Lowered flags to honor Rep. Beaubien

United States and Illinois flags are to be flown at half-staff from sunrise, Wednesday, June 8, until sunset, June 10, to honor the memory of Illinois State Representative Mark Beaubien, who died Sunday.

Details of his passing and arrangements can be found on www.nwherald.com/ and www.dailyherald.com/

FEN questions new blog's purpose

In today's edition of First Electric Newspaper, the publisher mentions a new blog that is being published that contains internal investigations of deputies who have been "behaving badly off-duty." Such behaviors include intoxication, DUI and getting arrested in Wisconsin for disorderly conduct.

That new blog is http://www.realmcsoexposed.blogspot.com/, and FEN reports, "Absent exegesis it's not clear what  the reports are supposed to prove."

 First, I had to look up "exegesis"; according to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, the defintion is "an explanation or critical interpretation of a text."

Let me offer an answer. What are the reports supposed to prove? They are supposed to show that the dirt being circulated about some deputies at the McHenry County Sheriff's Department may be true and that it gets swept under the rug far too often.

The Sheriff can handle the "dirt" administratively, as long as he doesn't impose a discipline that is greater than 30 days. If the discipline is longer than 30 days, he must go to the Sheriff's Department Merit Commission, where the five-member, hand-picked crowd can approve what he wants to do. But he has to go there. And once there, it becomes public record, because the Merit Commission is a "public body" and subject to FOIA and the Open Meetings Act.

By being able to handle disciplines of 30 days or less "quietly", the public never learns about them. Until someone leaks information. And that person does so at great risk.

That's why the public didn't hear about the drunken deputies leaving the Red Mill Inn (under its former ownership) and driving while DUI. Or about the deputy who pushed another deputy down, causing an injury. Or the deputies who prevented that injured deputy from calling Woodstock P.D. to report it (that's a felony right there - interfering with a person who wants to call for help). Or whoever at the sheriff's department lied to the Woodstock Police detective who inquired about the DUIs and the battery.

I was told that at least three deputies got 30-day administrative leaves.

McHenry County needs and deserves a squeaky-clean sheriff's department. Voters missed an opportunity last November to push Keith Nygren into retirement. By now many are probably wishing they had. Why? The sheriff sold his Hebron home two days after taking office and then refused to yield the residence to the purchaser for four months; revelations by Deputy Scott Milliman about involvement in alleged criminal activity; loss in lawsuits but continued appeals, which run up legal expenses; the sheriff's extended vacation immediately after yielding the house and moving to a small condo in Crystal Lake.

When a long-time deputy and someone who was close to the sheriff for years gives a sworn statement that Nygren is not squeaky clean, it doesn't sound like sour grapes to me. Where is the thorough, independent investigation and the "unpaid administrative leave" for the sheriff?

Sheriff Nygren, time's up!

Be sure to read this morning's article in the First Electric Newspaper (FEN)  (http://www.firstelectricnewspaper.com/) about the directive of the Office of the Public Access Counselor (a division of the Office of the Illinois Attorney General) to the McHenry County Sheriff's Department (a/k/a Sheriff Nygren's place) to release information sought by FEN in the removal of Deputy Scott Milliman from duty.

FEN submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Sheriff's Department to learn the reason that Milliman was placed on administrative leave. The Department responded by providing only the day (December 23) that Milliman was placed on leave. FEN wants more. The PAC ordered Nygren to provide it "immediately." That word may not be in Nygren's dictionary.

On this morning's edition of FEN it says, "That was one day before Cal Skinner's McHenry County Blog began printing Federal Court transcripts referring to Milliman's testimony Sheriff Keith Nygren had told him to kill people, ran an illegal alien ring and was involved in bribery."

Speaking of Sheriff Nygren, where is Sheriff Nygren? He has been conspicuously absent from comments and physical appearance in the case of the murder of Kurt Milliman, Scott's brother, on May 29.

Can anyone think of a more important function of the sheriff of a county than taking charge of the investigation and riding herd on investigators to make absolutely certain everything is done correctly?

And a press conference to release such information which could be released without jeopardizing an investigation? No way. If Nygren were in town, he'd be right in front of the cameras and microphones. But he apparently has not authorized the Undersheriff to operate as "Sheriff" in his absence. So, is McHenry County effectively without a Sheriff at this time?

The sheriff's department refuses to even reply to my emails, requesting notification of any and all press conferences related to the Kurt Milliman case.

Kimberly Smith's bond was reduced to $15,000 by Judge Condon. Where are the comments from the State's Attorney's Office or the Sheriff's Department? Were they pleased to see the bond lowered? Was it too low, to begin with?

Isn't there something in the CALEA-certified Manual for how to investigate a murder? Does the Standard Operating Manual at the Sheriff's Department contain a section of instructions for stonewalling the media?

