Hinsdale Leader's Allegation May Be Wrong

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale Village President Tom Cauley may have been incorrect with one of his allegations last week against a sober living group.

He spoke for about 15 minutes against Trinity Sober Living just before the Village Board approved a settlement with the organization. The village agreed to pay the group $790,000 to settle its federal discrimination claim.

In his speech, Cauley said it had been Trinity's plan all along to file the federal lawsuit against the village.

"During discovery, the village uncovered an email by the owner of Trinity, Michael Owens, discussing setting up a group home under the radar and when the town objects, suing for damages in federal court claiming discrimination," he told the board.

Last week, Patch filed a public records request with the village for the email in question. It has until Friday to produce the document.

Meanwhile, Owens, Trinity's executive director, provided an email that reflected the contents of what Cauley alleged was said.

But Owens was not the email's author. Rather, it was written by Douglas Leech, founder and chief executive of Ascension Recovery Services in Morgantown, West Virginia.

The email was written in April 2019, a couple of months before Trinity opened at 111 N. Grant St. in Hinsdale.

Owens had written him that a seller had canceled Trinity's contract to buy a house after the seller found out it would be for people suffering from addictions. Owens did not indicate where the house was.

Owens said he could move forward legally with the purchase, but said he would meet with the sellers to ease their minds.

Leech offered some advice.

"I would say we pick another similar home, go in under the radar telling the seller it’s being purchased for single-family use, and get open," Leech wrote. "At that point, once you are open and have men living in the home, if the township tries to file an injunction you can invoke (Trinity attorney) Steve Polin’s services and get legal fees and significant damages through a suit."

Owens said he told Leech, a consultant, that he did not agree.

After the village approved the settlement last week, Trinity issued a news release to give its side of the story.

In the release, Trinity contended it tried to meet with the village before opening its doors to no avail. (The village has said that was not the case.) Two months later, it said it requested a reasonable accommodation to run a sober living home in a single-family zone.

Hinsdale did not approve it and then immediately sued to close the Trinity house, the release said.

In an email to Hinsdale residents in 2019, Cauley said he hoped Trinity would "just leave" so the village could "avoid years of litigation costs," Trinity said.

Cauley and Village Manager Kathleen Gargano did not return messages for comment, as has been the case for years.