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State’s attorneys and their enemies behaving badly

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Illinois

New affidavits from former employees in the Macon County State’s Attorney’s Office claim employees have been harassed, forced to do political work and have been fired under questionable circumstances.

The two documents were filed Wednesday in Macon County Circuit Court as an attachment to the original petition to request a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of misconduct by Macon County State’s Attorney Jay Scott.

The affidavits go into greater detail of the alleged misconduct in the office, which includes electioneering within county offices, using county-owned property for personal use and providing a computer flash drive that contained pornographic material to a female state’s attorney employee that was accidentally shown to family members of a crime victim on a computer owned by the county. […]

Scott, a Democrat, is being challenged by Dan Hassinger, a Republican and Decatur-area lawyer. Scott defeated Hassinger in the 2012 election.

* WSIL TV…

A judge in Franklin County granted an order of protection against a candidate running for Williamson County State’s Attorney.

A woman claims earlier this month she woke up to Duane Verity sexually assaulting her. […]

The order was amended to show it was granted without finding of sexual conduct and/or penetration. […]

Verity is running on the Republican ticket for Williamson County State’s Attorney against incumbent Democrat Brandon Zanotti.

* Also from WSIL TV…

A Harrisburg doctor accused of murdering his wife is now charged with attempting to kidnap the Saline County State’s Attorney.

Charges of solicitation, conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping, and attempted aggravated kidnapping were filed against Brian Burns Wednesday.

Burns, 57, was arrested in March for the murder of his estranged wife Carla Burns. Investigators believe Burns shot his wife and burned her body near their rural Harrisburg home.

During a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Saline County State’s Attorney Mike Henshaw said Burns had phone conversations with a detective who was acting as an undercover agent. In those conversations, Burns agreed to pay $1,000 to have Henshaw kidnapped.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Sep 30, 16 @ 11:55 am

Comments

Rich, can we please have a rainbows and unicorn posts? This is discouraging heading into the weekend.

Comment by New Slang Friday, Sep 30, 16 @ 11:59 am
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

– MrJM

Comment by @MisterJayEm Friday, Sep 30, 16 @ 12:00 pm
SA Brian Towne in Lasalle county should be on this list too. He set up his own forfeiture police squad and is misallocating the money. Including allegedly (gotta use that word, it’s still in the courts) spending the money on campaigning.

Comment by Big Muddy Friday, Sep 30, 16 @ 12:01 pm
Does this mean there will be a moratorium on self-serving political yammering and Downstate newspaper edits on dat bad ‘ol Crook County that is ruining the lives of the virtuous and pure in the rest of the state?

For today, I mean.

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Sep 30, 16 @ 12:06 pm
Not just in Illinois!

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/sep/30/iain-farrimond-court-prosecutor-admits-stabbing-wife-in-head-nottingham-crown-court

Comment by G'Kar Friday, Sep 30, 16 @ 12:06 pm
I’m wondering what Quality of Service you would get for $1000./s

Comment by WhoKnew Friday, Sep 30, 16 @ 12:07 pm
@MrJM - Excellent. It has been far too many years for me to recall my high school latin so I had to look it up.

Comment by illini Friday, Sep 30, 16 @ 12:09 pm
===the original petition to request a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of misconduct by Macon County State’s Attorney===

I’m quite confident that this would be an issue in most county governments in the state.

===Burns agreed to pay $1,000 to have Henshaw kidnapped.===

His first clue probably should have been that the person he was talking to agreed to kidnap someone for only $1,000.

Comment by Anon Friday, Sep 30, 16 @ 12:29 pm
Just to be clear, when running for State’s Attorney —

Experience in the State’s Attorney’s Office = Good
Experience defending yourself from the State’s Attorney’s Office = Bad

Comment by Ron Burgundy Friday, Sep 30, 16 @ 12:30 pm
this is really nothing you should read the disclosure it is full of all kinds texts and love affairs between candidates

Comment by jw Friday, Sep 30, 16 @ 12:32 pm
=== A woman claims earlier this month she woke up to Duane Verity sexually assaulting her. […]===

Why did the purported victim not ask for criminal charges against her alleged rapist, instead of just an order of protection??

Comment by anon Friday, Sep 30, 16 @ 12:43 pm
Cook County aint got nothing on these guys.

Comment by train111 Friday, Sep 30, 16 @ 1:19 pm