Dem Sheriff's Candidate Says Nygren Berated Volunteer

Democratic Sheriff's candidate Mike Mahon said today he'd filed a complaint with the State Attorney General's Office after Sheriff Keith Nygren personally berated one of Mahon's volunteers and threatened to file abusive file requests every time Mahon seeks information from his office.

In a release to media Mahon recounted the incident this way when an unnamed volunteer delivered a Freedom of Information Act request to the Sheriff's Office Thursday morning:

"After about five minutes, Sheriff Nygren in person came out and asked to speak with the volunteer alone in his office. After reaching his office, he "ordered" the volunteer to sit down and, visibly angry, proceeded to berate the volunteer about the campaign, about the volunteer’s professional background, and stated several times that his office was "too busy" to handle FOIA requests. He also stated multiple times that for every FOIA request he received from the Mahon campaign, he would file a retaliatory FOIA request with my employer."

Mahon, a Lake in the Hills resident, is a Deputy Director in the Cook County Sheriff's Office.

An FEN request for comment from Nygren at 2:30 pm this afternoon was met with the information that he was in a meeting. At 5:30 pm Nygren had not replied.

“Nygren's boorish and unprofessional behavior aside," said Mahon in the release, "his statements indicate at the very least an attitude toward the Freedom of Information Act that could not possibly be more diametrically opposed to the spirit of Illinois' new statute."

Mahon said he'd filed his complaint with the AG's Public Access Counselor, the officer now responsible for Freedom Of Information Act Reviews.

In the pic: Nygren