MCSD employees praise bloggers

I received a nice email tonight, expressing appreciation for the blogs that Cal Skinner, Dave Bachmann and I write.

The sender commented that Nygren supporters are desperate and they then must resort to attacking the bloggers and authors of Letters to the Editor.

I have reason to believe that employees throughout the Sheriff's Department and, in fact, the McHenry County Government Center are watching what is taking place in the court in Rockford. Employees are concerned about the allegations being made and want the truth revealed. Most know that they'd better keep their thoughts to themselves, for fear of retaliation and retribution from command personnel.

The command personnel would obviously be fearful for their own positions and incomes. Had a change in the name on the door of the big office on the second floor taken place on December 1st, a fair number of them might found themselves demoted or kicked out the door, or they might have taken an early retirement to avoid reduced rank or termination. And, worse if they have been involved in any way with the actions that are alleged.

And when a change does take place before the next election in November, 2014, the County Board may have a difficult time finding a squeaky-clean Republican successor for the Office of Sheriff. It may have to go outside the Department and maybe even outside the County for the right man to clean house.

Being fearful to comment is an untenable position for an employee.

What's coming out in court has nothing to do with the election just past. I don't know one candidate who is angry about the sheriff's race. Zane Seipler got 1/3 of the vote in the Republican Primary; that's very commendable. Mike Mahon got 36.5% of the vote in the General Election; that's an excellent showing. I'm certainly not "angry" at my showing of 4,644 votes (5.04%).

It is a very sad sign that employees are afraid to comment. It is obvious to me that the Sheriff will want to see heads roll as additional court dates draw near.

If anyone should be angry, it's the People of McHenry County. There have every right to be angry that the sheriff since 1997 has conducted himself as he has.

Will Nygren now try to smear and discredit Deputy Milliman? The minions at the Department have already started. Deputy Milliman will do well to make no comments whatsoever and to save them for court.

Nygren made an idiotic statement to the Northwest Herald reporter, when he said, "Allegations are just allegations..." No, they aren't "just" allegations. Will all the perps in the County now be saying, "Oh, they're just allegations. No big deal."

Deputies must ante up cell phone records

Rockford Federal Court Judge Frederick Kapala must have put on his gas mask to wade through all the smoke in the courtroom and see through to order McHenry County Sheriff's Department deputies to cough up their cell phone records around the date of March 14, 2008, when deputies went to the residence of Jerome and Carla Pavlin, located in the County just east of Crystal Lake.

I wish I recalled the date when I first wrote about, and complained about, the prevalent use of cell phones between on-duty deputies, so they could avoid the Department's police radio bands.

Who knows whether the Illinois State Police investigator(s) even sniffed around that problem, but the judge wants to know about the cell phone usage.

When are the rest of the people in McHenry County going to wake up and release that a change must be made at the top of the Sheriff's Department? No one will think for a minute that supervisors (sergeants) don't know about such cell phone use; heck, they probably use them themselves - all the time. And, if lieutenants and captains and the undersheriff and the sheriff don't know about it, then they have the obligation to 1) put a stop to it; AND 2) to report it up the food chain.

There is one candidate for office who thinks like a citizen first and like a cop second.

The article says that Mr. and Mrs. Pavlin have moved out-of-state. When I met Mr. Pavlin in about October 2008, he told me how afraid of the Sheriff's Department he was and how afraid he was that the deputies might come back to his home.

This is what we must put a stop to in McHenry County. The Sheriff's deputies are to protect and to serve the population, and we must not have an agency that instills fear in residents.

Fortunately, the Pavlins had the money to hire a good criminal defense lawyer and the wisdom to go out of McHenry County for their civil rights' attorney.

A challenge...

Here's a challenge for you.

Read www.dirtykeithvsdirtyharry.blogspot.com

Read www.mcsdexposed.blogspot.com

Ask yourself a few questions. I mean it. Really.

Why would the creator of the Dirty Keith website devote so much time, energy and creativity to his site?

