"McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren appears to have a hard time getting into the spirit of Sunshine Week, which promotes openness in Illinois government.

"Yesterday, an unpaid private citizen and volunteer of my campaign delivered this campaign's third Freedom of Information Act request, only to have Nygren call the volunteer into his office, berate him personally, repeatedly state that the Sheriff's Office was 'too busy' to handle FOIAs, and threaten to file retaliatory FOIAs with my current employer for every FOIA his office received.

"It happened as follows. When the volunteer arrived at the Woodstock Government Center in Woodstock, Illinois, at about 11:30 a.m., to officially file an additional FOIA request, the volunteer was asked to wait. 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.

"Nygren's boorish and unprofessional behavior aside, 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. Just today in the current edition of the North West Herald paper there is an editorial titled 'Government in Illinois still too secretive' which discusses how this week is part of the national initiative called Sunshine Week, specifically designed to raise the awareness of the importance of open government. Obviously Keith Nygren didn't get the memo."

A complaint with all the specifics has been filed with the Public Access Counselor's Office of the Illinois Attorney General.

For more information contact the Mike Mahon for Sheriff Campaign at 847.515.4772.