Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Bianchi trial, Day 1 - did judge err?

In an article on http://www.firstelectricnewspaper.com/ publisher Pete Gonigam wrote (and not until the end of the article) that Winnebago County Judge Joseph McGraw prevented the media (Northwest Herald, McHenry County Blog, FirstElectricNewspaper (FEN)) from entering his courtroom until 10:45AM, after the conclusion of the arraignment of Ron Salgado and hearing motions in the Bianchi case early.

In most courtrooms "audience" members come and go (hopefully, quietly). But yesterday? It was different.

Gonigam also wrote on FEN that "Dalby ... said she gave the flash drive itself to the campaign manager of Bianchi's Primary opponent Dan Regna."

Apparently, no one asked the name of that "campaign manager". In a statement to the Illinois State Police during the investigation into Dalby's theft of the flash drive and thousands of documents related to criminal cases, Dalby told the trooper/investigator that she had given the flash drive to Michael Cooper, who was an employee of the McHenry County Sheriff's Office.

No one seems to be asking how Cooper "lost" it, after he was supposed to retrieve it from his safe deposit box and give it to the Illinois State Police investigator. Why the trooper trusted Cooper is beyond anyone's guess. Why didn't he invite Cooper for a ride in his ISP vehicle and drive him to the bank on the spot?

And why wasn't Cooper ever charged with being in possession of stolen (and legally-sensitive and -privileged prosecution) material and failing to immediately turn it in as evidence?

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