State's attorney candidates trade barbs over police relationships

Stung by criticism his office received earlier this year from law enforcement groups and even a former supporter, Sheriff Keith Nygren, McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi launched an effort this spring to rebuild relationships with local police.

He and his assistants offered legal seminars to police officers, made appearances at their daily roll call meetings and even rode along with patrol officers for eight-hour shifts.

The experience, Bianchi said, has brought an overwhelmingly positive response from law enforcement.

"We've worked very hard on improving relationships with the police," the Republican from Crystal Lake said.

But according to Bianchi's opponent in next month's election, those efforts have gone mostly to waste because they do not address what he calls the core problem: the high rate of attorney turnover that plagued the first few years of Bianchi's administration.

That turnover, Woodstock Democrat Thomas Cynor said, cost the office institutional knowledge of local police forces, souring many officers on the office.

"It's not an issue of personality or professionalism," he said. "As best as I can tell the breakdown comes from the lack of consistency between the people in the office and law enforcement."

Bianchi's relationship with police was one of several points of contention that arose this week when Bianchi, a first-term incumbent, and Cynor, a Democrat from Woodstock, appeared before the Daily Herald editorial board.

The candidates traded barbs over one another's integrity and experience, with Bianchi at one point suggesting that Cynor's job as research attorney for the county's 22nd Judicial Circuit was not part of "the real world."

"He's a law clerk," Bianchi, 65, said. "I don't think he has the experience. I don't think he understands this community."

Cynor, 40, called Bianchi's remarks about his job "bizarre," saying it, along with 16 years of experience as a corporate lawyer, public defender and special prosecutor have prepared him from the job as state's attorney.

While Cynor defended his experience, Bianchi faced more attacks over his office's spending of about $17,000 since 2004 on food, candy, gift certificates and other items.

Bianchi said he made mistakes in how he processed the spending, but stood by the expenses, noting that the Illinois Attorney General declined to pursue a complaint against his office.

"I do not believe, and I never believed, they were inappropriate," he said.

Cynor said the expenses were "highly questionable" and renewed his call for Bianchi to reimburse the expenses.

"It's not the $17,000 that is at issue," he said. "What is at issue is the integrity of the office."