be on every case, rather than an annual deductible for all cases.
So, let's say that a dozen lawsuits are filed against MCSD in the new insurance Policy Year. The County will eat $3,000,000, rather than $1,200,000.
Some cases you HAVE to defend. Others should have been headed off at the pass, or deputy actions never should have resulted in lawsuits.
Better training is needed. For example, some deputies still believe that entry to the Pavlin's home was lawful, even though a judge ruled it wasn't.
Did the judge rule the entry was illegal or the search?
As I recall, the judge ruled that the entry was illegal.
The deputies, again as I understand it, wanted to search. The Pavlins protested. They never did search, although at least one deputy went up the stairs to the second floor. Among the MCSD photographs taken at the scene, at least one photo shows at least one deputy on the second floor.
By that time the subject had been arrested and removed from the house. At that time the authority of the deputies ended.
I believe MCSD settled for $250,000 and, in my opinion, the Pavlins settled cheap. But they made their point!
One deputy wrote in his report that he "assisted" Mr. Pavlin to the ground (floor) with an arm bar. Mr. Pavlin was born in 1928; in 2011 he was about 83, about 5'6", about 150 lbs. Mrs. Pavlin's statement was that the deputy slammed her husband to the floor.
That case ought to be a Case Study! But I don't think anyone at MCSD learned anything from the lesson.
Gus, I belive the inital entry was lawful. An arrest warrant does not have to be served at arrestees home. I believe the subsequent search however was unlawful.
The wanted subject was quickly arrested near the front door and removed to a squad car. There is some question as to whether he was actually seen inside the house; as I heard it, he was in the living room, which cannot be seen from the front door porch.
In any event, as soon as the wanted subject was in custody and outside the house, the right of deputies to be in the house ended. But the deputies refused to leave.
The lawlessness of certain deputies cost MCSD $250,000. This is what must stop.
I agree, once they had him in custody it's time to go. But it's my understanding they knocked on the door and he appeared while the deputies were talking to his dad iirc. That's why I believe his arrest was lawful, the search not.
Big Daddy, you might want to re-check with your source. The son went to the door, opening it partially, tried to close it. Parents were in the living room. Deputies pushed against the door and got in. I think the deputies took the son into custody in the foyer and took him right out of the house.
Then the deputies refused to leave.
I was wrong about the $250K. It was $300,000, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Ok. Doesn't make a difference. They knock on the door, he answers and realizing its the police looking to serve him an arrest warrant slams the door in the face of the deputies. They boot the door and take him into custody. I see no problem up to this point. I agree that they should have left at that point.
Big Daddy, you get my vote. Big Daddy for Sheriff.
It's funny you say that. I'm actually thinking about it. Not in McHenry County but somewhere else that is just as corrupt as McHenry. I'd never run in McHenry because God willing, you are going to have an outstanding new Sheriff in Bill Prim. While I am a boss where I'm at now, I'm a street boss and not an administrator. I don't know if that knocks me out of the box or not. But I can guarantee you one thing and that is that the Sheriffs Office would be run as it should be, it would be corruption free, the troops would love coming to work and the citizens would be proud.
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