Is Leist the Sheriff's attorney?

Is Don Leist the Sheriff's attorney? or the Sheriff's Department attorney?

Or is he a civilian employee (only) of the McHenry County Sheriff's Office who is the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) "officer" of the Sheriff's Department (and who just happens to be an attorney by education)? Why did the Sheriff write into the job description that a law degree was preferred (or whatever the wording was)?

Leist was in court yesterday morning, acting like an attorney, not as a visitor to observe the matter involving a request for a Special Prosecutor to investigate Undersheriff Andy Zinke. By "acting" like an attorney, I mean proceeding beyond the railing in front of general seating and advancing across the courtroom floor to the jury box seating, where overflow attorneys sit and wait for their cases.

In his capacity as EEO "officer" (at a pay rate of $84,405/year) he is not the Sheriff's attorney. The Sheriff has an attorney. That would be the McHenry County State's Attorney. He doesn't seem to like "his" attorney very much, so he spends hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funds in a year with Jim Sotos' law firm in Itasca.


Are there other times when Leist seems to be serving as the Sheriff's attorney?