Jail Mayor O'Dekirk: Joliet Will County Board Member Says

JOLIET, IL —Last week, former longtime Joliet City Councilman Warren Dorris and a handful of clergy members held a news conference to call for Mayor Bob O'Dekirk's resignation stemming from the mayor's scuffle with two black demonstrators late Sunday on Jefferson Street. Now, Will County Board member Rachel Ventura wants her constituents to know that she believes Joliet's mayor should be taken away in handcuffs and put in jail.

Joliet's Times Weekly newspaper reported that Ventura filed a compliant against O'Dekirk with the Office of Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

Ventura contends that O'Dekirk assaulted a black protester during the late night hours of Sunday, May 31. That night, looting and street violence erupted on several of the city's busiest streets and a total of 30 people were arrested by Joliet police.

Two of the arrests included the young men who were involved in a scuffle with the mayor. Ventura contends that it should be Joliet's mayor who is charged with a crime. O'Dekirk was a Joliet police officer during the 1990s who later became a lawyer. He served one term on the Joliet City Council before winning the 2015 mayor's race. He ran unopposed for a second term in 2019.

According to the Times Weekly article, Ventura said one video "clearly shows the Joliet Mayor Robert O'Dekirk instigated violence by grabbing a young black man and pushing him towards a group of police officers who gang-piled on the 23-year-old man and his older brother. Both young men were hospitalized following the assault instigated by O'Dekirk."

O'Dekirk has insisted he was within his right to defend himself, and he said that he does not need to apologize for his actions that led to the arrests of the two young men on misdemeanor charges.

At the White Castle parking lot last Tuesday night, O'Dekirk told the group of Black Lives Matter demonstrators: "I was trying to help stop that situation Sunday. I was trying to stop the violence."

"He pushed me," O'Dekirk continued. "And when he went to push me, I knocked his hands away and I grabbed him. That's what happened."

Days later, Joliet Patch writer Dawn Aulet reported that Victor Williams and Jamal Smith, the two men involved in the confrontation with O'Dekirk, have retained legal representation. Attorneys Lawrence O'Reilly and Michael Baker, of The Law Offices of Lawrence X. O'Reilly will be representing the men.

A Joliet resident, Ventura lost her bid for an at-large seat on the Joliet City Council during the 2017 election. The following year, Ventura was elected to Will County's Board in 2018. She is a Democrat. Last August, Ventura called for the termination of Joliet Police Chief Al Roechner during a Joliet town hall forum at the VFW Hall organized by the mayor to discuss rising violent crime on the city's west side. At the time, Ventura was running for Congress against incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, of Naperville.

"We need police leadership that fits the needs and diversity of our community, which is why a community survey is also needed for every resident to share all of their experiences. I look forward to the council complying with this, and lastly I want to thank all of the Joliet Police officers who have worked hard and do their job as their job. They're what's going to make this city safe. Thank you," Ventura said at the time.

In March, Ventura lost her Congressional primary to Foster by a margin of 59 percent to 41 percent. According to her Will County Board profile, Ventura is the business director for Legendary Games.