Police Again Quiet About Crimes At New Trier High School

WINNETKA, IL — Winnetka police said they are investigating a report of disorderly conduct at New Trier High School last week, but that's about all they're saying about it. Between 8:30 and 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 10, an employee found "disturbing and inappropriate" material left inside one of the classrooms, according to police.

Police declined to say what kind of material it was or how it was disturbing.

Cmdr. Brian O'Connell described the investigation as ongoing and said he "cannot" provide any further details.

He did not specify if he believed releasing any information about the nature of the material would compromise an ongoing investigation, endanger the safety of the community or invade anyone's privacy rights.

It's not the first time in recent months Winnetka police have sought to minimize the release of information about allegations of crimes at New Trier.

The incident comes less than two months after a report of a late-night burglary at the school. At the time, police declined to answer any questions about the Nov. 28 break-in.

In a brief statement, Winnetka Public Safety Analyst Keri Kaup said "subjects unlawfully entered the school. Upon encountering a staff member, the subjects fled."

Patch filed public records requests with police and the school district to learn more.

The school district complied without objection, providing records showing the names and salaries of the 10 third-shift custodians and one supervisor who were working at New Trier's Winnetka campus the night of the break-in.

But police totally denied the request, so Patch sought an appeal from the Illinois Attorney General's Public Access Counselor, which reviews the withholding of public records.

A lawyer representing Winnetka police claimed the department did not have to turn any information about the incident or investigation.

Yet while arguing that it should not be required to release any records of the incident – either to the Illinois Attorney General's office for review or in a heavily redacted form – police ended up acknowledging more details about the intrusion.

Winnetka School Resource Officer Josue Perez said police "identified and investigated specific minors" as suspects, in an affidavit produced by the department to justify its withholding of records.

Because the suspects were investigated through the use of surveillance video, some of the police records contain information about what was captured on tape.

Perez said releasing any information related to the school's camera system would "threaten the safety of school employees and students because those wishing to do harm would have detailed information that could be used to evade recording and/or identification."

"Much of Camera Information is not public," said Perez in his sworn declaration, suggesting some of the information was already public.

And without claiming that it was impossible to redact personally identifying and private information from police records of the incident, a lawyer for Winnetka argued that the records are exempt in their entirety because they contain "allegations of a crime committed by minors."

Benjamin Schuster, an attorney with Holland & Knight, wrote that Perez's affidavit satisfied the village's burden to show that the request for records was not denied improperly.

The officer's sworn statement provided a substitute for allowing the Public Access Counselor's office to review the records, Schuster argued.

The new information provided in that affidavit – that two people were caught by multiple employees after breaking into the Winnetka campus and that police had identified suspects captured on surveillance but not made any arrests – was only provided after the Attorney General's office requested more information from the village.

» More: Late-Night Intruders Confronted By New Trier Staffer

And last spring, in a case in which a criminal felony charge was filed against an 18-year-old NTHS student allegedly found with amphetamine at school, Winnetka police again sought to withhold information.

Police initially resisted releasing any arrest records, withholding a booking photograph and case reports.

Prosecutors eventually decided to drop charges in that case.

UPDATE JAN. 18: In response to what they described as a "misleading report that recently appeared in a local media source," Interim Winnetka Police Chief Marc Hornstein and New Trier High School Superintendent Paul Sally issued a joint statement with additional details about the Jan. 10 incident. The statement identified the alarming material as a note. It added that police and school officials have determined there is no associated security concern and no further details can be released without potentially compromising the investigation.

_{Top photo via Winnetka PD}