No Appellate Standing For Knox County Employees Being Investigated; Appellate Court Lacks Supervisory Authority To Order A Special Prosecutor On Remand

This lawsuit grows from a political fight in Knox County, Illinois. After he took office as Knox County State’s Attorney, John Pepmeyer began an investigation into “improprieties” by current and former county employees of the county state’s attorney’s and sheriff’s offices. Two Assistant State’s Attorneys, Dean Stone and Michael Kraycinovich, were targets of Pepmeyer’s investigation. Stone and Kraycinovich in turn started their own investigation of Pepmeyer concerning allegations that he was guilty of sexual harassment.

Stone and Kraycinovich asked the trial court for appointment of a special counsel for their investigation into Pepmeyer. Pepmeyer asked the court for a special prosecutor for his investigation into Stone and Kraycinovich. The trial court appointed the Illinois Attorney General as special prosecutor of both investigations.

The trial court later modified the appointments. The Attorney General was left to investigate Pepmeyer. A former State’s Attorney for another county, William Poncin, was named special prosecutor to investigate “other Knox County public officials,” including Stone and Kraycinovich.

Pepmeyer appealed. He claimed that Poncin’s powers were too broad and infringed on Pepmeyer’ authority. While the appeal was pending, the Attorney General found there was no basis to investigate Pepmeyer − so the trial court terminated the Attorney General’s appointment.

Further complicating the case, Pepmeyer and Poncin brought the State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor into the act. All three reached an agreement to divide their investigatory powers. Pepmeyer and Poncin then asked the appellate court for a “conditional remand” to direct the trial court to issue an order in accord with the agreement among Pepmeyer, Poncin, and the Appellate Prosecutor.

Stone and Kraycinovich objected to Pepmeyer’s and Poncin’s request. In response, Pepmeyer argued that Stone and Kraycinovich did not have standing in the appellate court to raise an objection or to participate in the appeal. Pepmeyer’s theory was that Stone and Kraycinovich lost standing when the trial court terminated the Attorney General’s appointment to investigate Pepmeyer.

The Third District Illinois Appellate Court ruled that Stone and Kraycinovich did not have standing in the appellate court “because they have failed to show an injury to a legally cognizable interest.” Nor did they have a sufficient “direct, immediate, and substantial interest in the subject matter” to give them standing as non-parties under the Illinois Supreme Court Rules.

The appellate court also denied Pepmeyer’s request for conditional remand “because a remand to the circuit court with directions to enter the proposed order would amount to an exercise of supervisory authority, which the appellate court lacks.”

Read the entire case, In re Appointment of Special Prosecutor, No. 3-07-0553 (1/29/09), by clicking here.

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