Why is Zane Seipler running against Keith Nygren in the Republican Primary on February 2?

Ask yourself if you know the whole story? Is there fire where there is smoke?

When a fire starts in the corner of the basement in that stack of old newspapers and slowly begins to burn its way through the pile and spread slowly across the basement floor, you won't even wake up on the second floor. You might not even hear the basement smoke alarm.

Then you might get a whiff of smoke and wonder whether you should investigate, but you go back to sleep. A little while later, you smell smoke again and go downstairs. When you open the basement door, WHOOSH!

Now you know you've got a fire!

The issues that have worried me for eight years and the frequent reports that have been coming my way for four years are finally reaching the WHOOSH stage.

Shouldn't taxpayers be concerned about all the lawsuits to which the McHenry County Sheriff's Department is a party, either as Defendant or Plaintiff? Has there ever been a State of the Sheriff's Office address?

Do County residents/taxpayers/voters know about the "plans" to build a new Sheriff's Department? So soon after so much money was spend increasing the size of the present offices and jail?

Do you know about the favoritism being shown to deputies in terms of traffic tickets after at-fault accidents?

Do you know how many crimes have been committed by deputies but which have been handled "administratively" with internal discipline that never reached the public's eye? Try 1) falsification of jail training records and 2) battery of one deputy on a second deputy after a night of drinking at a popular Woodstock bar; 3) driving under the influence by deputies leaving that bar after a sergeant's birthday party.

These are the types of operations that must stop at the McHenry County Sheriff's Department. They are repugnant to citizens' values! This is what happens when residents close their eyes or think they are powerless to effect positive change.

Fine wine improves with age (experience). Other things don't.

So, I challenge you to read all these blogs. Frequently.

On February 2, vote for Zane Seipler, Republican candidate for Sheriff. Then you will see a really different type of race to the finish line on November 2.

What does "cell phone sheriff" mean?

Lately, the phrase "cell phone sheriff" is being bandied around in political circles in McHenry County. What does it really mean?

I first heard the phrase over a year ago - long before I had any serious thoughts of running for Sheriff. The phrase intrigued me. After all, doesn't almost everyone carry a cell phone now?

So I began nosing around, and what I heard was disturbing. Apparently, what it meant was that the McHenry County Sheriff was out of the county a great deal of the time. It wasn't just that he was away from his office and performing some duty of his office elsewhere in the area. It was that he was not only out of the county; he was out-of-state. And not on County business.

Rumor was that, if an important decision needed to be made by the sheriff, somebody from his office was going to have to call him on his cell phone.

By now, most people who are following the February primary election in McHenry County have heard the reference to "cell phone sheriff". Democratic candidate Mike Mahon has used it; it was used in the Northwest Herald's candidates' interview last week; I'm using it.

What would clear the air would be an analysis of the monthly records of Sheriff Nygren's cell phones. That's cell phone - s. Plural, as in more than one. So the first question is, how many cell phones does he have?

There are probably at least three.

One personal cell phone.
One official (Sheriff's Dept.) cell phone for law-enforcement use.
One cell phone for his political campaign.

An analysis of phone records would help clear the air on how much time he was away from his office - meaning, out-of-state at his Minocqua, Wisconsin, vacation home (286 miles north of Hebron, Ill.), at his Cape Coral, Florida "second home" (only it's not his "second" home; 1,366 south of Hebron, Ill.) and for other non-business reasons. Plane reservations to/from Florida would be a good indicator of time spent there.

Mileage records on any personal vehicle owned by the sheriff in Illinois would be a good record of time spent in Wisconsin. Is there a personal vehicle, or does he use the County white Tahoe (with the regular passenger plates on it) for all driving? Does he park it at the sheriff's department or at his Hebron home, when he heads "up north" to Minocqua? A mileage log of the white Tahoe would disclose weekly and monthly mileage. Those 600-mile roundtrips would still out like a sore thumb.

