Sigma Nu Fraternity and Caleb Matheny are suing Second District City Council Member Barbara Van Auken, District 4 County Board Representative Andrew Rand, and City Historic Preservation Commissioner Sid Ruckriegel over an incident that happened last fall. Matheny and his lawyers (with the firm of Hall, Owens & Wickenhauser, LLC) held a press conference at 10:30 this morning in front of the fraternity, 1300 W. Fredonia.
The attorneys stated that this isn’t a political issue, but “a justice issue.” They allege that Van Auken abused her power as a City Council member, and that justice must be served to protect their client and other Peoria citizens from such abuse. They said they were taking the case pro bono and that Sigma Nu will donate any monetary damages they receive to their charity, Children’s Hospital of Illinois. They called on Van Auken not to use city legal resources in her defense, but to retain a lawyer at her own expense.
You can read the suit here (PDF file). Attorneys also stated that the City of Peoria has been uncooperative in providing information requested through the Freedom of Information Act, which is why there has been such a delay in filing this suit. However, they did get a copy of the surveillance video of the incident — with audio — which they will be releasing to the press; no timetable was given for its release.
Van Auken, Rand, and Ruckriegel declined to comment on the suit. Van Auken is currently in the middle of a reelection campaign against challenger Curphy Smith. Smith also declined to comment on the suit, saying he wants to “stay focused on the issues that are important to the people of the 2nd district and the city of Peoria.” At-large City Councilman Gary Sandberg didn’t have any comment on the suit itself, but did say that he had also had trouble getting information from the City and police department regarding the incident.
My take: Had this happened anywhere besides a fraternity house, I believe there would have been universal outrage at Van Auken and the others involved. But because Second District residents have had so much difficulty with unruly Bradley students through the years, many residents automatically prejudge the situation and assume that the fraternity must have been in the wrong, and that Bradley police were not doing an adequate job of keeping students quiet. In fact, Van Auken is actually seen by many in a favorable light because of this incident — like a Charles-Bronsonish vigilante hero, who finally gave those Bradley kids what they had coming. This lawsuit will only add to her “martyr” status with those supporters.
Further muddying the waters is the timing. This incident happened over five months ago, yet it’s resurfacing right now — during an election campaign — just a few weeks before residents will choose whether to give Van Auken a second term. That makes the suit look fishy to many observers, despite the plaintiffs’ protestations that it’s “not a political issue.”
And then we have the facts. Police reports and eye-witness accounts agree that Van Auken was acting intoxicated, that she did poke a Bradley police officer and show contempt to all Bradley police officers by saying they weren’t the “real” police, that she did try to intimidate the fraternity and the Bradley police by calling Peoria police to the scene and calling Bradley Vice President Gary Anna to complain about the fraternity, and that she did trespass on private property and refuse to leave when asked. Nevertheless, Van Auken and her friends were not the ones ticketed. The only ticket issued was to Matheny for violating a noise ordinance, even though the officer writing the ticket did so because he was ordered to do so by his superior officer, not because he actually witnessed any violation.
Despite the fishiness of the timing of this suit, I do not think it’s frivolous. In fact, I think it’s a win/win for the citizens of Peoria. If there was indeed an abuse of power, it needs to be dealt with for the protection of all citizens. And if Van Auken, et. al., are found innocent, then it will restore the public’s trust in these officials.
However, it doesn’t look like this is going to see a courtroom until at least August of this year, and in the meantime, things are going to get ugly. Just tonight, I got an anonymous e-mail from an address called “Anti Van Aucken” [sic] pointing me to this website. It has all the police reports and says it will have audio and video soon.