Nude Photos: Joliet Mayor Denies Blackmailing Dickinson

JOLIET, IL — Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk said accusations from Joliet City Councilman Don "Duck" Dickinson claiming the mayor was involved in a blackmailing scheme involving nude photos are 100 percent completely false.

Dickinson filed a police report on Monday against the mayor. O'Dekirk said he may be filing a police report of his own accusing Dickinson of filing a false police report surrounding the matter.

"I didn't have much respect for Don as a councilman, but I did have respect for him as a person, and I can't believe he would stoop so low to file a false police report against me and make up a lie as far as trying to blackmail him with nude photographs," O'Dekirk said when reached for comment after Monday night's City Council meeting.

"I've had no conversations with Don about running or not running for re-election other than when he called me on a Saturday morning telling me he was not going to run again. He asked me to keep it quiet until he told his supporters and that he intended to announce it later that day."

In September, Dickinson posted an announcement on Facebook that he would not seek another four-year term in the upcoming April 6 elections. Besides serving on the council, Dickinson works as a full-time employee with the Joliet Park District. He has previously served on the Joliet Township High School board for District 204.

At the end of Monday night's Joliet City Council meeting, Dickinson, 60, read from a prepared statement. "Over the last six months, I have been put in a position that has been very uncomfortable for me with my role on the Council. This has affected all the decisions that I need to make to help the city of Joliet move forward.

"I feel I have been harassed, badgered, tormented and now blackmailed unfairly. This is over a personal relationship that I had a few years ago with another consenting adult. Photos were sent between us, for us and for us only.

"This issue is being held over my head. The entire matter is being investigated by the Joliet Police Department. I have always been here for my constituents in the city and I will be in the future."

Joliet Patch left a message seeking comment from Dickinson following the council meeting.

Earlier in the day, Dickinson gave an interview to The Herald-News, Joliet's print newspaper, suggesting the mayor of Joliet was involved in blackmailing him.

According to the article, Dickinson said he suspects a woman kept a photo that he sent her of his genitals, and the picture has since fallen into the wrong hands. The Herald-News reported that Monday's Joliet Police Department report listed Dickinson as the victim, the mayor as the criminal suspect and Joliet Park Board Commissioner Jennifer Jobe-Gavin as being another person involved.

O'Dekirk told Patch that Dickinson's comments in the newspaper article amount to "pure character assassination and again, I thought higher of Don than this. He needs to be prosecuted, if he actually put this in a police report like is being reported."

O'Dekirk said Dickinson had complained to him in recent months that he was being threatened by Black Lives Matter activists and they were bringing his family into it.

"These accusations are false, and they were made in an official document, the police report, and in Illinois, that's a crime," said O'Dekirk, a former Joliet police officer who now practices law in Joliet.

At the Oct. 6 City Council meeting, Jerry Hervey, a Black Joliet community activist, addressed the Council and directed his comments to Dickinson.

"Don, you got caught in a really nasty situation, so I don't think you need to wait until April to resign. You need to resign now. You've been caught up in some really nasty text messages. Racially insensitive and sexually insensitive.

"Have you made your colleagues aware of what you've been involved in?" Hervey asked last month. "Because you made a tactful plan that you were going to run for the mayor's seat and you needed a Black girlfriend to win that seat. Is that what a Black woman is worth to you?"

That night, Dickinson stayed silent, not offering any reaction to what Hervey said.