How many days of vacation per year is a 12-year elected official entitled to? Is the sheriff entitled to more than a commercial standard of, say, four weeks vacation after ten years of service?

Being sheriff of a large department is not a 9-5 job. I'll agree with him on that. But it's a 9-5 PLUS job. You put in your 40-45-50-55 hours a week, and then you put in extra hours, as required, whenever there is a serious incident. That's what $140,000/year, plus benefits and expenses, ought to get for McHenry County residents.

Oh, and time off for political campaigning on County time? Let's not forget that last week's Northwest Herald candidates' interview was scheduled on a workday during working hours. He could have told the Northwest Herald that he was not available "during the day", unless they scheduled it for 7:00AM or 6:00PM.

At least, his cell phone didn't ring during the interview.

Mahon-for-Sheriff Press Release

The following press release was received from the Friends of Mike Mahon. Mike is the Democratic Party candidate for Sheriff of McHenry County. The press release reads:

"On my own initiative and under no requirement to do so, but in the interest of full disclosure to the voters of McHenry County, I am disclosing an 18-year-old incident with a timely lesson as the holiday season approaches.

"In December of 1991 I was charged with driving under the influence in Cook County. At the time of the incident, I was in my personal vehicle and off duty. There was no one with me in the car, no collision and no one was injured in any manner. No breathalyzer was deployed.

"I pleaded 'no contest' to the charge and was sentenced to six months of a suspended license. I maintained my employment with Cook County throughout.

"This incident changed my life for the better. Assisted by family and friends, I came to the conclusion that my life would be greatly improved if I stopped drinking alcohol, and did so. I have maintained that abstinence ever since and have assisted others in finding help for similar problems.

"Especially at this time of year, with its many holiday parties and get-togethers, it's important for all of us to be aware of the temptation to drink and drive both in ourselves and our friends and family.

"Thank you and let's all have a safe and happy holiday season."

Why campaign expenses in Florida?

On August 20th I wrote and questioned why Keith Nygren would be holding a $40/plate fundraiser, when he already had $122,000 in his campaign warchest.

Cal Skinner explains the drain on the warchest in the first six months of 2009 in today's article on http://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/ Cal's blog is worth daily reading!

Heretofore, I have refrained from using the term "cell phone sheriff" for Keith Nygren but, after looking at the listed expenses and seeing so many Florida charges at different times, I now wonder, as others apparently have for some time, how he can spend so much time in Florida and still run the McHenry County Sheriff's Department.

Just what "campaign" is Nygren running in Florida that he would expend campaign funds in this manner, as quoted in Cal's article:

1/13, 3/12 and 5/6 campaign gifts, Harry & David, Estero, Fla. $365.68
1/13 and 4/3 campaign meal, Cape Coral, Fla. $176.96
1/13 and 4/3 campaign beverages, Fort Myers, Fla. $496.41
3/12 campaign meal, Bonita Springs, Fla. $380.67
4/2 donation to Duke University. At Cape Coral, Fla. $250.00
4/3 campaign meal, Fort Myers, Fla. $272.45
4/22 campaign gifts, Mt. Pleasant, S.C. $172.50
5/6 campaign meal, Fort Myers, Fla. $562.86

Assuming he was present at each of the "campaign meals", then he was in Florida in January, March, April and May.

And AT&T cell phone bill, $523.57 [Correction 8/26/09. This is the total of six months' cell phone bills, not each month.] Is the campaign cell phone used only for the campaign, or is this phone used for "running" the Sheriff's Department from Florida?

Several local charges were made on the same date as charges in Florida, including large liquor purchases on 1/13 at Armanetti's in Woodstock for $217.50 and on the same date at Cardinal Wines & Liquors for $254.25. Note the substantial expenditures in Florida on the same date.

It surely would be interesting to see itemized receipts for those meals and liquor purchases, revealing the names of the diners present and the campaign purpose of these expenses.

Sheriff politicizes office - again

Four years ago I complained about this, and I suspect I complained about it four years before that.

