David Hyde, at right, shown with Richland County sheriff, Andy Hires
RICHLAND CO., Ill.--Official sources have confirmed that Richland County State's Attorney David Hyde has submitted to the county his intent to resign his office, effective July 11.
Hyde was first elected to the office in 2004 and has held subsequent terms with no challengers since that time.
Hyde, who does not and has never lived in Richland (instead, he resides in Trimble, in Crawford County, a considerable drive every day to and from), has floated the rumor out that he's leaving over "health concerns."
Nicole & Brandon Jenkins, May 2, 2012, on the way home from Olney.
However, Disclosure has had ongoing issues with Hyde's performance on the job, which is to say...there is none. He usually turns the day-to-day matters over to his assistant, former Lawrence County state's attorney Todd Reitz; and when something serious like a murder case comes up (the Witchcraft Murder, Amanda Colclasure, the self-shooting of Scott Earp that got Brandon Jenkins hemmed up for six months), he reflexively calls the appellate prosecutor's office and they send him former Richland County state's attorney (1996-2000) David Rands, resulting in Too Many Daves on the payroll in Richland.
We believe Hyde's resignation could have a little more to do with something utterly infantile that he did last winter.
At that time, in an apparent effort to cause problems for us at Disclosure, he sidled up to a former employee and her husband, both of whom have serious criminal records, and when a criminal charge was filed against our former employee--out of Lawrence, where the alleged crime took place, originating from an alleged crime in Richland--Hyde filed an Attorney Registry and Disciplinary Commission complaint against Lawrence's prosecutor, Chris Quick...because of a typo in the filing.
The complaint--unprecedented in nature, because state's attorneys never file such a thing against other state's attorneys, let alone a lawyer filing such a thing against a fellow lawyer--was filed in early December. The ARDC booted it back to Hyde in late January, effectively telling him that there was no basis whatsoever for an investigation; it was a TYPO and was done in a legitimate case (and not even a typo made by Quick, but instead by one of his office staff, a common problem we see throughout four circuits we routinely cover.)
But since that time, the pressure's been on Hyde...because we at Disclosure have had no fewer than SEVEN crimes against persons or property happen to us or someone in our household since late 2007, and even with viable police reports, photos, statements, evidence, even in one case a confession to the sheriff, Hyde has openly refused to charge anyone with crimes "because it's us."
The most recent situation we reported to law enforcement in his county, and which he blew off, has resulted in us shopping for a good federal attorney since about last November. If anyone has any suggestions, send them our way.
In the meantime, we won't have Hyde to contend with, and when we file, we won't be costing the county any money. Hyde will have been off the taxpayers' teat and Richland won't have to pick up the tab for the abject stupidity an arrogant and incompetent lawyer has displayed and which has lead to injury and suffering the likes of which we wouldn't even wish on someone like Hyde. We're just not like that. Evil is self-defeating and self-destructive. And sometimes, you just have to sit back and wait for it to happen.