Is There a Scandal Brewing in McHenry County?

The Daily Herald has a front page story about a potential scandal that is getting attention involving McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi. We have previously written about Mr. Bianchi. On January 19, 2009 we published a blog concerning the stretching of county resources due to Mr. Bianchi's tough stance on plea agreements. Today's story about Mr. Bianchi is much different. The story started in 2007 when Bianchi's office learned that files may have been taken from the prosecutor's office. A special prosecutor was named at the time to investigate the missing files. The investigation led to the arrest of Amy Dalby, a secretary working in the prosecutors office. The former secretary claimed that she removed the files from the office because she wanted to gather proof that Bianchi was making her perform campaign work and other political duties on county time. Ms. Dalby felt that it was her civic duty to preserve the evidence to show that Bianchi was unethical. Bianchi has denied Dalby's allegations and claims they are all politically motivated. In Mr. Bianchi's defense, Dalby never went to law enforcement with any of the alleged evidence but rather turned it over to Bianchi's Republican opponent who ran an unsuccessful campaign against him last year.

Dalby was sentenced to one year of court supervision for misdemeanor computer tampering because she admitted to downloading and removing more than 5000 pages of documents from the prosecutors office. The special prosecutor is still investigating and refuses to say whether any more people will be charged with crimes.

We will keep an eye out for any more developments.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Update on McHenry Prosecutor Case

On June 1, 2009, we published a post about a possible scandal brewing in McHenry County. A former secretary for McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi was claiming that Bianchi had her do illegal campaign related work for him while she was on county time. The former secretary, Amy Dalby, had been sentenced to Court Supervision for illegally removing thousands of computer files from Bianchi's office. Dalby claimed she removed the files to preserve the evidence of Bianchi's illlegal conduct. Dalby has also filed a petition to have a special prosecutor appointed to investigate Bianchi. This morning, Bianchi filed a motion to have an outside attorney appointed to represent the county in Dalby's Petition. Bianchi wants an outside attorney appointed for the county to have the county determine whether to oppose Dalby's petition.

It seems like Bianchi would be better served by not getting involved in the matter and not file any motions or petitions relative to the case. This matter has the real potential of becoming complicated and drawn out. We'll keep an eye out on this for our readers.

For more information about the Chicago Criminal Defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Update on McHenry Prosecutor Case

On June 1, 2009 we published a post about a possible scandal brewing in the McHenry County Prosecutor's Office.  We reported about allegations that were being made by a former secretary to McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi who was alleging that she was doing campaign work for Bianchi while she was working for McHenry County.  On June 10, 2009 we published another post about Bianchi filing a motion in court requesting that an outside prosecutor be appointed to investigate the allegations.  The court eventually appointed outside attorneys to investigate the allegations.  This morning, the Daily Herald is reporting that the McHenry County Finance Committee will soon be considering spending $100,000 to pay for the investigation.  The resolution will permit the county administration to pay up to $100,000 out of the county's general fund contingency budget to pay the legal fees for the outside attorneys hired to investigate the allegations.  A former McHenry County Judge and a former federal prosecutor have been hired to investigate the allegations against Bianchi.  An earlier investigation by a special prosecutor retained by Bianchi's office has already cost the taxpayers of McHenry county $64,155.00.  This earlier investigation led to the arrest of the secretary for removing files from Bianchi's office which led to the secretary's allegations of campaign work being done on county time.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

McHenry County Prosecutor Indicted

Readers of this blog will know that we have been reporting about the investigation of McHenry County State's Attorney, Louis Bianchi.  The saga began with the arrest of an office worker for the theft of documents from Bianchi's office.  The worker was eventually prosecuted and pled guilty to the theft charges but stated that she stole the documents to prove that Bianchi was running his campaign with county resources.  An investigation into the allegations was launched and today a grand jury has indicted Bianchi on conspiracy and official misconduct charges.  Bianchi's Executive Administrative Assistant was also indicted for four counts of perjury and for destroying electronic documents on her computer.  The indicted reportedly alleges that between 2005 and 2010, Bianchi used his office to do campaign work.  He apparently used office equipment to print and mail out letters for his re-election campaign.  He is also charged with trying to get one of his assistants to not produce documents that had been requested in a grand jury subpoena.

We will keep our readers updated on the developments of this case.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

McHenry County Spending More Money On Special Prosecutors

The McHenry County Board has approved spending another $100,000 for special prosecutors and consultants.  It is thought that the majority of this money relates to the investigation and the prosecution of McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi.  Bianchi was indicted by a grand jury earlier this week for using county resources to do campaign work.  When the investigation of Bianchi started, it was estimated that it would cost about $100,000.  Up until now, special prosecutors and consultants have submitted $74,306 in invoices.  There's another invoice for $34,321 for work performed from September of 2009 to February of this year.  The additional money that has been appropriated will cover future additional expenses and any unforeseen costs and expenses. 

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefeners.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

McHenry Prosecutor Tough Stance Stretching County Resources

There's a report in today's Daily Herald that court resources in McHenry County are being stretched due to the drastic increase in jury trials. In 2004, there was only a total of 48 juries. In 2007 that number went up to 97, and in 2008 that number increased 139. There could be several reasons for this such as the increased in county population, changing state laws that affect the number of felonies and DUI offenses. But the article points out that many local criminal defense attorneys point to the hard line stance taken by McHenry County State's Attorney, Louis Bianchi. Local attorneys are reporting that the prosecutor's office is making ridiculous offers thereby leaving defendants no choice but to go to trial. Bianchi readily admits that his policies are leading to more trials but makes no excuse for his stance. However, the county only has a limited number of judges, courtrooms and support personnel to deal with this increase in trials. And with the current budget problems facing state and local governments, it is unlikely that there will be any additional funding to deal with this problem.

Bianchi staunchly defends his policies and believes that the trial experience will benefit his assistants as they gain experience from jury trials.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

McHenry County Unseals Hundreds Of Sealed Search Warrant Files

The McHenry County States Attorneys office unsealed hundreds of search warrant files that had previously been kept sealed.  Most counties make search warrant files open to the public.  Except for McHenry County which keeps them sealed even after charges are filed or are not filed.  Last year, a judge in St. Clair County, ruled in a lawsuit involving a newspaper that such files should be made public unless they jeopardize an ongoing investigation.  McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi sought the opinion of the Illinois Attorney General which advised his office that once warrants have been served, they should be made open to the public.  Bianchi's office has poured over hundreds of files to see if they contained any information which would jeopardize any ongoing investigations and released 248 files.  Only 20 files were kept sealed after it was determined that they contained sensitive information that would jeopardize ongoing investigations.  Most of the files unsealed contained information regarding drug investigations, investigations involving murders, embezzlement and an illegal fowl hunting investigation. 

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.