Sheriff Nygren sent out his form letter, asking Committeemen and Committeewomen to gather signatures for him so that he can run again for Sheriff of McHenry County. What's wrong with this?

He displays the badge of office on the letterhead and refers to himself as "Sheriff Keith Nygren." At the end of the letter, he signs his name above "Keith Nygren, Sheriff."

I objected to this four years ago, and I wasn't even running against him then. It is wrong - dead wrong - to use the emblem of your office in a political campaign. Apparently, I am the only one around here who sees a problem with this.

After all, is there a Republican in McHenry County who doesn't know he is sheriff (but only until December 1, 2010)?

There is a principle involved here, but it doesn't make it to his campaign.

I believe the Office of Sheriff belongs to the People. It doesn't not belong to Keith Nygren. When I'm Sheriff, his name will come off all vehicles, and my name will not go on any vehicle. They are your vehicles, not mine, and they will not be used for politicking!

Same with all the hand-outs. Brochures will be from the Office of the Sheriff, not from me. There won't be any candy or flags with my name on them.

Deputies of the Sheriff's Department will be highlighted in promotional materials and publicity. And you will never see me mix politics and law enforcement services as Keith does in the last sentence in his letter, when he invites political supporters to call on him if he can be of assistance to them or to the people they protect in their districts.

Stanard Loses Round 2

If you want to read something that will get your blood boiling, be sure to read the Daily Herald article about Mike Stanard's losing Round 2 in U.S. District Court in Waukegan. Here's the whole story: www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=267548&#storycomments

Some time back (Summer 2007?) the McHenry County Sheriff's Department told Stanard that he must -- that's m-u-s-t -- use deputies for security at the preposterous hourly rate of $40.00! No matter that a business can hire a rent-a-cop for $15.00/hour. As I recall from reading local newspapers at the time, the sheriff threatened to shut down Greenwood Road, if Stanard tried to hold a concert at Galt Airport without hiring deputies.

The newspaper used the word "shakedown" in its article today; at the time this all happened, a different word came to mind. The Stanards used another word: extortion.

U.S. District Court Judge Kapala didn't like the case last August, but he gave Stanard and his attorney time to clarify their claims and refile the case. According to the Daily Herald article today, "Several attempts to do so, Kapala states in his ruling, failed to make the claims any more clear or came in too late or too sloppy to consider."

Not clear enough??? Came in too late??? "too sloppy to consider"??? Who was Stanard's lawyer? Will I have to drive to Waukegan to find out?

I didn't like the smell of the Sheriff's actions when I first heard about them. And I don't like his comments now about this case.

Apparently, Sheriff Nygren is considering a a lawsuit against Stanard to recover the county's defense costs, saying that he (the sheriff) would even use his own money to pursue that lawsuit, according to the Daily Herald.

I for one do not agree that Stanard "made a public spectacle out of this to discredit this department and the people who work here..." He protested a serious - a very serious - and improper demand made by the sheriff's department. Stanard's lawsuit is almost in the public interest to make even more public what had happened and to get it in front of the people of McHenry County.

And now, for the sheriff to threaten a lawsuit and say he'll even use his own money to pursue it, illustrates an abuse of power and of the office he holds. No wonder deputies are complaining about retaliation and retribution!

Illinois needs a law allowing the recall of elected officials. We're seeing enough of a spectacle in Springfield this week. We certainly do not need or want this bullying in McHenry County. The job of law enforcement is to protect and to serve. Has this been forgotten in McHenry County?

Can Honest Feedback Endanger Employment?

When I worked at the Sears, Roebuck headquarters in Hoffman Estates, corporate human resources procedures included periodic "360-degree evaluations."

Periodically, all employees at the home office participated in a survey of employment conditions. Survey forms were distributed by an outside consulting firm to all employees, from senior executives on down. Each employee was asked to rate the people in his circle of employment, whether subordinate or superior.

