Kelly Henby
COLES/RICHLAND COs.—It appears that one of the first steps new Coles County state’s attorney Brian Bowers took upon ascending to the office was to dismiss a bogus charge against a former Illinois State Police investigator.
Kelly Henby, 55, of Olney (and who is a former mayor of Olney), was charged in January of 2011 with a single count of Practicing as a Detective without a License, a misdemeanor. However, the charge, issued after an investigation by Illinois Department of Professional Regulation and Illinois State Police Zone 7 investigations, turned out to be bogus, revealed almost immediately by Henby producing paperwork showing he was working with a licensed agency under the strict confines of the way Illinois demands people work as a “private detective” (as opposed to a detective who works with a law enforcement agency, such as ISP).
What prompted the investigation was yet another investigation into another former state police officer, former Wayne County sheriff Jim Hinkle. Henby had been hired by Hinkle when Hinkle was under investigation following a false report by his teenage stepdaughter (through DCFS no less, called by the girl’s father in Coles County) of alleged sexual misconduct. All of that turned out to be a nowhere case…but Henby was charged, likely out of retaliation by certain agents in Zone 7…the same ones who had targeted Hinkle in his investigation.
Jim Hinkle
Currently, Hinkle has A — filed a case in the federal court system against ISP; B — had the case thrown out by a judge and C — been given leave to refile an amended case, as his case does indeed have merit. We’ve covered the very detailed and convoluted case in print since a year ago and will be dissecting and analyzing the latest developments in the upcoming December/January issue (out Dec. 19).
But in the meantime, Henby has been literally exonerated in the latest bogus charges, due in large part to Bowers, who, unlike previous state’s attorney Steve Ferguson, wasn’t afraid of letting the case go due to the subsequent lawsuit threat Henby of course has against the county for false prosecution. If Henby files such a thing, it’ll be on the federal level, and the burden will be shared by ISP, IDPR, and perhaps other agencies who had a hand in the besmirching of both Hinkle’s as well as Henby’s name in this debacle…something that was costly to the taxpayers across Zone 7, and really should never have happened in the first place.