“The land of special prosecutors” isn’t a very flattering slogan for McHenry County.

County taxpayers have paid at least $525,000 so far related to the prosecution of State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi that resulted in his acquittal on all charges. A judge on Wednesday rejected an unrelated request to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Sheriff Keith Nygren’s use of a seven-point star for both official and political purposes.

The county’s representatives in Springfield have spent the year since Bianchi’s first acquittal trying to set stricter guidelines for judges to appoint special prosecutors to investigate crimes when the state’s attorney is unable or unwilling.