Kane Co., Ill. (ECWd) –
This is an update on the Illinois Secretary of State’s (“SOS”) letter to Kane County and the United States Department of Transportation Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) alleging that Kane County unlawfully masked convictions of a Commercial Driver’s License (“CDL”) holder who was later involved in the death of a Dekalb County Sheriff’s Deputy.
In an email dated November 26, 2024, the USDOT-FMCSA included in its Annual Performance Report (“APR”) a “finding of masking” as a means of putting Kane County on notice. We are diligently searching for a copy of the APR and will publish it in a later article. This was one day after the Illinois SOS sent his letter of allegations to the FMCSA.
From within the communications between the SOS and Kane County, there appears to be domestic battery cases in addition to the case of interest in the CDL masking. Kane County basically admits to multiple inaccurate beliefs, things that did not happen that they thought happened, mishandling of evidence (the video), confusion on the phrase “in the commission of which a motor vehicle was used,” and their alleged unintentional failure to report to the SOS.
Kane County State’s Attorney’s December 27, 2024, letter to the SOS and FMCSA (start on page 37) indicates:
- A claim the prosecutor’s office was initially told that the State Police officer failed to appear for the Grand Jury hearing and one of the Kane County Investigators had to testify in his stead. “Upon further review now, it is clear this did not happen.”
- Kane County was also under the mistaken belief that they could not obtain the squad video when they were working on the plea. A copy of the squad video was discovered after the plea had already been entered (no indication of who was in possession of the “missing” squad video when it was “discovered”).
- Kane County stated both of the above were used to decide they needed to enter into a plea deal to resolve this matter.
- Kane County next appears to partially blames the manufacturers and distributors of opiates, who Kane County is aggressively pursuing in the courts, by stating the “defendant is a statistic of their actions.”
- Defendant self-admitted to turning to heroin.
- A plea offer for pleading guilty to Class 1 possession of controlled substance (with a conviction, treatment, drug testing, and costs), and DUI (to be Nol Pros’d after completion of treatment).
- Next, Kane County places partial blame on the judicial forms used, saying the forms did not adequately account for all of the situations that would require notification to the Secretary of State. They are working on fixing this issue, as well as further clarifying what “any felony under the laws of any state . . . in the commission of which a motor vehicle was used” actually means.
- The Court did order the Circuit Clerk to not notify the SOS, and the Kane County prosecutor claims that was the correct decision, even though he further explains it should have been reported under a different provision of state law, and that the nonreporting was “unintentional.”
- Finally, he points to a “Masking Quick Reference Guide” to support his claim that masking does not occur when a prosecutor dismisses a case because of insufficient evidence, and that his office had no intention of masking the defendant’s conviction.
We find it odd the quick reference guide was pointed to, but not the National Traffic Law Center’s 11-page document on avoiding masking of CDL convictions, additionally he did not point to the United States Code or the Code of Federal Regulations on this subject.
Kane County State’s Attorney FOIA Response (HERE).
Illinois Secretary of State’s FOIA Response (Docs 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5)
We are still waiting on a FOIA response from the USDOT.
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