IL. Attorney General will not pursue charges against FIPHD…

IROQUOIS CO. (ECWd) –

There have been news reports stating that the Illinois Attorney General’s Office will not pursue charges against employees of the FIPHD. In an effort to confirm these reports, I contacted the AG’s press secretary and asked a couple of questions, and here are the responses:

Q & A with the AG’s Press Secretary

Q: Did the Attorney General’s office state that they will not pursue charges against any employees of the FIPHD?

A: The Attorney General’s Office did not issue or make any statements in relation to the FIPHD. (He did acknowledge what was reported in various newspapers, but reiterated they did not make any such statements and directed me to contact the Iroquois County State’s Attorney for further questions)

Q: Did the AG’s office state that they found no criminal/illegal activity within the FIPHD?

A: The Attorney General’s Office did not issue or make any statements in relation to whether any criminal/illegal activity was or was not found when looking at information provided about the FIPHD – they again directed me to contact the Iroquois County State’s Attorney for any other questions.

Q & A with Iroquois State’s Attorney

Q: Did the Attorney General’s office sstate they did not see any criminal or illegal acts within the FIPHD?

A: No. They did not say they didn’t find anything.

Q: Did the Attorney General’s office state why they were not prosecuting anyone from the FIPHD?

A: No. The AG’s office was not specific on the declination to charge anyone, only that they declined to prosecute based on the information provided them during the meeting they had.

More Reason For Concern

Since the AG has met with the Iroquois County State’s Attorney and their County Board Chairman, more research has been performed and more information will come out of our research. Whether or not criminal charges are eventually filed will ultimately be up to the State’s Attorney or the County Board.

 What We Have Learned In The Past Two Years

What we have learned in the past 2 years when dealing with complaints to State or Federal organizations, is that unless the amount of money involved reaches into the millions of dollars, typically these agencies are reluctant to get involved due to the financial costs of prosecution. They prefer to leave it at the State’s Attorney level for prosecution instead as it makes sense financially do do it that way.

With that being said, state and federal agencies will generaly not state whether or not they see criminal activity, just that they will not take over prosecution of any alleged activity. Declining to charge anyone does not mean there was not criminal activity or “questionable activity”, it simply means the state (or federal) government have bigger fish to fry and this is best left at the local level.

Finally, those that think nothing is wrong because the AG’s office decline to prosecute are mistaken. There are a miriad of reasons a state office will not prosecute, and most of them have nothing to do with whether a law was broken or not.

We stand by everything we have published to date and will continue to do so.