When in doubt, use brute force. – Ken Thompson
So, how did we get to the point where the Kane County justice apparatus would willingly exercise the gross abuse of power that would violate a teenager’s probation over his parents collection of vintage dinnerware? I’ll do my best to explain it.
But before we proceed, please let me state for the record that there are good and competent people in county government, it’s just that they’re too few and far between.
This particular debacle starts with a probation department that, if you ask any local attorney, is regarded as a joke. And the responsibility for that vast incompetence falls squarely at the feet of soulless Court Services Director Lisa Aust.
Aside from persistently targeting the leaders of the 2018 probation strike, her divide and conquer management style has incited the kind of turnover that makes it impossible for that office to be anything approximating effective. I’m sure she didn’t concoct this scenario – she’s not nearly smart enough – but she happily went along with it despite the glaring risk of public embarrassment.
That brings us to the 16th Circuit judiciary, a group I’ve covered at great length.. Though I have no solid evidence, I’m convinced that nothing like this stupidity could go forward without their blatant complicity. The problems is those judges are addicted to breathing their own air and we have far too many former prosecutors on the bench who’ve never had to defend a client or run a successful private practice.
To wit, one judiciary insider told me that if this was their kid, they’d fully cooperate with “the people” at every level. My response was to that stilted contention was, “No you wouldn’t! You’d protect your son!”
The good news is Judge Sal LoPiccolo will preside over the hearing, and having endured a number of hardships himself, harbors a propensity to be one of the good guys. But one hearing won’t nearly begin to resolve the plethora of problems this case makes abundantly apparent.
That brings us to the heart of the issue – the Kane County State’s Attorney’s office.
To be fair, that dynamic starts with Kane “offering” the lowest Collar County prosecutor salaries, a disparity which the chairman and county board refuse to address. So, with rare exception, we end up with the in-student-loan-debt-up-to-their-necks lower third of their law school class graduates who’d never survive in a private practice, much less successfully run one.
These underpaid and marginal 20-something ASA’s, with their abundantly fragile egos, don’t begin to have the internal fortitude to admit when they’re wrong. They don’t have the maturity and thick skins required to deal with that first defiant defendant, so they immediately resort to the kind of blunt force trauma we’re seeing here.
I’d like to remind Kathryn Wuerstl, the callous ASA prosecuting this case, that the Nazi’s didn’t get away with claiming they were “just following orders” and she won’t, either.
It doesn’t help matters that State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser is in so far over her head that she makes the kind of poor decisions that have led to an ASA turnover that surpasses her predecessor, Joe McMahon. And the best prosecutors are always the first to go. So, while Mosser let’s a felon roam free and defends a chronic drunk driver, she has no problem promoting a vintage dinnerware probation violation.
Then there’s this possibility. When discussing this situation with another judicial center insider, they told me this young man’s probation agreement was “one of the poorest ever written.” Hmmm. It doesn’t a rocket scientist to deduce that the KCSAO is likely using this absurd violation to get a second bite at the plea agreement apple. But who’s fault is that? It’s certainly not this kid’s or his parents’. The KCASO has a nasty habit of thrusting their incompetence on everyone but themselves. Remember, in their minds they’re the “good guys” who never have to submit to the standard they so eagerly thrust upon the rest of us.
They may be the least culpable here, but I’m not letting these parents of the hook, either. Their stellar supervisory skills allowed their son to build a serious home laboratory right under their noses, which doesn’t exactly breed confidence. Then there’s the stark reality that you can’t chalk schizophrenia up to teenage angst. I understand why they’d do it, but choosing to ignore their son’s obvious symptoms almost led to disaster.
That said, I don’t blame them for defending their son against the stupidity and overreach that is the Kane County justice system because I know exactly what it’s like to face the full weight of “The People.” It’s difficult enough to accept that your brilliant son has a life-long mental illness that renders him prone to violence if he goes off his meds, much less have to deal with a slew of KCSAO ASA idiots who want to blame you for their persistent incompetence.
As far all as the good Christians who said this kid “should be buried under the jail,” my response to them would be that having your brain betray you in this heinous a manner is a circle of hell Dante never considered. I would rather be a wheelchair-bound Steven Hawking than have a healthy body with a problematic brain.
Then there’s defense attorney Gary Johnson, a person I’ve admired up to now. We had a brief conversation about how, despite any trepidation on their part, these parents really need to reasonably cooperate with this absurd bureaucracy because the consequences of their son going off his meds will be dire. Gary off-handedly assured me “this kid will be alright,” and when I asked him if he wanted to 10 to 30 deaths on his hands, he just laughed.
So much for attorneys being human beings first. He’s been hanging around his partner David Camic for far too long.
We’ve already covered the insidiously incestuous nature of the judges, attorneys, and ASAs who inhabit that building at Peck Road and Route 38, and the truth remains that, anyone with the temerity to pierce their self-sanctimonious veil of infallibility with the truth is summarily cast as that proverbial messenger requiring summary execution.
Considering the level insanity here, I even reached out to Chairman Corinne Pierog to make her aware of this sad situation. She may not wield any real power over the elected officials, but it would be quite foolish to underestimate a county chairman’s influence. But she failed to respond to my overture, because who cares about a 19-year-old mentally ill kid? Apparently she’s far too busy destroying the County’s reputation on her own.
In more than 16 years at the keyboard, this is the ONE case where everyone – Probation, the judiciary, the KCSAO, the defense attorney, and the parents needs to come together to ensure this young man remains on his medications in the hope of living a reasonably happy and productive life. But instead, in the words of Peter Gabriel, all we’re getting “games without frontiers, war without tears.”
I am beyond disgusted with everyone involved.
Author’s Note:
I did, indeed, attend this morning’s ten-minute virtual hearing, and my second insider was dead on. This was nothing more than political theatre devised so the State’s Attorney could get her new probation agreement without having to admit her office had completely screwed it up.
I will cover the fallout from all of this next Tuesday as well is issue a warning to every Kane County ASA that the gloves are off. Trust me, they already know exactly what I mean, but now I’ll make it public.
