Politics & Government

Village Officials: 'Justice Has Been Served'

Oak Lawn officials react to news of community activist's indictment on election fraud charges.

that pressed for an investigation into an attempt to file a referendum petition said to contain hundreds of fraudulent signatures reacted to news of activist’s indictment on election fraud charges on Wednesday.

If convicted, she faces up to three years in prison.

Jurcev filed a plea of not guilty at the Cook County Criminal Court building at 26th and California where the indictment was announced.

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Cook County prosecutors allege that Jurcev submitted petition sheets that contained forged and unauthorized signatures of registered voters in an attempt to get a referendum placed on the ballot in Oak Lawn to change the village’s form of government.

Oak Lawn Village Board Trustees Alex Olejniczak (Dist. 2), Bob Streit (Dist. 3), Tom Duhig (Dist. 4) and Tom Phelan (Dist. 6), along with Village Clerk Jane Quinlan,

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READ THE Oak Lawn Tax Watch Referendum Timeline.

The elected officials collected signed affidavits from more than 200 registered voters who said that their signatures had been forged on the petition sheets. A few months later, Mayor Dave Heilmann—who publicly supported the referendum to eliminate the village manager’s position--filed a complaint with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office.

The mayor charged that village board members had violated the Open Meetings Act when they did not give advance notice of two public meetings held at [ , where residents had been invited to examine their signatures.

Village Clerk Jane Quinlan said she felt relieved when learning of the indictment, especially after she and other village board members “were chastised by the mayor.”

“I saw the pain on so many faces. People pleaded with me to take their names off the petitions,” the village clerk said of the Stony Creek sessions. “I couldn’t do that. We could only pursue. Justice has been served in Oak Lawn.”

Trustee Alex Olejniczak (Dist. 2), one of the villages trustees involved in collecting resident affidavits, said that ‘finally the long arm of justice has extended to Oak Lawn.’ Olejniczak said he was “concerned” about Jurcev.

“My bigger concern is that she had nothing to gain from [this],” Olejniczak said. “The only person who could gain from it was [Mayor] David Heilmann.

“He’s the one who wanted to change the form of village government to mayoral. It was very concerning to me that [Jurcev] is now going to be held accountable,” Olejniczak said.

The mayor could not be reached for comment.


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