Plea to City Council in Beth Bentley case

Last night at the meeting of the Woodstock City Council I asked the Council to raise the level of importance to the City for finding Beth Bentley. She has been missing now for more than a year, and it feels to many like she never existed.

Beth's case has always been classified a Missing Person case, not a criminal case. There has not been one press conference by the Woodstock Police Department. Three posters have made their way to the PD's website but are buried down past many "clicks", where they will seldom be seen. Whatever would cause anyone to go searching through the City's boring website?

The family has been conspicuously quiet about its missing family member. Monica Caison, founder of the CUE Center for Missing Persons (Wilmington, N.C.) says she has never seen a case like this one.

In the April 2011 report of the Woodstock Police Department to the City Council is this entry: "The Investigations Division and the Illinois State Police have continued to aggressively follow up on a leads (sic) and investigate the Missing Person Benedetta "Beth" Bentley case."

I told the City that it must speak out for its missing resident, who cannot speak out for herself. We, the residents of Woodstock, cannot let this case just slide under the rug. The people of the City will get involved, but they are going to have to get pushy about it. It is way past time for high public involvement.

It's time for family members and friends to put their cards on the table and stopped holding them close to their chests. Every bit of information belongs in the hands of the investigators. Everything! Rumors, suspicions, every gap in connecting the dots...

Every "pregnant pause" in the online interview by Jon Leiberman must be explored. That's the freshest information. What "wasn't said" is important.

Would you allow your vehicle to be searched?

Suppose you get stopped some night. The trooper tells you that you have a taillight out (or a headlight or a license plate light). Your driver's license and insurance are in order, and you think you'll be on your way with a warning (it'll be written, not verbal).

Then he (or she) says, "You don't mind if I search your vehicle, do you?"

Suddenly your mind is racing. "Darned right, I mind," you are thinking. But do you say it? There is no one else around. The trooper is armed, of course. So you quickly think through your options.

Then the trooper says, "Of course, you don't have to let me search. But, if you don't, I'll have to ticket you for the light (no warning). Might have to check your entire vehicle for safe operating condition, too." You think about the right front tire that is a little thin. And how the horn doesn't work all the time.

Intimidated yet? Oh, did I mention that you are Hispanic or black?

According to an Associated Press article, the Illinois State Police might have a problem with racial profiling. Troopers "...were nearly four times more likely to ask Hispanic drivers to allow a search and three times more likely to ask black drivers (than to ask white drivers), according to the ACLU."

The AP says that State numbers indicate that "police are actually more likely to find illegal contraband among white drivers."

The ACLU said "that a (State) panel created in 2006 to study racial profiling had never even met." Fancy that.

Blago's gall still delights ..

Don't you really just have to love the gall of Rod Blagojevich, "the hair"?

No doubt he had carefully thought through his last hurrah. As he stood down from testifying yesterday, he tried to shake hands with his nemesis, the prosecuting attorney who had been grilling him to a well-done condition.

"Put 'er there, pod-nur."

Yeah, sure... Have you ever, even once, seen a defendant leave the stand and then reach out to congratulate the prosecutor for just raking him over the coals? "Good job, sir."

Sorry, Rod, it didn't work.

The prosecutor was ready for him and turned away.

Do you think for a minute that Blago hadn't planned that out? You know - attempt to shake hands and then have the jury see you being snubbed by the refused handshake?

Judge Zagel was also ready for Blago and gave an appropriate direction to the jury about it.

Anybody out scouting for rope and the highest tree limb yet?

Playing CLUE helps - maybe

Every kid (and man) in McHenry County should have to read about this week's trial of Michael W. Rohn, 24. Rohn is accused of aggravated battery and attempted first-degree murder in an altercation that took place in Cary on Sunday, October 16, about 4:00AM.

Rohn and a friend hit the Cary McDonald's and were in line behind a Chevy Tahoe. According to the Northwest Herald's summary of yesterday's court proceedings, Rohn and the other driver pulled into parking places, so their passengers and they could eat what they had just purchased.

Somebody in the Tahoe flipped Rohn the bird. Then Jeremy Sojka, 21, got out of the Tahoe.

Supposedly, Rohn threatened to shoot him and then punched him. Then Rohn hit Sojka with his Jeep, backed up and ran over him. So one story goes.

Rohn's defense attorney said it didn't happen that way. He said Sojka and friends got out of the Tahoe and starting punching Rohn and his passenger. He also said Sojka's blood-alcohol content was more than three times the legal limit for driving.

When you view that 24-year-old's driving history (just McHenry County), you have to wonder why he even has a driver's license! His record goes back to August 5, 2003 (age 16). His record shows 39 traffic violations (not all on separate dates), including two prior DUIs, along with other charges.

The entire record can be viewed at http://www.mchenrycircuitclerk.org/
Click on "Case Information Search"
Click on "By Party Name"
Enter Michael W Rohn
Click on "Search"
Click on any Case Number link to view that case; then you can navigate among the pages on the Charges/Sentences link for more information.

