Judge: No county-paid defense for accused Bianchi secretary -- yet

McHenry County taxpayers are off the hook - at least so far - for the defense costs of a former state's attorney secretary charged with stealing computer files from the office, a judge ruled today.

Judge Joseph Condon denied Amy Dalby's request for a special assistant state's attorney to represent her as she prepares for trial on seven charges, six of them felonies, claiming she removed hundreds of files from the office in 2006.

However, the judge said in a three-page written decision that Dalby, 24, could ask again if she later is found not guilty.

"Should Amy Dalby be acquitted and the facts of the case disclose she is faultless, then she may be entitled to what she now requests," Condon wrote. "The question ... cannot be answered until after the trial is over."

The question may also be answered by a civil court judge who will hear a similar request made by Dalby in a lawsuit filed against Bianchi on April 6. That case is pending.

Authorities allege Dalby, the former personal secretary to State's Attorney Louis Bianchi, swiped the files in June or July 2006 and then, about a year later, handed them to unnamed individuals for use against Bianchi in his 2008 re-election campaign.

Dalby, now a student at Northern Illinois University, has pleaded not guilty to an indictment that includes multiple counts of official misconduct, computer fraud and computer tampering. Her defense will claim she acted out of necessity in order to prove she was required to perform campaign-related work on Bianchi's behalf while on county time.

Bianchi has denied that campaign work was done out of his office.

Also today, Condon granted a request by the case's special prosecutor, David O'Connor, to hold a closed-door meeting in his chambers later this month to discuss what evidence should be turned over to the defense before trial.

Dalby attorney Wesley Pribla said he believes the special prosecutor may be trying to avoid turning over computer files that prove Dalby's allegations against Bianchi.

"It will show that Amy Dalby was required to do campaign work as she's said all along," he said. "It leads me to believe that the purpose of this whole action is to protect the State's Attorney of McHenry County from his alleged wrongs."

"That is incorrect," O'Connor responded. "The whole point in asking for the judge's consideration is to make sure the discovery is proper, legal and appropriate."