April 23, 2024
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Our View: Holiday Hills Police Department should follow transparency laws

The Holiday Hills Police Department is ‘stonewalling’ public, refuses to release police report as required by law

By Northwest Herald Editorial Board
A Harvard woman was found dead Tuesday, March 2, 2021 in this U-Haul Storage unit at Illinois 251 and McCurry Road near Roscoe. Authorities have identified the woman as Michelle Arnold-Boesigner, 33, of Harvard. The cause of the woman's death is pending further studies. Randy Stukenberg for Shaw Media.

A Harvard woman was found dead Tuesday, March 2, 2021, in this U-Haul storage facility at Illinois 251 and McCurry Road near Roscoe. Authorities have identified the woman as Michelle Arnold-Boesiger, 33, of Harvard. (Randy Stukenberg for Shaw Local/RANDY STUKENBERG)

At least two months after 33-year-old Michelle Arnold-Boesiger of Harvard went missing police found her body in a U-Haul storage unit in a small town north of Rockford.

The Holiday Hills Police Department did not issue a missing persons alert after the report was filed there on Jan. 3. Neither did the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office after the case was handed over to them on Jan. 26.

We’ve asked why, but both agencies have declined to comment on the case, pointing to the fact that it’s an active investigation.

We also requested through the Freedom of Information Act the original Holiday Hills police report.

Holiday Hills Police Chief Darec Kleczka denied our request, first telling our reporter that he would need to check with the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office before releasing anything.

But that’s not how the Freedom of Information Act works.

The exemption in the law for ongoing investigations applies only to the agency conducting the investigation. The Holiday Hills Police Department isn’t conducting an investigation and therefore must release the report.

This isn’t a gray area, said Don Craven, general counsel to the Illinois Press Association, the Illinois Broadcasters Association and the Illinois News Broadcasters Association. He also represents the Northwest Herald.

The state legislature in 2010 specifically changed the law in order to limit the use of this exemption and increased the burden of proof for investigatory agencies, requiring them to give a detailed and factual basis on how the release of the documents would impede their investigation, he said.

When informed of the exemption and provided a copy of the guidance for law enforcement compiled by the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, Kleczka wrote in an email: “The McHenry County Sheriff’s Department is in charge of this investigation. I have been informed by them that this is an open investigation and releasing our original report would compromise the investigation.”

We also asked the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office for the records, a request it also denied.

It is concerning, however, that the Holiday Hills police chief – a person charged with enforcing our laws – seems to care so little about what the law says.

He wrote in a follow-up email that the report “may contain names and specific time frames” and “may contain possible suspects that may have committed a crime.”

“These subjects may have not been interviewed yet,” he continued. “Our department is no longer in charge of this investigation. But I have been informed that information that is in our original report contains information that could impede the investigation being done by the McHenry County Sheriff’s department. Once all the subjects listed in our report have been either cleared or if someone is arrested I will confirm with the McHenry County state’s attorney that I can release the report.”

The Freedom of Information Act allows for certain redactions – including witnesses and uncharged suspects – but it also states that presumption should be openness.

Craven said he sees more responses to public records requests like this “than anybody ever should” and said Kleczka is “just stonewalling” the Northwest Herald.

And unfortunately, the police chief wins.

We will challenge this denial with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office – as we’ve successfully done in the past – but our questions and the public’s questions will go unanswered in the meantime.

Access to government records is important because it gives the public the chance to see if the people tasked with the people’s business are doing their jobs appropriately.

Just this week, the Northwest Herald published an article based on emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act that showed a candidate for Crystal Lake Elementary School District 47 disregarded a contact tracing order, bringing her children to school anyways and telling school staff, despite video evidence, that her children were not on the bus with a child that tested positive for COVID-19.

We’ve also reported on questionable uses of force, showing our readers body camera footage of the incident under investigation. We’ve shown what it was like for a McHenry County nursing home to endure weeks and then months of lockdown following a COVID-19 outbreak. We revealed what McHenry County Department of Health staff found when they visited a Cary restaurant where staff said quarantine protocols weren’t being followed.

All of this was made possible, in large part, because of the Freedom of Information Act and the records, emails and videos the Northwest Herald and the public generally can obtain through it.