The Illinois State Police still consider Matt Mitchell to be a trooper, and they will undoubtedly
persist in paying him until after his trial on March 22.

And because he is still a state employee, he is getting his raises.

He was making $64,296 on Nov. 23, 2007, when he was talking on a cell phone to his girlfriend, e-mailing with another trooper and driving 126 miles an hour. He lost control in the heavy day-after Thanksgiving traffic on Interstate 64 near O'Fallon and killed two Collinsville sisters and injured a Fayetteville couple.

Now he is making $69,984. That's an 8.8 percent raise since killing those two girls.

From crash to current trial date we will pay Mitchell roughly $158,000.

So we ask, again, why are we still paying this guy?

The state police administration, through its unfathomable bureaucratic reasoning, decided that firing Mitchell would mean a mandatory administrative hearing. They must interview him, which they view as
forcing him to incriminate himself, for which he has a constitutional protection, all of which they worry could jeopardize the reckless homicide criminal case against him.

That's the brand of logic for which Snyder's of Hanover is famous.

Prosecutors have constitutional mandates to consider when dealing with Matt Mitchell. But
his bosses at the Illinois State Police have a much lower threshold of proof and a whole lot
of evidence to support taking his job and saving taxpayers the $29,160 he will be paid
between now and March 22.

© 2007 Belleville News-Democrat and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.belleville.com