Graue Mill Group Stole Public Property: Official

OAK BROOK, IL – DuPage County's forest agency is battling in court with a nonprofit group that ran the Graue Mill and Museum in Oak Brook for more than seven decades.

Their relationship ended Dec. 31. Afterward, the DuPage County Forest Preserve accused the group, the DuPage Graue Mill Corp., of stealing items and leaving the place a mess.

At first, the preserve got its own police department to investigate and wanted charges filed. But DuPage County prosecutors declined to do so.

Now, the preserve is focusing on its lawsuit against the group. It says it wants its items back on behalf of taxpayers.

A few years ago, tensions surfaced when the preserve proposed to eliminate the dam associated with the mill.

The corporation and its supporting foundation opposed such a move. But the preserve's board decided it was the right thing to do, saying it would be better for the environment.

The preserve acknowledges one of the reasons it ended its pact with the group was its opposition to the dam plan.

The corporation's lawyer, Rob Lang, criticized the preserve for using its own police department to go after the group.

"In 29 years of practicing, I've never seen that," he said in an interview. "They can get the criminal authorities to come after you. We give credit to the state's attorney for stopping that."

Karie Friling, the preserve's executive director, said the agency's police department has the power to investigate crimes on the preserve's property.

But she said the preserve recognized the department's involvement could be seen as a conflict of interest. So it involved the DuPage County Sheriff's Office, she said.

Still, she said her agency had every right to pursue what it saw as crimes.

"There were missing public documents. There were missing public artifacts," Friling said in an interview. "They have been donated by individual donors. We believed theft had occurred, and we still believe that. Whether the state's attorney moves forward with it, that's their call."

Lang said the matter is civil, not criminal. And he said no theft occurred. The agreement, he said, calls for the corporation to return any property that is bought with income generated from the operation of the mill and museum.

"When in doubt, we're going to give it back to them," Lang said.

Artifacts such as a Civil War drum, he said, belong to the corporation because they were bought with donations to the foundation.

In a March letter to the preserve's attorney, Lang said the preserve was using "nuclear bombs" such as lawsuits and wasting taxpayer money to "kill a fly."

"The (corporation) is primarily composed of elderly, retired, good citizens and rule followers, not the Watergate perpetrators," Lang said in the letter to attorney Jeffrey Jacobson.

In a letter a few days later, Jacobson said the agency wanted documents related to Graue Mill.

"Every second this drags on makes it easier for us to argue that your clients' acts were intentional," he said.

Also, Jacobson said in another letter to Lang that the age of the corporation's members was not an issue. He said Lang's references to their age implied they were incompetent. Jacobson said he disagreed they were incompetent.

"(T)hey organized a move of lots of stuff, some big and heavy, without a hitch when it benefitted them," Jacobson said.

The forest preserve decided last year not to renew its agreement with the corporation.

Now, the preserve's employees are running the 171-year-old gristmill and museum, which is along Salt Creek.

Lang said the employees are doing a worse job than the corporation's volunteers. But Friling said the workers are doing an "excellent" job in educating the public about the history of the site.

In late June, the preserve sued the corporation and its supporting foundation in DuPage County Court.

No trial date has been set.