No Charges Will Be Filed Against Oswego Twp. Highway Commissioner

The Kendall County Sheriff’s Office will not be filing charges against Gary Grosskopf, the Oswego Township Highway Commissioner, according to a release from the sheriff’s office.

On July 16, the Kendall County Sheriff’s Office received a complaint from Kendall County resident Todd Milliron that Oswego Township Highway Commissioner Gary Grosskopf was involved in ongoing criminal conduct regarding alleged residency requirements for his elected office. Milliron stated Grosskopf was holding office and was not a resident of Oswego Township. Milliron also said Grosskopf had not completed his duties as Oswego Township Highway Commissioner and was committing misconduct. Milliron alleged that Grosskopf was no longer a resident of Illinois and therefore he had vacated his elected office of Oswego Township Highway Commissioner. Detectives initiated an investigation into the matter. As the investigation was underway, Milliron made further allegations that Grosskopf had obtained a voter registration card while he was not a resident of Illinois.

Grosskopf declined to comment for this story.

During the investigation, detectives reviewed the duties of a Township Highway Commissioner. The core duties were to complete administrative work, maintain roads and bridges, manage personnel and maintain public relations. Detectives were unable to locate any supporting evidence that Grosskopf had not completed his statutory duties as Highway Commissioner. Detectives also obtained information from the United States Post Office, Illinois State Police, and the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office that assisted in this investigation. Detectives were able to determine that Grosskopf pays rent for his Oswego residence, receives mail at his Oswego residence, has a vehicle registered to the address for his residence and possesses an Illinois driver’s license with the Oswego address. All of the information obtained by detectives supports that Grosskopf was a resident of Oswego, Illinois. The following applicable Illinois Compiled Statutes were reviewed which included Misconduct of Officers (60 ILCS 1/55-37), Resignation and Vacancies (10 ILCS 5/25-2), and Perjury (720 ILCS 5/32-2). Based on the facts from the investigation there is not sufficient probable cause to support criminal charges. The investigation and conclusion was shared with the Kendall County State’s Attorney’s Office and Kendall County Clerk’s Office.

Kendall County Clerk Debbie Gillette reviewed the issues surrounding elections.

“As the designated Election Authority, I have received a copy of the citizen complaint regarding the validity of the Oswego Township Highway Commissioner’s residency and voter registration status,” Gillette said in a release. “An internal review of our records has indicated that there was no compelling evidence to suggest Mr. Grosskopf was in violation of residency requirements. I am in agreement with the findings presented by the Sheriff’s Office and I’d like to thank them for their due diligence in thoroughly investigating this matter.”

Kendall County Sheriff Dwight Baird said Grosskopf had done nothing criminal that would call for charges.

“After extensively reviewing the findings of our investigation, we found nothing criminal took place that would result in charges being brought forward against Mr. Grosskopf,” commented Kendall County Sheriff Dwight Baird. “I am disappointed that this type of behavior erodes the public trust in their elected officials but no laws were broken that would result in further activity from our office.”

Milliron said that he’s disappointed that Grosskopf will not be held accountable for his actions.

“The question is what does the term residency mean,” Milliron said. ”Or how does one reside in Illinois when you’re in Florida.”

In a prepared statement sent out to news outlets, Milliron further addressed his feelings about the matter.

“Something is plainly wrong, the definition of legal residency in the State of Illinois needs to be more defined, so this does not happen again in other state jurisdictions. I am going to call my State Representative and My State Senator later today,” Milliron said in the statement. “It is very disappointing to have an elected public official sell his Illinois home, purchase a Florida ’Homestead’ house, move out of state and off the local property tax rolls for well over a year, clearly living in Florida and still be allowed to continue in office. Government documents obtained prove Mr. Grosskopf was only in the State of Illinois and his new precinct for just 25 days. As a transient resident, this Road Commissioner is being paid $95,000 a year and does not contribute one dime towards his own tax-payer funded salary. I have been asked many times, ’How many crooked elected officials do we have in Kendall County?’ and my answer is, ’I don’t know the number, I do know our county’s property-tax burden is in the top 1 percent of these here United States. This is just one example of many I have documented. My county of Kendall, is a very target rich environment, where local taxpayers are being abused on a daily basis and it continues to happen over and over with no one being held accountable.’”

A copy of the police report including the investigative reports can be found on the Kendall County Sheriff’s Office website. The address is http://www.co.kendall.il.us/sheriff/.