Elmhurst Man Accused Of Stealing Campaign Signs

ELMHURST, IL – An Elmhurst resident is accused of removing political signs from a parkway in southwest Elmhurst.

Martin Manion, 64, was cited on a theft charge in the incident.

He is the DuPage County Jail's former deputy administrator, retiring in 2009. He also is the director of the MCM Substance Abuse Center in Elmhurst.

According to the police report, Manion admitted to removing signs from the easement near Butterfield Road and Eldridge Lane.

In an interview with Patch, Manion said he removed signs from the parkway near his office. He said the signs were for Pete DiCianni and Greg Hart, who are running in the Republican primary for County Board chairman.

The signs, Manion said, were in the parkway in violation of a city ordinance and that he saw them as graffiti.

He said he supported Hart's campaign and that he kept the sign. He said he discarded the DiCianni sign.

Manion said DiCianni has been a friend of his family for years and that DiCianni, a County Board member from Elmhurst, attended Manion's father's funeral a few years ago.

"I'm taking responsibility for this. I learned a lesson," Manion said. "I threw away Pete's sign. That was probably wrong."

He said he knew removing a sign from a person's property was against the law. But he said he did not know that doing so on a city easement, where signs are banned, was considered a crime.

He said the sign removal was not giving one candidate a leg up.

"If I took just one down, that would have been political," Manion said.