Seipler files Petition in court

Republican candidate for McHenry County Sheriff Zane Seipler filed a Petition and Affidavit in Circuit Court (Case 10 MR 11) this morning, asking for the court to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate illegal politicking that involves use of the badge of office on political campaign literature involving the office of McHenry County Sheriff.

The badge or emblem, or its likeness, appears in the political campaign literature of the incumbent sheriff. It has not only been used this year and also in past elections.

I myself raised an objection four years ago, after I received mailed campaign literature from Nygren's campaign. Because I was regularly receiving official mail regarding court appearances as a witness to traffic violations, I thought the envelope bearing the sheriff's name and badge was official mail. I was incensed to find campaign literature in it. My complaint at that time went absolutely nowhere.

Now someone else is raising the issue. In some respects, it's unfortunate that it has to be a challenger for the office who has to raise it. Some will probably pretty quickly label Zane's filing as "mudslinging." It's not. Just as his questioning of improper activities by certain deputies was mislabeled as personal complaining was not mudslinging, either.

In Zane's filing today for a Special Prosecutor, he identifies several questionable activities by Sheriff Nygren:

- performed political activity within his office;
- that he directed deputies to perform political activities while being paid by McHenry County; i.e., while on duty;
- uses official departmental letterhead and star logo on his campaign letters, flyers and political paraphernalia;
- used his county office for a photo shoot setting for political support of a previous candidate for State's Attorney;

Other activities are listed to support Zane's request for a Special Prosecutor:

- while on duty at the department's firing range, he was approached by a sheriff's detective and encouraged to attend a fundraiser for Dan Regna and told "It would be good for your career";
- deputy and security guard Michael Cooper was in possession of documents stolen from the McHenry County State's Attorney (a statement to the Illinois State Police by Amy Dalby asserted that the flash drive was given to Cooper);
- Regna campaign literature was displayed in the patrol room in 2008;
- a Woodstock resident was harassed and humiliated, when campaign business cards for Zane were seized unjustly as he entered the courthouse on official business.

A court date has been set for May 19, 2010, 9:00AM, in Courtroom 204. Efforts will be made to advance the scheduling conference to an earlier date.