Edgar (ECWd) –
Edgar County Sheriff Deputy Dee Burgin has found himself in yet another Federal civil rights case resulting from what appears to be yet another case of violating a person’s civil rights. The criminal case in the County got tossed after video evidence pointed to the person’s rights being violated by Burgin.
During recent depositions in the Federal case, we now have confirmation, under oath, that Dee Burgin did, in fact, participate in the purchase of guns from the past Sheriff.
Q. During any of your tenure as a law enforcement officer did you ever participate in a Sheriff’s sale as a purchaser of items? THE WITNESS: Yes.
Q. And what department, what county?
A. Edgar County.
Q. And who was the sheriff at the time?
A. Tim Crippes.
Q. What did you purchase?
A. Some guns that were up for bid.
This admission confirms violations of the County Code as it relates to Deputies participating in Sheriff Sales.
(55 ILCS 5/3 6026) (from Ch. 34, par. 3 6026) – “No purchase of property at own sale. No sheriff or deputy sheriff shall become the purchaser, nor procure any other person to become the purchaser for him or her, of any property, real or personal, by him or her exposed to sale, by virtue of any judgment or process; and all such purchases made by any sheriff or deputy sheriff, or by any other person in his or her behalf, shall be absolutely null and void.”
It also is yet another example of law enforcement being involved in the selling and buying of guns in direct violation of state law pertaining to such weapons. Those actions being violations of law were confirmed with both the Illinois State Police during our interview with them regarding former Coles County Sheriff Darrel Cox who was involved in selling guns and the Coles County State’s Attorney who drafted this letter for distribution to Coles County law enforcement operations.
Edgar County has ignored all those violations of law.
With admissions under Oath by Deputy Burgin, we believe it is time for him to face the very laws he is bound by. If the Sheriff and State’s Attorney’s oath of office has any value, we expect them to take appropriate action to hold Deputy Burgin accountable to the law.
Edgar County has a long history of its Officials violating laws and getting away with it. Almost seven years ago we first exposed past Edgar County Sheriff’s Karl Farnham and Tim Crippes for selling seized guns in direct violation of the law. At the time of exposure, the response from former Sheriff Farnham was “it’s past the statute of limitations”, as if that makes it OK.
While the State’s Attorney, Mark Isaf, knew full well what had taken place, as did the Sheriff and County Board, no one, and I mean no one has ever been held accountable for illegal gun sales in Edgar County. These sales included a gun with a filed off serial number.
While reviewing our past Edgar County articles in preparation for this article, it was truly sad to see how many times our law enforcement has been involved in violating our laws and abusing people’s civil rights.
The shortlist of, “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” in Edgar County”
- Fast and Furious guns sales by Edgar County Sheriff
- Burgin Civil Suit Guilty finding for violating a person’s civil rights.
- Bogus “covert investigator” status for former County Board member
- Inmates for free labor on roofing jobs
- State’s Attorney involved with cocaine in Terre Haute
- 5 part series on Dignity…..or lack of!
- Sheriff jailers found Guilty…..but only after the cover-up was exposed
- Seize property -use county funds to repair it and then buy it from your employer, the Sheriff (Judge ignores the laws on such sales in his letter)
Stay tuned for more amazing exposures of actions within the Edgar County Sheriff’s office.
You can download the deposition admission at this link or view below.
Burgin Gun purchase admission.
3 Comments
Philo Beddoe
Posted at 12:00h, 25 FebruaryNoted law scholar, Karl Farnham Jr., has delivered his heavyweight opinion. I would bet those Feds up and shit their pant as they fled the state.
Elberto Gonzales
Posted at 16:23h, 24 FebruaryThere’s absolutely nothing wrong with a person saying he doesn’t remember!
Sometimes a better educated and slicker person might even say something like “I don’t recall.”
Another thing I noted when reading the excerpt was that Deputy Dee didn’t answer “that I don’t recall remembering” at least as far as doing so on the page of the transcript I read.
So that’s like a card in the shoe for next time!
I wonder why Deputy Dee wasn’t asked how many times he bought guns at the Sheriff’s auction that he wasn’t sposed to be purchasing guns at? To see if he remembered that.
Frank Serpico
Posted at 20:58h, 22 FebruaryHe can’t remember when he was hired by Newman ? ! He can’t remember if he has been at Newman PD more than 5yrs or not ? ! He can’t remember how many guns he bought at the Sheriff’s auction ? ! He doesn’t know what kind of training he has had ? ! He sure has a bad memory or more obviously does not have much use for the plaintiff’s attorney. Did they subpoena his personnel files from Newman and Edgar County or his training file from the Mobile Training Unit 13?