Boone County Watchdog: Summary of new issue in the race for Sheriff in McHenry County

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Summary of new issue in the race for Sheriff in McHenry County

FirstElectricNewspaper

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Opponents Complain More About McHenry County Sheriff

Investigations into the corruption and apparent suicide of Metra's Executive Director four months ago are beginning to redound onto the McHenry County Sheriff's race. Democratic challenger Mike Mahon charged Sheriff Keith Nygren's delayed release of 911 records in the case was another example of Nygren's trying to suppress information about "the McHenry County good-old-boy network."
Crystal Lake resident Phil Pagano walked in front of a Metra train May 7 just as he was about to be fired for finagling almost $500,000 worth of improper pay and loans from the transportation agency. Chicago's Better Government Association asked for the 911 recording of McHenry County's RTA Board Member Al Jourdan who called the Sheriff's Office that day to report Pagano was planning to kill himself.
Nygren refused to release the 911 call and the Sun-Times reported Friday he only gave it up when the BGA threatened to sue.
Nygren told FEN Friday he only withheld the recording because Jourdan gave the dispatcher his phone number and address and his technicians at first couldn't figure out how to redact them from the digital sound file.
Jourdan's address and phone number are readily available on the Internet, however.
On the tape Jourdan identified himself as a friend of Nygren's and in a news release Friday Mahon said that was really why it was withheld. "Mutual backscratching and personal favors are not the way to conduct the people’s business," it said.
Separately, Tuesday one-time Democratic candidate for McHenry County Coroner Dave Bachmann charged in a blog entry that a secret informant had told him Nygren had hired someone to kill him.
Bachmann who from earlier postings clearly has a mad on against the Sheriff claimed in the entry Nygren put out a contract on him about the time he began investigating his ownership of multiple homes in different states. Bachmann said his informant had been to see the U.S. Attorney about the supposed hit.
Asked about Bachmann's charge, Nygren said Friday, "I'm surprised you'd even ask that question. I'm not going to waste a minute on that man. My time's too valuable."
U.S. Attorney spokesman Randall Samborn Friday refused to confirm or deny if his office had been contacted about Bachmann's murder for hire allegations. "We don't comment on what we know or don't know," he said. "Especially in a political campaign," Samborn added.