Or is the Sheriff's Department afraid that a member of the electronic media (often referred to as blogs) might pitch them some hardball questions and put them on the spot? Writers for McHenry County Blog, First Electric Newspaper, Crystal Lake Patch and this blog are ready with our questions.

Chicago flash mobs take over

Are flash mobs taking over in Chicago? The Illinois State Rifle Association issued a long press release yesterday about ciminal activity by roaming mobs on Chicago's Gold Coast, and it mentioned the closing of the North Avenue Beach. While Mayor Emanual said the beach was closed because it was "too hot", he must have hoped listeners thought he meant the weather and not the scenes of the crimes.

You can read the press release at http://www.isra.org/  ISRA blames legislators, who failed to pass a concealed carry bill (HB 0148) on May 5. Fifty-three (53) legislators prevented the passage of this year's bill; 44 of them were Cook County Democrats.

The vote on May 5 was 65-52-1.

K. Smith bond reduced to $15,000

I didn't bother to go to the courthouse today at 9:00AM for Kimberly (Holian) Smith's bond hearing. It's probably good that I didn't. I'd hate to get ejected from a courtroom for reacting to Judge Condon's decision to reduce her bond from $50,000 to $15,000.

Oh, my, she had a cast on one arm and told the judge she is two months pregnant. Sob, sob, sob...

Does anyone else see anything wrong with this whole story about what happened on Saturday night, May 29, at 4320 Doty Road, just outside Woodstock City Limits?

According to the Northwest Herald, Special Public Defender Colin MacMeekin made a pitch for lower bond, because Smith hasn't been charged with homicide. Well, I ask "Why not?"

If a getaway driver can go to jail for life because a robber inside a store shoots and kills someone, then why isn't a wife who is alleging selling sex for $40 at risk for prison, if her husband kills someone during commission of a crime.

If a crime was occurring. If her husband killed Kurt Milliman. If, if, if...

Kimberly Smith's next court date is June 16, 9:00AM. The prosecutors were worried that she might be a flight risk, because she has missed court dates in the past. If she is bailed out before then, will she be in court on June 16?

Timothy Smith's next court date is June 24, 9:00AM.

Beth Bentley case - Leiberman interview

Did you listen to the interview by Jon Leiberman's True Facts program last Thursday or to the archived recording of the program?

Do you think Jon got the "true facts"? Did he get many facts at all?

I noticed that many answers were not to the specific questions he asked, and that surprised me. This was an opportunity to tell the Beth Bentley story, yet I had the sense that information was being held back. Jon would ask the questions, and then there would be pauses and hesitation, and sometimes there were questions asked back, instead of answering Jon's question.

The answers would have given listeners information they wanted. Perhaps within the answers could have been connections or clues that would have helped listeners and investigators further piece together the mystery of Beth's disappearance. Listeners got little help in that regard.

Both Ron (Beth's brother in Arizona) and Jeremy (her eldest son) said the police were not telling them anything, and then Jeremy said the police would call him and run some tips by him. He added that the police had called him, because they legally had to. That just didn't compute for me, at all.

Rather than being totally open and candid with Jon, some of the answers were just plan evasive. At this point it's not known whether True Facts will devote more time to this case. When a reporter has to work really hard to pry information out of close family members, he may just wash his hands of the case.

Why didn't Ron and Jeremy "go for broke" with this opportunity that had opened up for them? It was the time to avoid pulling any punches. Yes, sometimes you have to be careful what you say, so that you don't slander someone.

And sometimes you take that risk, when you are trying to find a sister and a mom who has been missing for over a year!

Hoodwinked.....

Recently I read Jack Cashill's book, Hoodwinked. It's a fascinating read.

Is something true, just because a speaker says it's true? Or because a writer says it's true? Don't you just have to love the person who says, "... and this is the truth"? The question in my mind is always, "And so, what about everything else you've been telling me?"

What about Sarah Palin and her Paul Revere story? Is she right? Could she be right? Obviously, it makes a better story the way we all learned it - that Paul Revere rode through the countryside to alert townspeople that the British were on the way. Where Palin get her version?

A little closer to home, the sheriff of McHenry County tells us that there is no racial profiling here. I haven't read the 350+ pages of it (yet), but I'm hearing that the numbers in it don't necessary indicate that there was no profiling.

And, of course, you might tell that to the Hispanic drivers who got stopped on U.S. 12 outside of Richmond on July 13, 2008, after Luna's big party where liquor was sold - without a license, so I've heard, and without any attention from the sheriff's department, even though they knew liquor was being sold without a license.

I'm working on getting a copy, which the Department could easily put on a disk and charge me a quarter for. But they'd like to see $0.15/page for 350 (or more) pages, and they won't see that from me. Which doesn't give them a free pass from me.

Maybe somebody will email me a scanned copy...