A little over a year ago a fellow blogger directed two women to me for help with the multitude of problems they were experiencing with the legal system.
With the first I probably went to court with her 8-10 times last year, helping her navigate the system and supporting her as she tried to get her lawyer to do more for the generous bills he was running up. She had traffic ticket problems, driver's license problems, foreclosure problems, child custody problems, DCFS problems, child support problems, employment problems, car problems, health insurance problems. How she held it together, I have no idea.
I was in court this morning with the second woman, who has been cited about six times for disorderly conduct by a local police department and whose daughter has been cited once.
There was some kind of running feud in the neighborhood. The other party made complaints, the police department issued the citations, all the mechanics of arrest and bail and bond got played out, legal costs got run up, and what happened when the big day for court arrived? The Complainant didn't show up! And the case got dismissed. Each time!
The woman hired an attorney for her daughter's case, and the attorney wanted the daughter to plead guilty. The mother balked, because not only was the daughter not guilty, the daughter wasn't even home at the time the Complainant alleged the disorderly conduct occurred! She was across town, had an alibi and had an adult witness willing to come to court and testify on the daughter's behalf. And again, the Complainant didn't show up in court.
Now this woman still has three cases pending. My guess is that, in each of them, the people claiming to be "alarmed and disturbed and whose peace was disturbed" will not show up in court.
How many more times must a person put up with this type of nonsense before 1) the local police department refuses to accept a complaint and 2) the local police department files a disorderly conduct charge against the Complainant for filing false disorderly conduct charges?
On two of the remaining complaints police officers of the town placed their own names as Complainant and then entered the details about the alleged complaint. How does this happen? How can a police officer be the Complainant? It's the person, the resident of the town, who is the complainant.
What will happen when the police officer shows up at the trial and the person who alleged the "alarming and disturbing conduct" and whose peace was breached doesn't show up?
One other aspect of this case is that the woman had a Public Defender who never gave her the time of day. He was dumped last month. But, in addition to not giving her the time of day, he filed a motion in court for a County-paid mental health evaluation of this woman! And didn't discuss it with her and didn't tell her about it! And didn't tell her about the required court date on which she was supposed to appear, when he filed it!
The previous public defender must have egg on his face about the psychologist he asked the court to appoint for the evaluation, too, because five years ago this woman had filed a complaint against the psychologist, and she told me that the Department of Professional Regulation investigated her complaint and upheld it! Certainly, no judge in McHenry County would appoint a psychologist to evaluate someone who had filed a successful complaint against him!
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8 comments:
Yes Gus, I am sure you verified every fact that this woman told to you, right? Beyond any doubt whatsoever, she is telling you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth!
Isn't it funny how millions of people manage to go through life with nary a discussion with police, yet you seem to find people that have nothing BUT contacts with police?
i am SURE that the police are doing nothing but picking on them, right? The women have no responsibility at all in the repeated situations they keep finding themselves. It is all somebody else's fault!
It is very telling that a public defender, that had no previous relationship with this woman, would request that she be examined to determine her mental health! Also telling that she has had past connections with a psychologist that the court ordered to check her mental health!
She told me that the Department of Professional Regulation investigated her complaint and upheld it!
Did you bother checking this out? Oh yeah! You just listened to her story and thought she was truthful, so why bother verifying any of the facts, right Gus?
In the NWH article, Gus was quoted as believing the Pavlins because he "heard them" tell it. Never mind anything (ANYTHING) else about that case. So say the Pavlins...so it shall be written, so it shall be done! This bit about these women doesn't surprise me one bit.
Wanna buy a bridge, Gus?
QWA, you are on the exact opposite of the spectrum, you only believe the police side of the story. The cops never doing anything illegal,right. The Gauger civil case starts Monday. Do you remember that case, an innocent man put on death row for 3 years by the current undersheriff. Will soon see how much the taxpayers have to pay for police who are never wrong.
Who has the details on the Gauger lawsuit? Court? Address? Local? Time? Judge?
GeneL, I'm pretty sure I don't see anything about the police side of these instances. Do you? Am I missing something? Gus gets roped into the emotion of these "victims" and runs with it, which is dangerous, especially for someone running for the big seat at the SO. Always throwing the uniformed personnel under the bus, whether he has both sides of this or not. Both sides are necessary to choose which side to be on, don't you think? It is not that I'm siding with the police every time, however I've seen more than my fair share of untruths coming from similar "victims". I just rarely see both sides of the story on here. That needs to be acknowledged.
Come on GeneL! how many times has Gus called himself a "reporter" and stated he considers this blog a news outlet.
Well, since when do news outlets print stories without ever trying to verify their sources? With Gus, as long as the people are against the Woodstock Police or the Mchenry County Sheriff (especially them since the "reporter" is running for that office) then whatever they say is the gospel, not to be questioned or rebutted.
Birds of a feather flock together!
I think Gus should take a poll...How many people Gus "helps" with legal and other battles have long histories of psychiatric care or have had recommendations that they seek such care.
Birds of a feather...
QWA and DA, the grand jury apparently had some doubts about the deputies stories in the Pavlin case, all charges were dropped. They must have been told "Gus" rumors, right.At least we have a states attorney who won't "stand shoulder to shoulder" with Nygren (otherwise known as bend over). The good 'ole boys tried to stop Lou's re-election but they were just too stupid. You weren't part of that were you? Hope they are keeping an eye on those computers, don't want any more files going missing.
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