Daily Herald’s Small Town Mayor Comparison to Sarah Palin Arrested

Forgery and official misconduct are the charges brought in Lake County against Island Lake Mayor Tom Hyde.

Those are the official charges.

3-5 in one of Illinois finest prisons is the potential personal sentence. (Or 2-5, according to the Northwest Herald.)

Loss of Democratic Party control of the village board is the potential political sentence.

Abuse of power is what I see.

Such abuse of power fits right into the village police arrest of Vietnam War veteran Greg Kachka for allegedly pointing his finger in gun-like fashion while addressing the village board and wearing what they considered a threatening tee shirt. Hyde allies in the village government complained weeks later.

A longtime friend of Kachka revealed that the former postman had used the same gesture as a child. Charges were dropped later after big metropolitan and even worldwide negative publicity.

And speaking about abuse of power, we can’t do a story about Island Lake without pointing to Bob Wargarski and his attempt to use a pig farm to fight what he says is a deal cut between a local developer and the ruling majority in Island Lake to allow the developer to use the best site for a new village well as high ground, more expensive lots in his subdivision and, then, agreeing to put the well and water tower right across the road from Wargarski’s unincorporated property.

Hyde “illegally chang[ed] the name of the business owner listed on a village liquor license,” Daily Herald reporter Lee Filas wrote Saturday.

Witeout was used to change the name of the approved liquor license owner.

This is Trustee Donald Sevilles’ take, according to the Daily Herald:

“The whole thing should have to back to the board and a new license should have been issued. Instead, he just erased the corporation name and cut the license as is.”

A quite similar incident in McHenry County regarding Witeout used on Republican primary petitions (county board, I think) resulted in the Republican McHenry County Treasurer and a Republican Party county board member relinquishing their offices. If memory serves me correctly, Mark Bonne was the Northwest Herald reporter who broke the story. I last saw him standing outside the Rockford gubernatorial debate site in 2002.

Although in no way implicated with the crime charged, village Trustee Richard Garling is running as a Democrat against Republican State Rep. Mark Beaubien of Barrington Hills. As far as I can see Garling is not running much of a campaign. I doubt if the indictments of his mayor will encourage him to ramp up that campaign.

I can’t wait for the column in the Daily Herald by Burt Constable explaining how he could have compared Hyde to Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential candidate on September 8th.

If you missed what happened with finger pointing guy Kachka, these stories might help bring you up to speed:

Island Lake Tee Shirt Scares Village Board

T-Shirt Wearing Marine Vietnam Veteran Greg Kachka Arrested in Island Lake

Chilling Free Speech in Island Lake

Chicago Tribune Covers Greg Kachka Island Lake Tee Shirt Arrest

Greg Kachka Tee Shirt Arrest Story Goes National

Help for Island Lake Veteran from Thailand

Demonstration Planned for Arrested Tee Shirt Wearing Island Lake Marine on Monday

Island Lake Doesn’t Show for First Tee Shirt Veteran Court Day

Would John Kass Get Arrested in Island Lake?


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