The Lake County Sheriff’s Office is asking the courts to order the Lake County Health Department to hand over the names and addresses of residents who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
The emergency motion and complaint, filed Tuesday, follow conversations between the two entities as well as requests by other Lake County police departments for the information, which many of the departments argue would help keep their officers safe as they do their jobs.
The legal challenge mirrors what happened in neighboring McHenry County where the Sheriff’s Office also asked the courts to step in, resulting in a McHenry County judge ordering the health department there to comply with the Sheriff’s Office’s request.
A hearing asking the judge to reconsider the order is scheduled for May 18.
In Lake County Friday morning, Judge Daniel Jasica raised several concerns and said he wants the two sides to move into settlement discussions as soon as possible.
“I don’t think it’s the best use of your time to be fighting this litigation,” Jasica said. “I think it’s a distraction that takes away from what I know to be very serious duties and responsibilities that you have at this point.”
Of the state’s 52,918 confirmed coronavirus cases, Lake County residents accounted for 3,509 of those as of Thursday afternoon, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. That’s the highest count outside of Chicago and suburban Cook County.
Jasica said he was also “keenly aware” that the two county entities were each being represented by outside law firms instead of the Lake County State’s Attorney Office, which typically represents the county for free.
Both firms were hired by the State’s Attorney Office, the attorneys said. They asked Jasica to reach out to state’s attorneys in other jurisdictions – as was done by the McHenry County judge – to see if public attorneys could be found.
Jasica and the attorneys agreed to meet behind closed doors and not in open court later in the day after Jasica had a chance to reach out to some of those offices.
David McArdle, a Crystal Lake-based attorney representing the sheriff’s offices in both Lake and McHenry counties, said he thought it was “simply an interpretation problem” and pushed for the hearings to move forward as quickly as possible.
“It’s the same issues (as in McHenry County),” McArdle said. “It’s privacy. It’s efficacy of whether the material the (health) department has is worthwhile to the department in this case. … We have an opinion. They have an opinion.”
Jud DeLos, the attorney for the Lake County Health Department, had requested more time, noting the health department’s role in fighting the pandemic and saying the department would want to address the issue with the community at large.
“We’re dealing with their health information,” DeLos said. “While it’s in the possession of the health department, it is the private citizens of Lake County whose information we’re talking about here.”
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office requested on April 23 the names and addresses of those who had tested positive, arguing that the information would help it protect the safety of deputies, correctional officers, court officers, civilian employees, employees’ family members, jail inmates and the community at large.
The request would allow the sheriff’s office to, “take adequate precautions in the event that contact with an infected individual is necessary,” according to the emergency motion filed Tuesday.
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“While our philosophy at this time is to assume everyone in Lake County is positive for COVOID-19, I believe having the name and address of those who have actually tested positive is imperative for the safety of my staff and countywide law-enforcement,” Idleburg said in his letter to Pfister. “Our law-enforcement and fire personnel are on the front lines each and every day, diligently working to protect our communities and keep the public safe.”
Idleburg said in the letter the information would also be “extraordinarily beneficial regarding new inmates entering the jail” as anyone who had already tested positive could be placed immediately into an isolation cell, ensuring they do not spread COVID-19 to other inmates.
The same day Sheriff John Idleburg made the request, he had a conference call with Lake County Health Department Executive Director Mark Pfister, Lake County Board Chair Sandy Hart and Lake County Administrator Gary Gibson, according to the complaint.
The Lake County Health Department and the Lake County Board of Health has said in letters aimed at emergency responders and the public that the release of this information would provide no public health benefit and could instead result in the mishandling of private medical information.
Police officers and other first responders should be treating every interaction as though the other person could have the novel coronavirus because the county has “large numbers of asymptomatic individuals and those whose illness is not confirmed by testing exist in every community,” the health board’s executive committee said in a letter this week.
“We stand by our position that assuming a person does not have COVID-19 creates a dangerous, false sense of security that would result in our first responders not taking appropriate precautionary measures,” the committee said.
Jasica said also noted among his concerns that he thought it would not be “beneficial at this point to be arguing your respective positions in the press or in the media or in press releases.”
“I just think it’s unhelpful,” he said. “I think it’s counterproductive. I think the public wants to see us all working together and finding solutions and not bickering with each other at this point.”