Sojka, referred to as the "alleged victim" by the Northwest Herald, is no stranger to McHenry County Circuit Court records. He has 22 traffic violations in the record, including a DUI in August 2010, which case is still pending (next court date, July 11.

According to court records, a jury trial om Rohn's case will continue in Judge Prather's courtroom this morning at 9:01AM.

County Board says NO to pay raises

The Northwest Herald reports yesterday's decision by the McHenry County Board not to grant pay raises to non-union employees of McHenry County. The vote was 12-8, with one abstaining and three absent.

Now let's see if they stand firm against the unions, when their reps show up and threaten to strike if they don't get all the marbles they want.

A $3,000,000 budget surplus is nothing in a County this size. County department heads should cut expenses everywhere, in order to avoid the next tax increase.

When an employee (union or not) is driving a County vehicle, shut it off at McDonald's. Don't sit in the drive-through lane; park and walk in (on your lunch hour, of course). Don't run the air-conditioning unnecessarily; roll down the windows. Don't sit in the car and write your reports for an hour with the engine running and the AC on.

Department heads should ask each employee what can be done with cut expenses. The employees know - better than any so-called "expert".  There is no need to spend thousands on time-motion consultants.

2007 tip was true!

Sometimes a day can just not get any better.

The new blog on the block is The Real MCSO Exposed, and you can read it at http://www.realmcsoexposed.blogspot.com/

What made my day today? Several times I have written about a drinking party (MCSD deputies) at the Red Mill Inn (under its prior ownership) in January 2007, after which a deputy was injured when pushed down by another deputy when she tried to prevent him from driving while intoxicated.

On the new blog, documents were posted last night under the headline, "Battery, DUI and more". The documents are a five-page report, dated February 6, 2007 from EEO Kathleen Seith to Sheriff Nygren. She details what happened.

The part I didn't know about was that warnings had been given to command deputies before that drinking party on January 27, 2007. The party was only four days after Deputy Anderson had crashed his off-duty squad car while DUI in Crystal Lake, and the Department was concerned about media attention. And with good cause.

Go to http://www.realmcsoexposed.blogspot.com/ and then scroll down to "Battery, DUI and more." Double-click on each page to enlarge it. After reading it, click on the Back button on your browser to return to the article, scroll down a little, and repeat the clicks to enlarge each page.

Why does this incident still interest me, even now, four years later? After getting a tip about that party, I contacted Chief Lowen at the Woodstock Police Department, because I had heard that the female deputy who got pushed down by her supervisor (all this is off-duty) had wanted to report it to WPD and was prevented from doing so. Chief Lowen didn't know anything about it, and he told me later that he had sent a detective to the McHenry County Sheriff's Department. The detective returned empty-handed, the Chief told me; i.e., the detective was told nothing like that had happened.

Funny how the truth always comes out. It's certainly regrettable when a county sheriff's department withholds information from a major police department about crimes involving its own deputies.

In fact, it's more than "regrettable".

Thanks for the author of this new blog! You are providing a great service to residents of McHenry County.

Local court or circuit court?

How does a Woodstock Police officer decide whether to cite an offender into Woodstock's Administrative Adjudication Court or into McHenry Court Circuit Court?

First, what's the difference? The officer has a choice, subject to directives issued within the Woodstock Police Department (officially and otherwise), when he encounters what might be considered a relative minor violation.

As some readers know, I've been writing about activities in and near the Park in the Square, so you'd think that I'd be all for rigid enforcement. I am - for rigid and fair enforcement. So, when an officer writes some tickets to younger adults for standing on a sidewalk and alleges that they were restricting free access to sidewalks, then he can cite them for a violation of City Code and, for this violation, probably choose which court to use.

If he sends the offender to Woodstock's Administrative Adjudication Court, the person, if convicted, will not have a record in Circuit Court and will probably incur a lower fine and lower court costs.

If he sends them to McHenry County Circuit Court, they will have a record and will face higher fines and court costs.

If a person was "congregating" on a sidewalk in the Square, would a passerby have to be inconvenienced and forced to walk onto the grass to pass, in order for a violation to occur? Why send him to Circuit Court?

Section 6.2B.2 of the City Code prohibits:

A. Playing ball, riding skateboards, riding bicycles, serving or gliding frisbees or other similar sailing or gliding devices.

B. For any group of persons to congregate in the park in the Square in such a manner that free access along paved sidewalks is restricted, prohibited or blocked.

C. To ride any bicycle, skateboard or other devices on any adjacent sidewalk to the park in the Square.

I was recently asked about the hours for the Park in the Square. Section 6.2.5 of the City Code establishes that the Park in the Square and Sesquicentennial Park (corner of Church and Jefferson) are open 24 hours a day, except when the parks are closed to the public for a special event.
The Woodstock Administrative Adjudication Court convenes this Thursday for its June monthly court session. Court is open to the public and starts at 9:30AM. Drop by for an hour or two to understand how this court operates in Woodstock.