Shelby County – State’s Attorney FOIA Lawsuit

By Kirk Allen & John Kraft

On January 2, 2026

Shelby Co. (ECWd) –

The Shelby County, Illinois, State’s Attorney Ruth Woolery is once again facing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit regarding her improper denial of records. A copy of the filed lawsuit can be viewed below or downloaded at this link.

We have been seeking the deposition transcripts related to the Nicholas Banning civil case that ended up costing Shelby County $850,000.00 which was paid through the insurance provider. Based on information we were provided early on in that case, the depositions tell the real story as to how bad things were in the Shelby County Jail under the control of former Sheriff Don Koonce.

The State’s Attorney provided three of the depositions with redactions but did not provide a citation as to why any information was redacted. She also refused to provide numerous other depositions, also without citing any actual FOIA exemption for withholding them but rather pointed to a criminal case as her reasoning for not providing them.

Depositions provided:

Kelly Adams – RN Medical provider
Jaqueline Clayton – Nurse Practitioner
Chris Zakowski – Shelby County Sheriff employee working in the jail as a corrections officer

While the first two depositions have very interesting information, it is the third one of Chris Zakawski that exposes numerous failures by the former sheriff, and we suspect key in the settling of the case rather than going to trial. We have been told the withheld depositions are even worse but until we obtain those, we can’t speak to them.

From the Zakowski deposition:

Q. And during your employment with Shelby County, did you ever go to the correctional academy?
A. No.
Q. During your time with Shelby County, were you ever CPR certified?
A. No.
Q. Okay. Did you have any certifications when you worked as a correctional officer here in Shelby County?
A. Not that I’m aware of.

Q. Okay. My question is, do you ever — do you know if you ever worked with another individual that hadn’t been to the academy either?
A. Yes.
Q. There were times that the two of you, neither of you had been to the academy?
A. Yes.

Q. Did you receive any training on, like, signs and symptoms to be on the lookout for as a correctional officer?
A. No.
Q. Do you believe you received enough training as a correctional officer here?
A. No.
Q. Did you — for example, did you ever receive any training on withdrawal symptoms?
A. No.

We encourage everyone to read the transcript so they can draw their own conclusions as to how bad things were during the time former Sheriff Koonce was in charge. We note, based on the deposition of Zakowski, the law was not followed as it relates to corrections officers and their required certifications.

For those with short memories, Koonce was responsible for a laundry list of malfeasance, of which he was never held accountable for any of it.