Shekels & Ekl

Lake County wants a piece of the action. As readers of this blog are keenly aware ...

My Cousin Vinny

The death of two County jail inmates has spurred Sheriff Mark Curran to hire an independent investigator, Terry Ekl. This is the same Terry Ekl who defended McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi against charges of official misconduct. And Ekl realized a nice payday for his efforts. According to the tireless tax fighters at the McHenryCountyBlog ...

Without admitting liability, the McHenry County Board voted 18-3 to pay Terry Ekl and Ernest DiBenedetto $275,000 to settle claims of over $600,000 in legal fees and expenses to defend State's Attorney Lou Bianchi
County Compares Potential Costs to Benefits and Decides to Pay $275,000 to Bianchi's and Synek's Attorneys

Now, operatives naturally want to know where their slice of the independent investigator pie is. How difficult can it be to assemble a team, go to the County jail, ask some questions, take some photos, submit a report and nobody gets hurt? Nice work if you can get it!

Haha, there is more to being an independent investigator than having a bank that will cash a check for you. The besieged public official shopping around to hire an independent investigator is looking for someone who has the trust of a gullible skeptical public. When a good independent investigator says "move along, there is nothing to see", the public moves along.

This besieged public official looks for certain qualities in a good independent investigator, like competence, gravitas and most importantly independence. How is independence measured? Independence, fortunately, is a quantifiable quality and can be gauged by looking up an individual's Illinois campaign contributions. Here, for instance, are some Illinois campaign contributions made by Terry Ekl or his law firm:

Illinois State Board of Elections Contribution List


Terry Ekl : Individual Contributions

Your LakeCountyEye notes that many of Ekl's beneficiaries are wellknown independents like George Ryan, Bill Brady, Joe Birkett, the House Republican Campaign Committee. Overall, Ekl has been responsible for no less than some $50,000 in contributions to political campaigns in Illinois.

The takeaway couldn't be clearer. If you're an operative hoping to land a nice cushy job as an independent investigator, it certainly does not hurt to be independently wealthy!