McHenry County Justice

It has been on my mind how our justice system here in McHenry County has unfairly imprisoned people and charged them with crimes. I can’t help but wonder if this is a case particular to McHenry County or if it happens everywhere. Unfortunately, I have found an example that we can refer to, and that is what happened in New Orleans. The way people accused of crimes in New Orleans have been treated is truly horrifying. An organization from New Orleans called Safe Streets, Strong Communities did a study on how many days people were kept in jail without trial.They found the average number was 385 days. One person had been locked up for 1,289 days. None of these people have been convicted of any crime. Many of these arrests were for simple misdemeanors. Now, I cannot help but wonder how this could have been allowed to take place. Can you imagine if you got arrested (falsely or not)for, let’s say, disorderly conduct. Let’s suppose you were arguing with your husband or wife and someone called the police. Do you think it is right for you to be locked up for the next year awaiting a trial?
But, wait, you might say, what does this have to do with McHenry County? Well, look at the Gaughan case. The Gaughans were originally arrested over a year and a half ago. Almost two years. Yet the State’s Attorney issues continuance after continuance in order to postpone the trial. They do this because they know this will wind up costing the Gaughans yet more money and they are hoping that they will go broke and be unable to fight the false charges against them. Luckily, they are not sitting in jail as this is taking place. But there is no excuse for the constant delays, and if a person does not have the money to pay bail, then they would have to wait all this time in jail for a trial on charges that are not serious enough to even warrant that much jail time. What makes this even worse is that the only two witnesses against the Gaughans are both former disgraced cops who resigned in lieu of being fired. Both committed crimes which neither was charged with because of the State’s Attorney not wanting to bring charges against them. Instead they continued with the charges against the Gaughans. The firing of these two cops has cost Marengo tax payers over $100,000 so far. A few months ago the city administrator, Scott Hartman, said Marengo was in the red because they had spent over $100,000 involving a police lawsuit. Well, what the city spent that 100G on was the investigation, and the removal of Crawford and Given. None of that money was spent on the civil rights lawsuit. That is being paid entirely by the City’s insurance company, which has not even started using that money for anything yet. On top of that, the $100,000 that the City spent does not even count the $30,000 that Crawford received to resign nor any of the money Given might have received for her resignation. So, we are all paying the price for the police department’s and the State’s Attorney’s incompetence, not just those directly involved. I think this is something that we should all think about, as it might be ourselves or our children who might one day be at the mercy of the justice system here in McHenry County, as well as the rest of us, who will surely be stuck footing the bill.

July 5, 2006