Pavlin case filed last Friday

According to the Federal courthouse in Rockford, the Pavlin case was filed on Friday, July 17. Case No. 09-50154 is a public record but, since I don't have a Pacer account, I guess it means a trip to Rockford to read it and I'll probably buy a copy at $0.50/page.

I didn't think it was a McHenry County case, and a clerk today at the office of the Circuit Clerk's office couldn't find any record of it. It makes sense that it would be in Federal court.

How many tens (hundreds?) of thousands of dollars have been spent or wasted by McHenry County because of actions by deputies of the Sheriff's Department. The Gary Gauger lawsuit is coming up. If you haven't read his book, go to Read Between the Lynes on the Woodstock Square and pick up a copy. Well, don't just "pick up" a copy; buy it.

You'll probably read it straight through and then shake your head until you have a migraine. That one is very likely to cost the County some big bucks, in addition the money already spent in initially prosecuting the case and later in defending those efforts.

In addition to the civil lawsuit of the Pavlins, will there be criminal charges brought against some of the deputies who were at the Pavlins' home in March 2008? Will the State Police investigation find that unreasonable and unnecessary force was used against both of them and recommend charges? Are charges already under consideration?

One deputy described how Mr. Pavlin was "assisted" to the ground. Give me a break! Mr. Pavlin weighs about 130 lbs. A witness described it as "two deputies body-slammed him to the floor." And then the handcuffs were applied so tightly that bleeding resulted.

The usual case of clicking the handcuffs in really tight is because you are getting back at the person you are cuffing. It's a "I'll show him who is boss" attitude - an attitude of a bully. Of course, that's not to say that, in this case, that's what happened. Maybe it was just an "accident" that the handcuffs were put on so tightly...

The Federal case is likely to be a three-ring circus, with plenty of testimony from the Pavlins as to what really happened that night. So far, at the direction of their attorney in the criminal case just ended, they have kept pretty quiet about it.

Check out the online article about this lawsuit on www.nwherald.com. If you feel they are still beating the dead horse of the criminal charges against the Pavlins that disappeared last week, post a comment there, saying so.

Lawsuit filed after cases dropped

Late this afternoon a lawsuit was filed by a McHenry County couple, whose criminal case against them was dropped last week upon the Motion of the State's Attorney's office.

In March 2008 Jerome and Carla Pavlin were arrested by McHenry County Sheriff's deputies and charged with aggravaed battery and resisting arrest. After numerous court dates with their attorney, Mark Gummerson, and before the August 17th jury trial date that was on the docket, the State's Attorney's office moved to drop the case, formally called nolle prosequi, and did so emphatically With Prejudice, meaning that the charges against them were gone. And in court the further statement was made that the State's Attorney had no intention of re-filing charges against them.

That action ended an ordeal that had continued from March 2008 until this month.

Just before the end of the business day, their lawsuit was filed. It was too late in the day to get to the courthouse and read the Complaint. Details will be provided as soon as the Complaint is scanned into the court system computer and becomes available.

It was remarkable how quickly the Northwest Herald obtained copies of the deputies' reports and published them. It is also inexcusable that the Northwest Herald would display the home address and telephone number of defendants against whom all charges had just been dropped through a link on its website.

I wonder how the editor and the publisher of the Northwest Herald would feel if I published their home addresses and home telephone numbers. Just imagine the irate calls every time the Cubs lost or it rained or a typo appeared in someone's name.

They published the personal information of senior citizens who had just been cleared. Was this an unnecessary and inappropriate breach of privacy. And was the breach at the sheriff's department, where the address and telephone numbers could have been redacted.

Follow this story on this site. Details of their lawsuit will be published as soon as they are available.