In many organizations, ratings are only made by superiors of their subordinates. These are often called "Performance Reviews". If you are a "good boy", then you get good ratings. If you take orders well and if you follow orders well (meaning, you don't question too much) and, of course, if you perform the duties of your position, then you get high marks. And, if there is any money to be spread around, you'll get some.

Now, what about overall conditions or the opportunity to review the performance of your superior? This is always tricky, especially in small departments or units. If you blast (errr, tell the truth about) your boss, it's always likely that he'll be able to pinpoint just who gave him a "bad" review.

An attempt to avoid this is made by asking all employees to return their evaluations anonymously and directly to the consulting firm. This protection is provided, so that responses and comments cannot be directly attributed to any one employee. A boss might guess who squawked, but he wouldn't know for sure.

The consulting firm would then summarize the responses and provide its reports. Imagine being one of the top dogs and getting zinged by your employees. A boss's feeling might get hurt. Of course, he would never be "small" enough to retaliate against his subordinates or assume he knew who had bashed him. Right?

I was in a small unit. We had followers, and we had those who would check the right boxes, regardless of later fall-out. I was quite surprised when the results were made available. It seemed that most in the department had provided honest, accurate feedback on our fearless leader, and not all of it was favorable.

To the credit of the department's manager, he shared the feedback and did not try to soft-pedal it. He was a tough guy, and he had a tough job to do. Sometimes the only way to get it done was to be tough.

Would 360-degree evaluations be useful in McHenry County? Say, at the Sheriff's Department or at the Woodstock Police Department?

I'm curious what the line employees (officers, deputies) would have to say, for example, about the departments' efforts to what might be considered by some (many?) as the railroading of an employee. But what happens when employees stand up, open their mouths, and speak out? Worst case scenario? Too often, it is called being unemployed!

The story of two police officers in Denver is still fresh in my mind. They told me they wanted to enforce certain laws against political bigwigs but had been ordered not to do so. They asked me not to get them in "trouble", because they liked their current patrol duties and did not wish to be assigned to walk a beat at the stockyards at midnight on Sunday!

S.W.A.T. Teams

When a law enforcement agency has extraordinary power available to it, does it tend to use it more often, whether really needed or not, just because it has it and wants to use it?

I was thinking the other day of a stand-off not too long ago in McHenry County on Lamb Road near Charles Road. Anyone remember that one? Deputies surrounded the house for hours and then took a man into custody and hauled him off to the South Street psychiatric facility.

Does anyone remember any criminal charge ever filed against him? Maybe that’s because none ever was.

Then I got to thinking about the sheriff’s department response in the Wonder Lake area to the residence of David Maxson in September 2006. In only 46 minutes the situation escalated to the point where deputies were threatened and Maxson was fatally shot. After reading the police reports and attending the coroner’s inquest, I wondered how different the outcome would have been, if deputies had taken a more reasoned approach and created less confrontation with a person who presented symptoms of mental illness and/or intoxication.

And this got me to thinking about why the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department would have such a unit. Who’s in it? What are the qualifications and training for deputies assigned to it? How does it function?

First, what is “Special Weapons and Tactics” (S.W.A.T.)?

S.W.A.T. is commonly an elite special operations tactical unit in American police departments. It is trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular patrol officers, including serving high-risk arrest warrants, hostage rescue, counter-terrorism, and engaging heavily-armed criminals.

SWAT teams are often equipped with specialized firearms including assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, carbines, riot control agents, stun grenades, and high-powered rifles for snipers. They have specialized equipment including heavy body armor, entry tools, armored vehicles, advanced night vision optics, and motion detectors for covertly determining the positions of hostages or hostage takers inside of an enclosed structure.

Watch for a follow-up article about the McHenry County SWAT team.

The source of a portion of the above information is Wikipedia, which allows copying of its content.

House Raffle - Legal?

Did you read this week that $100 raffle ticket might get you a $230,000 house? Pretty good deal; right?

It might not be as good a deal as it seems, in spite of front-page promotion in Wednesday's Northwest Herald. It seems to me that no one questioned whether this raffle is legal under Illinois law.

