DuPage Officials Get Facts Wrong In Heated Debate Over Raises

ELMHURST, IL — During a heated June 9 finance committee meeting, DuPage County board member Ashley Selmon, D-Addison, accused Sheriff James Mendrick, a Republican, of "irresponsible rhetoric" about "looting and sledgehammers" that led Elmhurst and Addison to board up businesses amid a wave of Black Lives Matter protests across the county and around the country.

Mendrick took exception, saying the sledgehammers and looting were facts, not rhetoric.

"It's an insult that you say that there were just peaceful demonstrations," he told Selmon. "I am sorry, but they were not. We were being attacked at Oak Brook Mall. That's just a fact. I was there. My staff was there. Don't belittle what we just did for this county."

The exchange happened during a debate about "equity" raises — possibly as high as $25,000 — for sheriff's department employees, and Patch found that neither Selmon nor Mendrick was entirely correct.

According to police reports, there was no attack on officers or anybody else at Oak Brook Center mall on May 31 or in the days following, only minor property damage. According to Oak Brook police, a brick was thrown at a Neiman Marcus store window around 11 a.m. that day, causing a dozen punctures to the glass. A witness saw six men involved in the incident, but they sped away, according to police.

In one case, police did report seeing a sledgehammer in plain view in a car's back seat, according to a sheriff's department after-action report. According to the report, officers tried to stop a number of cars at the mall that night, with some passengers mocking or swearing at officers and others fleeing from police.

In an interview, sheriff's department spokesman Justin Kmitch said when the sheriff mentioned "attacks," he was referring to a number of instances in the days leading up to the committee meeting.

"There were no physical assaults of officers at Oak Brook," Kmitch said. "Protecting the mall was everyone's priority out there."

He noted the sheriff set up a command center at the mall, which he called the "crown jewel of the DuPage County economy."

At the committee meeting, Selmon said she and other county board members had received regular reports of the protests around DuPage County from the county's homeland security department.

"Unless I'm illiterate, we did not get a single report of anything categorized as looting in this county," she said.

While she may not have received a report, it's also inaccurate to say there were no cases of looting in the county. About a week before the meeting, more than 30 stores were looted and 11 people arrested in Naperville, according to police and media reports. The looting started around 9 p.m., following a peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration that had been held earlier in the day, according to Naperville Police Chief Robert Marshall.

The sheriff's department report on the incident said "large explosive devices" were thrown at police officers, and at least one bystander was stabbed while trying to help police, according to Marshall.

About the same time, stores in Downers Grove and Aurora were also looted, according to media reports.

According to the sheriff's after-action report, officers in a number of instances also found people with weapons near protests. In Roselle, for instance, a car stopped near a demonstration contained two rifles, six handguns, body armor and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, the report said. And in Elmhurst, police took into custody a man who was seen arriving at a June 1 protest with a rifle, bag, helmet and body armor, according to police.

In an email, Selmon said that after the June 9 committee meeting, she and others were able to get more complete information both from the state's attorney and the sheriff's office.

"As I said, the Homeland Security reports did not indicate those events, but the further information we received did elaborate and confirm a more complete picture, including some incidents of looting/theft/burglary, as was seen in other communities and nationally," Selmon said. "Similarly, the events were, and thankfully continue to be, overwhelmingly peaceful."

The county board approved the raises for the sheriff's department employees. Selmon and fellow Democrat Liz Chaplin, whose district includes Elmhurst, dissented.

The sheriff's office said the raises were offset by savings in other parts of its approved budget. Kmitch, the office's spokesman, said sheriff's administration officers, who are not in the union, had not received raises in more than a decade, while officers under union contracts have received annual increases. In some cases, he said, deputies were not testing to be promoted to administrative positions because they would take a pay cut to move up.