Krug: So many questions, so much time

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One might ask why Amy Dalby, a twentysomething secretary in the McHenry County state’s attorney’s office, would take a few hundred random files from her office computer.

And if that question were asked, it would be fair to wonder – if those files were of great importance and potentially contained confidential information – why this is bubbling to the surface in 2009, more than 2˝ years after she allegedly took them.

Those files are at the root of two specific requests for special prosecutors.

State’s Attorney Louis Bianchi brought in special prosecutor David J. O’Connor to determine whether, as he said later, the SA’s office’s computers had “been compromised.”

O’Connor returned a seven-count indictment against Dalby that included charges of official misconduct, computer fraud, theft and computer tampering.

Before the indictment but long after O’Connor’s investigation began, Woodstock attorney Dan Regna, who unsuccessfully tried to unseat Bianchi in the 2008 Republican primary, filed a petition and an affidavit alleging that Dalby had copied work files and said that the work files would reveal that she was working for Bianchi’s re-election campaign on taxpayers’ time.

A hearing on that petition is pending before a McHenry County judge. Originally it was placed before Judge Michael Sullivan, but Regna asked for it to be heard by another judge.

If Regna’s petition is denied, we ultimately will know whether Dalby stole files, but might never know what was in those files. We might never know whether those files prove or disprove the allegation that Dalby worked on Bianchi’s re-election campaign when she was on the county’s clock.

Bianchi called Regna’s petition a case of “gutter politics” and also called him a “sore loser.” There isn’t much love lost between Bianchi and Regna, who scratched and clawed their way through one of the county’s fiercest intramural elections in recent times. And perhaps Regna is injecting politics into the process, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that his petition came from a gutter, is headed for the circular file, or that it isn’t worth exploring.

The genie is out of the bottle, baby. Let’s see what kind of dance she does.

Overall, I get a vibe from the public at large that the entire matter involving Dalby is a big, fat so-what issue. Others have offered that pointing a special prosecutor at Dalby, a person who by all accounts seems to be a passerby in political circles on the way to a career in teaching, is akin to zeroing-in a howitzer on a flea.

I just want to hear more. I just want to know the truth. I want to know now what I didn’t know then.

I’d like to know why Dalby took the files and what she intended to do with them.

I would like to know why she discussed select files with a Regna supporter and a reporter from the Daily Herald in 2007 and why nothing came to light at that time. I wouldn’t mind knowing why Regna didn’t look at the files himself, as he has stipulated several times, including in a letter he sent to me last week.

I’d like to know whether Dalby is a whistleblower who was scared off or perhaps found that the “evidence” she had wouldn’t chop wood after she already had taken it. I have a difficult time thinking that she was a calculating thief.

In fact, there is seemingly an endless sea of questions, but few answers.

Thus far, the entire deal has done nothing but stir the pot of down-home local political intrigue. I only can imagine how psyched the cloak-and-dagger set must be.

Now if we only can get to the bottom of this. Quickly.

• • •

Hoop it up online: Oh, man, it’s that time of the year again. Leaves return to the trees, the trash in those black mounds of fossilized snow on strip mall parking lots begins to blow around, and people of all ages flock to fill out an NCAA basketball tournament bracket.

Life. Couldn’t. Be. Better.

Our annual bracket contest will be hosted here at NWHerald.com and now is called Hoop Madness. Sign up today, pick winners after the tournament seeds are announced tonight, and play against the field in our local group.

Bracket managers who don’t want to go through the hassle of tallying their sheets can have their friends and coworkers sign up at NWHerald.com and compete in a private league on the site.

The winner of our local contest wins a $500 Weber gas grill.

And get this: If you pick a perfect bracket, you could win $1 million.

Tell me that wouldn’t come in handy about now.

• • •

Front-page advertising: You might have noticed that the front page of today’s print edition included a paid advertisement in the lower right-hand corner. This is something that the newspaper has considered for quite some time, debated and discussed. Ultimately, we have decided that in the best interest of the newspaper overall that we would allow an ad to be placed on Page 1. It creates a new revenue opportunity for the Northwest Herald and helps us to ensure a bright future for local news in McHenry County.

• • •

Golfers, mark your calendars: Dates for the Northwest Herald’s 26th annual McHenry County Men’s Amateur Golf Tournament have been solidified. This year’s event will be contested July 10 and 11 at Pinecrest Golf Club in Huntley.

In consideration of feedback from golfers who played in last year’s event, we have decided to play the entire event at a single venue this year to improve the continuity of competition.

In the coming weeks, we’ll release registration forms for the event in the Northwest Herald and at NWHerald.com.

• • •

And finally … : We’re all a little bit Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.

Try to celebrate sensibly.

Note I wrote “try.”

• Chris Krug is general manager and executive editor of the Northwest Herald. Contact Chris by calling 815-459-4122 or via e-mail at ckrug@nwherald.com. Follow Chris’ musings, rants and updates at Twitter.com: ChrisKrug (no space).