Embattled Mettawa Mayor Casey Urlacher resigns from Illinois Civil Service Commission
Mettawa Mayor Casey Urlacher resigned from his post on the Illinois Civil Service Commission on Friday, a day after federal prosecutors named him as one of 10 defendants indicted in connection with an illegal sports betting ring.
Jordan Abudayyeh, press secretary to Gov. JB Pritzker, confirmed the resignation Sunday.
Urlacher, 40, was appointed to the commission in 2013 by then Gov. Pat Quinn. The five-member panel meets about once a month to hear and decide state employee appeals of firings, suspensions, transfers, layoffs and demotions. It also approves or disapproves proposed changes to the state's personnel rules or position classification plan.
The state comptroller's Employee Salary Database shows Urlacher was paid $25,300 in 2018 and $25,600 in 2019 for his work on the commission. He's earned $5,800 so far this year, records show.
A second-term mayor of tiny North suburban Mettawa, Urlacher was indicted by a federal grand jury last week on allegations he took part in an illegal offshore sports gambling operation. He's accused of taking bets and funneling proceeds to the ring's alleged leader, Vincent Delgiudice, 54, of Orland Park.
Urlacher, brother of Chicago Bears legend Brian Urlacher, denied any knowledge about the gambling investigation when contacted Thursday morning by the Chicago Sun-Times, saying he didn't know any bookie named Delgiudice. "I don't know nothing about it," Urlacher said. "I don't know who you're talking about."
He had his co-defendants are scheduled to be arraigned at 9:30 a.m. March 4, in front of Judge Virginia M. Kendall at the U.S. District courthouse in Chicago.
Charged along with Urlacher and Delgiudice are Matthew Knight, 46, also known as "Sweaters" and "McDougal," of Mokena; Justin Hines, 40, of Algonquin; Keith D. Benson, 49, of Lemont; Todd Blanken, 43, of Cary; Nicholas Stella, 42, of Chicago; Matthew Namoff, 23, of Midlothian; Vasilios Prassas, 37, of Chicago; and Eugene "Gino" Delgiudice, 84, of Orland Park.
• Staff writer Jake Griffin contributed to this report.