The decision, the latest development in a controversy that has been simmering for almost two years, was not unexpected. Bianchi as State's Attorney is the county's criminal investigator and prosecutor but the case involves allegations concerning his own alleged wrongdoing.
In a prepared statement Bianchi said, "I am satisfied that this matter will be aired in the proper forum – a courtroom – instead of irresponsible and false statements by my political opponents to the media."
The special prosecutor Judge Gordon Graham will appoint, perhaps later this month, will be the second in the case. An earlier special prosecutor appointed at Bianchi's request, David O'Connor, won a guilty plea in March from ex-secretary Amy Dalby. Dalby admitted she had copied and carried off on a flash drive thousands of files from the State's Attorney's computers.
Dalby claimed she took the records to protect herself in case Bianchi was ever charged with wrongdoing but, according to an affidavit from Bianchi's primary opponent Dan Regna, she shopped information from them to a "Daily Herald newspaper reporter" during the primary.
Then-columnist Amy Mack first published charges Bianchi was using county money to pay for political expenses two years ago but never revealed where she got the tip. Mack is "no longer employed" at the Daily Herald and could not be reached.
Similar charges turned up in an anonymous complaint to the State Attorney General the following month. Two months later the AG ruled there was nothing to investigate and revealed the complaint had come from ex-Assistant State's Attorney Kristen Foley.
McHenry County blog publisher Cal Skinner discovered Foley had been circulating petitions to put Regna on the ballot at about the same time she sent the complaint.
In the primary Regna lost to Bianchi who went on to defeat Demcratic opponent Tom Cynor in the general election. Meanwhile, Bianchi decided someone had been leaking office records and after the election called for a special prosecutor to find out who.
Dalby pleaded guilty to computer tampering but what else, if anything, O'Connor found in his investigation is still hidden in grand jury records and behind sealed case files.
The latest special prosecutor will return to the question of whether Bianchi did anything wrong in the first place.
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