Elmhurst Police Disregard Attorney General, Fail to Comply With Freedom of Information Act

The Elmhurst police have disregarded a directive from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office to release a report and are withholding the public document.

The Attorney General’s office twice told the Elmhurst police to release the report detailing a June incident.

After the first time the Elmhurst police were told to kick loose the report, DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin apparently decided to involve himself in the matter and Elmhurst asked the Attorney General’s Office to reconsider its position.

The Attorney General took a look at what Elmhurst had to say and on Oct. 28 reaffirmed its decision that the report should be released to Patch.

The Elmhurst police have yet to do this.

The incident detailed in the report involves a man crashing his car into a tree and running off. Releasing reports on the incident would create a “conflict with Supreme Court Rules regulating discovery in a pending criminal prosecution and the ethical responsibilities imposed on all lawyers in the process” and this “should demonstrate that we have sustained the burden of establishing that the exemptions apply,” Berlin said in a letter, according to correspondence from the Attorney General’s Office, which decided that Berlin was actually wrong about that.

Berlin and Elmhurst Police Chief Michael Ruth failed to respond to Patch when asked if they planned release the report. Berlin and Ruth also failed to respond to questions about their positions in law enforcement in relation to the Freedom of Information Act, and whether they believe they are above the law.

With the Elmhurst police failing to abide by the Attorney General’s decision, the only option left to pry the report free is to file a lawsuit.

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