Sunday, April 19, 2009

Grundy County Board chairman muscles neighbor

County board chairman Frank Halpin recently made an appearance in the Illinois Supreme Court.  Development of a new subdivision near his farm in South Wilmington disrupted drainage.  The solution?  A new drain tile through the farm of his neighbor, Mr. Schultz.  

Schultz didn't like the idea of Halpin tearing up his property, and refused.  Halpin sued for the right to install the tile through Schultz's farm - and won - in Grundy County circuit court.  The appellate court reversed in an opinion which you can read here:


Halpin then appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court.  Watch the oral arguments here:


Schultz represents himself.  He names all the players and does a terrific job defending himself against the Grundy County machine.  Watch the whole video.  Schultz presents his case in the second half. 


11 comments:

horno the eighth dwarf said...

Pretty impressive to hear non-attorney Mr. Schultz before the Supreme Court. This appears to be a Big Guy Good ol Boy versus little guy situation.

Brock O'Bama said...

two points ----- wanna bet on the lack of coverage from the Daily Fluff on this matter? Also, the left leaning editors of the article comments will not publish comments they disagree with. So much for the 1st amendment.

little guy said...

It definately shows that anyone can go up against anyone and win when they are right.

It's sad to see the local judges look so biased but Grundy is Grundy after all.

To Brock: left leaning editors? really? I think you need to go back and learn left from right.

And btw... the 1st amendment has nothing to do with what can be posted on a website... I'm sure if you say something inappropriate in your friends house/church/ or other public location you can be removed also.

Anonymous said...

Halpin...the county board president..also the greenfield township supervisor..hmmmmmm

Kenn Kennedy said...

I think a bigger issue is with Supreme Court Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier; Check out what he said at 31:20 on the video: "upon commencement of the action...." He states that the "action" is the construction of a drainage system and not what an "action" really is, a lawsuit- a civil action- the case that was filed in 2006. How can he be so stupid and be a Supreme Court Justice? And he is one of the guys that's going to decide this? Hold on to your shorts, Mr. Schultz it ain't over yet.

Time for a Change said...

I can't wait until the nelson case with Grundy County. Halpin has been messing with him also. Nelsons evidence is strong and should put the big guy in his place again. It is about time for this guy to step down and go away. The county board isn't a bingo game for much longer. People are starting to realize the truth.

Anonymous said...

You are right!The people of grundy county are starting to wisen up!! I also believe the bingo game is starting to come to a close. These such things are starting to catch up with them!

Anonymous said...

What the hell is the nelson case?

Anonymous said...

mr. halpin also used his power and spent tax payers money and put a new bridge on a old dirt road with no houses on it.The reason he did this was because he had bought a field and he wanted a shorter access route to get to the property.The bridge has been up for 2 years and the road still has not been graveled.So how does that benifit the tax payers.I just would like to know why?

Anonymous said...

The issue here seems to fall back to natural drainage vs. drainage that has been re-engineered. One only has to connect the dots with towns that are costantly flooding, Mazon, Coal City, South Wilmington etc. What do these townns have in common? Answer-Chamlin Engineering

Anonymous said...

what was the final verdict on this case? will there be a followup story in this blog.