Now must wait five days...

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
April 8, 2011

On Wednesday, a McHenry County Sheriff's deputy failed to show up in court for a trial of a Prairie Grove cop who rear-ended a car on February 4, resulting in the cop's walking out of the courtroom without any penalties at all.

I filed a FOIA request this morning to view the crash report and learn the deputy's name. When yesterday's call to a Patrol commander at MCSD was returned this afternoon, I wasn't given the name and was told to await the FOIA response. Normal turn-around on FOIA Requests is five days.

So much for transparency in government, right? Well, if they want a mountain out of a molehill, this is a good way to put down another layer.

Another way to handle it, of course, would have been to provide the deputy's name.

In response to my question about whether failing to show up in court is a pretty serious matter, I was told that the deputy was expected to be in court "unless he had a good reason." And, if he didn't, then he might get talked to a couple of times, and then progressive discipline might kick in.

Sorry, but I don't buy that one. If he is supposed to be in court as a prosecution witness, it's not optional. It's part of his job. He'll get paid for showing up, if he wasn't already on duty. If he suffered a line-of-duty injury the night before, then his supervisor ought to be in court to explain that to the judge, and I'm sure the judge would continue the case and not just let the defendant walk out.

So now I have to wait for the FOIA response period to run. Look for the next article in a week or so, unless I have time to go to the courthouse and look up the ticket.