Saturday, July 08, 2006

William Kroncke Investigating Marengo Police Abuse

William Kroncke is a State Police Investigator whose job it was to investigate incidents of police abuse in Marengo. In the events in question, Kroncke was investigating the incident of Scott Crawford and attempting to find if he was guilty of police brutality against the brothers Kevin and Brian Gaughan. How did Kroncke do this?
Well, he started by asking Kevin Gaughan, the person who was making the complaint against the officer in question to go down to the Marengo Police Department with him. This is the place where the incidents of police abuse took place in the first place. One would have thought that a separate setting would have been more appropriate.
The problem, of course, was that William Kroncke had no intention of finding out what happened that October night or what Scott Crawford did to Kevin Gaughan and his brother Brian. If you watch the tape of the interview, Kroncke is seen yelling and screaming the whole time. He waves a chair around, bangs the table, and even does the unthinkable – hits Kevin Gaughan in the face and knocks out a prisoner who is brought into the police department.
http://marengogazette.blogspot.com/
Why does he do this?
According to Kevin Gaughan, Kroncke was attempting to get him to sign a false confession having to do with the burglaries that took place in a nearby subdivision, Doral Ridge. That is fairly obvious from the tape, as Kroncke waves the paper with the confession over and over again in front of Kevin Gaughan’s face, screaming, yelling, and attempting to describe to him what will happen if this confession is not signed. William Kroncke is quite a dramatic personality, so these actions are very easy to see and hard to mistake for something else. He also wants Kevin Gaughan to retract the complaint he had made against Officer Scott Crawford, who beat up his brother at the Settlers Day Carnival that year. When Kevin refuses to do so, he hits him in the face. Kevin Gaughan is placed into a jail cell two times in order to scare him, as well.
Does this take place all the time in the Marengo Police Department?
Apparently so. A man named Orest Hideo spent many days in the hospital after being taken down to the police station last November. He is the man that Kroncke punches out on the tape in question. Why was he arrested again in November, months later after the events in question? We don’t know. Another boy, Steven Beisner, was also placed into a jail cell after being interrogated by the Marengo Police. He was told that he would go to jail and should get ready to find a boyfriend there. Beisner was only 14 years old at the time. He also was a victim of Officer Scott Crawford.
This is a very scary situation. The State’s Attorney’s Office in McHenry County will not look into this matter. We need whoever reads this to contact Attorney General Lisa Madigan to look into this and help the Gaughans, who have serious charges still against them which they are innocent of.

Lisa Madigan
IL Attorney Generals Office
100 W. Randolf St
Chicago, IL 60601
312-814-3000

www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov


July 4, 2006

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