Lyons Official Threatens Critic With Arrest, Advises He Get Bond Money

LYONS, IL – A top Lyons official warned a village critic last week that he would be arrested, advising that he get bond money.

The incident occurred outside a fundraiser at a Brookfield bar for Lyons Mayor Christopher Getty, who is running as an independent for Congress.

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Three Getty critics – Richard O'Brien, Ferrai Pickett and Steven Lifka – stood on the public right-of-way outside the Irish Times bar, saying they were denied entry.

They were speaking with a security guard for the fundraiser, an off-duty Lyons police officer. Pickett took video.

O'Brien, an elected library board member, greeted Lyons' village manager, Thomas Sheahan.

"Hi, Tom, how are you doing tonight?" he said.

"Are you getting arrested?" Sheahan said. "It's coming, buddy. It's coming. You better get some bond money."

Sheahan walked into the bar without telling O'Brien what he would be arrested for.

Last Wednesday, Patch left a message with Sheahan, asking about his statement. He did not return it. (An Illinois law ended cash bail a few years ago.)

For more than two months, the village has declined to release police videos of two incidents involving O'Brien. In early August, Sheahan seemed to suggest he would release the footage.

At the village's July 4 festivities, O'Brien, who admitted to drinking along with others, said Lyons officers detained him after he badmouthed Getty, a one-time ally who is also Lyons Township's elected supervisor.

"They said I was going to the county jail," O'Brien told the Lyons Township board last month. "They never told me what I was arrested for. I asked several times. I'm 65 years old and have never been arrested in my life."

He said he was released about a half hour later.

On July 24, O'Brien said a "crazy" 40-something man showed up pounding on his door and asking whether a woman named Anna was there. O'Brien said she was not.

In response, O'Brien said the man threatened to kill him, prompting O'Brien to call 911.

Police spent a short while investigating, with guns drawn because the man was reported to have jumped over fences, O'Brien said.

Later, O'Brien said he was called into Village Hall to meet with Sheahan, village attorney Martin Stack and a village employee. They showed him the videos.

"They say, 'If you don't sign this paper and resign immediately, we're going to send this to all the media. We're going to embarrass you,'" O'Brien said. "They're just blackmailing me, straight-out blackmail."

He said he refused to sign the document.

In August, Patch requested the police report for the July 4 incident. In reply, Sheahan asked whether Patch also wanted the footage of that incident and another one, referring to the July 24 encounter. Patch said it did.

Weeks later, the village informed Patch that no police report existed and that it decided against releasing the video, citing an ongoing investigation. The village said this did not necessarily mean the footage would be secret after the investigation ended.

A few days after the video denial, O'Brien reported that officers asked neighbors on his block "if they saw somebody of interest doing something wrong on July 24." He questioned why the police failed to conduct a more thorough inquiry the day of the incident.

"You think you'd do it the day (it happened) if you really gave a darn," O'Brien said. "You don't ask someone six weeks later."

The inquiry, he said, was "just an excuse because you're afraid to put out the video."

O'Brien told the township board he would look bad in the local police videos, but he wanted them to "go worldwide."

On Sept. 25, Patch filed a new records request for the July 4 video, which appears to be unrelated to the July 24 incident that is apparently under investigation. The village has not responded, although state law mandates that it do so within five business days.