Reader Comment on Greg Kachka

This week I received this email, which is published as received with the sender’s permission

“I just wanted to let you know that I've linked to you: http://www.michaelcrook.net/2008/06/04/now-thats-friendly/ “I also would like your comment...how can you support a guy who admittedly dodged the cops? If he had nothing to hide, he should have turned himself in. How do you comment on that?”

In the posting associated with the above link, that writer addresses the Greg Kachka/Island Lake controversy. It’s about the disabled ex-Marine who allegedly so “alarmed and disturbed (and breached the peace of)” a Village Trustee and the Village Clerk that they had him charged with Disorderly Conduct. Not that night. Not the next day, but weeks later.

I was able to open the link last night and read it; this morning the computer gremlins are at work and I can’t open it. After I re-read it, I’ll comment on some of the issues there.

How can I support a guy “who admittedly dodged the cops?”

Well, first of all he didn’t “dodge” them. They called him and told him to come to the (Island Lake) police station and turn himself in. He told them that he would not do so. This is not “dodging” the cops. Should the Island Lake P.D. be praised for efficiency and concern of expenditures by the police department for fuel and the per-mile cost of operating a police car?


I would have done exactly the same thing. And why wouldn’t anyone do the same thing? If you believed you had not committed a crime, why would you go to the police station and turn yourself in? If I were accused of a crime and believed I had not done it, I would not turn myself in. Now, I wouldn’t make them drag me out of my house by my heels. I wouldn't create a situation in which I would get tasered or tear-gassed or shot. I would not refuse to open my front door. I would not “resist” arrest, even if it were unlawful. But you can believe I’d crank up my lawyer and tell him to read up on unlawful arrest and how much I could stick the P.D. for!

And, for sure, I would not have any conversation with them. I’d give them my name, address and date-of-birth, and that would be it. In the U.S.A. you do not have to buy the rope with which they are going to hang you. So I would keep my mouth shut and answer any questions only with my attorney present, and maybe not even then.

In the article that I cannot re-read to this morning, it was mentioned that the bail would have been $75.00, if Greg had driven himself to the P.D. Because the police had to do their jobs and go to his residence, the bail suddenly shot up to $5,000.00. Are we talking about the same crime here?

Greg’s lawyer should be looking into that, for sure. It sounds to me like the Island Lake police intended to charge him under the Village Disorder Conduct statute but changed their minds, when they realized they were going to have to start up the gas-guzzling police cruisers and drive a few blocks to his residence. Then they charged him under the State Disorderly Conduct statute and got the Lake County State’s Attorney involved.

Hey, this is a wild guess. I could be wrong. Only time will tell. However, if this is what really happened, then this whole mess is even smellier than it was.

© 2008 GUS PHILPOTT