Shelby County – Amended FOIA Complaint Filed – State’s Attorney Named In Two Counts

Shelby Co., Ill. (ECWd)-

As covered in this article, we filed our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in May of 2024. We discovered the State’s Attorney had not even informed the County Board of the lawsuit until October 22, 2024, five months after our original filing.  Since that filing, a few records have been produced to include confirmation that people’s donations to the Dive Team were not being deposited into a county-controlled account.  Instead of those funds being under county control, the entity holding those funds, the Shelbyville Area Community Foundation, was charging 2% on those donated funds as can be seen in the record provided by the current State’s Attorney Ruth Woolery. We have not found any legal authority for a nonprofit to be a holding agency for public funds designated for a public dive team, nor any authority to charge interest on donations not in their name.

Other concerning facts are filtering out.  According to SA Woolery,

1. There are no receipts for funds donated to the dive team other than the ledger that is attached hereto. This ledger was maintained by the Shelbyville Area Community Foundation during the time period when the dive team was not in operation under the County government.
2. There are no documents to reflect cash on hand. The dive team typically kept a small amount of petty cash on hand to pay for expenses incurred during calls. All receipts for said expenses are believed to have been removed by someone other than the dive team commander during the time when the dive team was not operational. The dive team commander does not know where the receipts went.
3. There are no receipts responsive to Request No. 3. As stated above, the only receipts would have been in the petty cash box for expenses incurred during calls, however, those were removed by someone other than the dive team commander during the time the dive team was not operational.

We can only assume that Woolery is not aware of the federal court records that clearly outline the dive team was under the county for many years as proven by the records linked in this article.  We know the dive commander Austin Prichard was aware of the removal of records and cash by law enforcement.  We also know Woolery is aware of that because she produced the video to our attorneys that clearly shows both cash being counted and receipts that to date have yet to be produced.

Our amended complaint includes 2 additional counts naming the State’s Attorney.  The SA refused to provide a redacted police report of a convicted felon among other violations.  That FOIA denial was under review by the Attorney General PAC office.  That review is stayed because of our filing the complaint. In a separate FOIA request, the SA claimed certain communications as exempt and cited an exemption that does not even exist.

We understand Woolery has informed the board that a volunteer organization (dive team), is not a public body, according to something the Attorney General’s Office told her.  While we do not know what facts she shared with the AG, we know there are other PAC complaints being reviewed against the dive commander for refusing to even answer FOIA requests.  Anyone who thinks the Shelby County dive team records are not subject to the state Freedom of Information Act has no understanding of our open records law.

A copy of our amended complaint can be downloaded at this link or viewed below.