Raffles are generally limited to promotions by only certain categories of sponsors. These categories might include
1. Business (a voluntary organization composed of individuals and businesses who have joined together to advance the commercial, financial, industrial and civil interests of a community);
2. Charitable;
3. Educational;
4. Fraternal; and
5. Labor.

But a raffle by an individual (or couple) trying to unload a house? I think I read of a lawful raffle in another state - possibly, Oregon. But is a raffle of a house legal in Illinois?

Now, maybe it is. If it is, I wish the couple well. And the real estate company which is promoting the raffle on its website.

On the real estate company's website it states "...Tammie (the owner) is hoping the net proceeds will be enough to build a track for the school; if not, the PTO will use the money in any area they see fit." The kicker here is "net proceeds." If she sells 3,000 tickets at $100, that's $300,000. After she pays off her debt on the house, which the newspaper article reported is near foreclosure, a local school might get $25,000.

Therein lies the problem. The purpose of the raffle is to bail out the owner of the property. Maybe the school gets some money, if there is anything left over. This is not how raffles are supposed to work. I can't find the state law on raffles, but I'll bet that it does more than "imply" that raffles should provide a public betterment. Raffles can be run only under certain rules designed to safeguard the public.

If it's not legal, then the sheriff's department needs to act as quickly as it did when it suspected a woman of running an illegal raffle to aid a non-profit organization in McHenry County.

© 2008 GUS PHILPOTT

Haligus Road Accident

It was necessary to file a second Freedom of Information Act request this month to attempt to learn the current status of the investigation by the McHenry County Sheriff's Department into the October 26, 2007, fatal accident on Haligus Road involving four students from Marian Central Catholic High School.

Nearly six months have passed, and yet no charges have been filed against the driver.

When the reporting sergeant did not return a telephone call for an update, I filed another FOIA request. Six months is far too long for this to drag on. What possible reason could there be for not filing at least the very basic traffic charge(s)?

The first FOIA request resulted in a partial copy of the accident report. This month's request resulted in a same-day written response that the requested information is exempt from inspection, copying or disclosure because the "case is pending at this time."

Does anyone else think that the investigation into this accident should have been completed months ago and charges filed?

Sheriff Asks for ISA Bucks

Did anyone else receive the letter from Sheriff Nygren, asking financial support of the Illinois Sheriffs' Association? While I am pretty sure that no County taxpayer funds were used to generate this mailing, I absolutely detest the use of his title "Sheriff, McHenry County" in this letter and the appearance of his name "Sheriff Keith Nygren" in the return address window of the envelope.

The letter prompted me to telephone the headquarters of the Illinois Sheriffs Association to inquire where the Association stands on concealed-carry by law-abiding citizens in Illinois. The executive director, Greg Sullivan, was out, and I hope he'll return my call next week.

I had spoken with him 3-4 years ago and learned of the serious split in opinion among the 102 sheriff's in Illinois. The northern bunch (that includes Sheriff Nygren) oppose concealed carry, and many in the rest of the state favor it.

I remember one of the first phone calls I made after moving to Illinois in 1996. I called the Woodstock Police Department to ask how to get an application for a concealed weapons permit. At least, the officer didn't laugh at me when he suggested I call the McHenry County Sheriff's Department.

But the deputy there did laugh, as he told me that I would NEVER get a concealed weapons permit in Illinois. Well, times are changing. Now 48 states allow some form of carry. Two states - Illinois and Wisconsin - do not. And Wisconsin almost did, except for two legislators who wimped out when it was time to over-ride Gov. Doyle's veto.

Will I support the Illinois Sheriffs' Association? For $20.00? Yes, if they will adopt a Board-approved position in favor of concealed carry. Otherwise, I don't need their decal in my car's back window.

I may even survey the 102 sheriffs. My guess is that more than 50% of them would be in favor of concealed carry, as are many sheriffs, police chiefs and other law enforcement personnel across the United States.

After all, crime goes down when concealed carry is permitted.