Embattled Campton Hills trustee resigns
Saying he is tired of fighting efforts to remove him from office, Campton Hills village Trustee Timothy Morgan has resigned.
Morgan was elected last year, but a 2002 felony DUI conviction in Michigan dogged his ability to keep his seat. Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser warned Morgan not to take his seat because the conviction made him ineligible.
Morgan said he resigned at Tuesday’s village board meeting, a day before he was scheduled to be deposed on civil litigation brought by Mosser’s office aimed at removing him.
“I don’t feel I deserve to go through a deposition for something that was 23 years old and doesn’t have anything to do with anything,” he said.
Morgan characterized the action to remove him as “wasting taxpayers’ money.”
Michigan records show he fulfilled all his requirements following the 2002 DUI, including probation, community service, not to possess or drink alcoholic beverages, pay a fine and use a breath test in his vehicle for a year.
Morgan had said he paid for his crime and rehabilitated his life.
His right to serve in elected office would have been restored in Michigan, but not in Illinois, according to prosecutors.
Illinois law states that if someone was convicted or pleaded guilty to a felony, the office to which he or she was elected “is rendered vacant.”
Morgan attorney Jeffrey Meyer asked the Second District Illinois Appellate Court in Elgin to review unresolved areas of Illinois law in connection with Morgan’s case, but the court declined.
Village President Barbara Wojnicki said Morgan had been a good trustee.
“We will miss him,” Wojnicki said.
The village is now taking applications to fill Morgan’s vacancy.
“I was duly elected,” Morgan said. “I was trying to give back to my community. I could hold any office — just not a small municipal office. It just didn’t make sense.”
In a text message, Mosser wrote that her office has Morgan’s letter of resignation.
“We are researching to make sure it is binding,” according to Mosser’s text. “If it is binding, then the case would be moot and it would be dismissed.”