Court orders special prosecutor to turn over Bianchi files

Authorities prosecuting a former McHenry County State's Attorney secretary for swiping computer files from the office must give her defense lawyers copies of everything she removed, a judge ordered Monday.

McHenry County Judge Joseph Condon issued the order after a closed-door meeting with the special prosecutor that led the investigation into the stolen files and an attorney for Amy L. Dalby, the onetime personal secretary to State's Attorney Louis Bianchi.

Dalby, 24, faces charges of theft, official misconduct, computer fraud and computer tampering alleging she unlawfully copied and removed hundreds of files before leaving her job in the office in the summer of 2006.

Dalby's defense believes they will find among the files evidence to back up her claims that she was required to perform political tasks on Bianchi's behalf during business hours, something they say is a violation of state law.

Dalby, now a student at Northern Illinois University, does not deny taking the files, but says she did it in case she had to show she was being required to perform campaign-related duties while on county time.

Bianchi, a Republican from Crystal Lake, denies that campaigning was being done out of his office during business hours.

Dalby, who is scheduled to return to court May 27 for a pretrial status, faces a maximum five years in prison or probation if found guilty of the charges.