Special prosecutor bills McHenry Co. nearly $60,000
The prosecution of a former secretary on charges she unlawfully copied and removed computer files from the office McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi will cost taxpayers nearly $60,000.
David O'Connor, an Orland Park attorney hired as a special prosecutor in the case, has submitted a bill for $59,093 for his work on the 18-month investigation which concluded with a court supervision sentence and $400 fine for former secretary Amy Dalby.
County Auditor Pam Palmer said today she received a court order from Chief Judge Michael Sullivan requiring the county to pay O'Connor the amount billed, and both county and court administrations have authorized payment. The court order, Palmer said, did not include any information as to the number of hours O'Connor worked on the case.
Payment, Palmer said, will come out of the county's contingency fund, money set aside each year to cover unexpected or unbudgeted expenses.
Sullivan appointed O'Connor in the fall of 2007 to look into allegations Dalby, 24, removed as many as 5,000 computer documents from Bianchi's office when she left her job there in July 2005. Dalby, now a student at Northern Illinois University, said she took the files to prove she had been asked to do political work on county time, but they eventually ended up in the hands of Bianchi's political rivals.
Bianchi declined to comment today on the O'Connor bill, saying it was a matter between the former special prosecutor and Sullivan.
"(O'Connor) was highly recommended as a former prosecutor in Cook County, but I only know him by reputation," Bianchi said. "I've never spoken to him and never met him. I don't know if I'd recognize him."
Bianchi said O'Connor was one of the special prosecutor candidates recommended to Sullivan by his office, but the chief judge ultimately chose who would run the inquiry.
Dalby initially was charged with six felonies for taking the files from Bianchi's office, but eventually pleaded the case down to a single misdemeanor charge of computer tampering.
Despite lasting about 18 months and hauling several other witnesses before a grand jury - including supporters of Bianchi's 2008 election challenger Daniel Regna - O'Connor's probe ended without charges against anyone other than Dalby.
It has, however, sparked a second special prosecutor's investigation, this one looking into Dalby's claims she was required to perform political and campaign-related work on county time while serving as Bianchi's personal secretary. That probe, being headed by retired Judge Henry Tonigan III, is ongoing.