O'Dell Inquest to be June 23

An inquest into the April 26th death of Tommy Joe O'Dell, Jr., will be conducted by the McHenry County Coroner's Office on Thursday, June 23, at 1:00PM. The inquest will be held at 2200 North Seminary Avenue, Room 342, Woodstock (the McHenry County Government Center building).

O'Dell died unexpectedly while in custody at the McHenry County Jail. He had gone to traffic court in the morning and then had gone to Judge Michael Feetterer's courtroom. While he was there, he was taken into custody on an outstanding warrant and taken to the jail. According to an article in the Northwest Herald, he died in the afternoon while being held in a cell in the booking area.

A Coroner's inquest is held when a person dies while in custody. A detective from the sheriff's department
investigates the circumstances of the death and writes a report. That detective then testifies at the Coroner's inquest. An initial Freedom of Information Act request for the report in O'Dell's death was denied on May 26th, on the grounds that an active investigation was still open. A week later, it still was not available.

Even though the Coroner's inquest is scheduled for June 23, the O'Dell report is still not available today. For the inquest to be scheduled, it would seem to me that the report must have been completed by the sheriff's department and transmitted to the Coroner's office.

In the next previous jail death, the investigator's report was done in four days. I wonder what is taking so long this time.