Seven other Democrats had irregular petitions, too, prosecutor says

Two campaign workers accused of forging signatures on state Sen. Terry Link's candidate petition also gathered names for seven other Lake County Democrats - and those documents appear to have irregularities, too, the county's top prosecutor said Thursday.

No charges will be filed in connection with any of the other candidates' paperwork, however, Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller said. Prosecutors instead opted to focus on Link's petition, which he said had the most obvious problems.

"In an investigation like this, you have to focus to make it manageable," Waller said.

Kenneth Davison, 50, of Waukegan and Jerry Knight, 40, of Zion, were indicted Wednesday on perjury and forgery charges. Arrest warrants were issued for both men, but neither had been picked up as of Thursday.

Link, who leads the Lake County Democratic organization, has not been charged. Prosecutors have said he and former party vice-chairman Pete Couvall, who hired Knight and Davison to gather signatures, cooperated with the investigation.

"The only thing I'm guilty of is being hustled by a couple of con artists," Couvall said.

Davison and Knight were among several people paid to circulate petitions for Link's re-election bid in the 30th District. He is running for a fifth term against first-time Republican candidate Keith Gray of Mettawa.

After the indictments were announced, Gray called on Link to withdraw from the race. On Thursday, Link said that won't happen.

"It's ridiculous," said Link, a Waukegan resident who also leads Lake County's Democratic organization. "The prosecution cleared me of wrongdoing."

The indictments charge Davison with forging 26 names and Knight of faking 36 names. Investigators aren't sure how the pair chose the names they forged.

The duo also collected signatures for the following candidates ahead of the February primary, Waller said:

•County Coroner Richard Keller, who's being challenged by Republican Michael Oster.

•Recorder of Deeds Mary Ellen Vanderventer, who is running unopposed.

•Michael D. Jacobs, who's challenging Waller for the state's attorney job.

•Cynthia Pruim Haran, who's trying to unseat Republican incumbent Circuit Court Clerk Sally Coffelt.

•Angelo Kyle, a veteran Lake County Board member who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for the state 60th House District seat now held by Eddie Washington.

•Jim Parks, who's challenging Republican state Rep. JoAnn Osmond in the 61st District.

•Diane Hewitt, who's running against Republican incumbent Randy Whitmore for the county board's 2nd District seat.

Questions about Link's petitions and disputed signatures surfaced last year when former North Chicago Mayor Jerry Johnson, who had sought to challenge Link in February's primary election, unsuccessfully tried to knock Link off the ballot.

The Illinois State Elections Board invalidated 1,600 signatures on Link's petition, but he had enough to stay in the race.

Johnson eventually was forced from the race because of problems with signatures on his own petition.

No one formally challenged the signatures on the seven other Democrats' petitions.

Waller said a lot of the same signatures from Link's paperwork appeared on the other seven petitions. Knight and Davison were listed as the workers who gathered those signatures, too, he said.

"I think it's clear that the petition circulators were not adhering very closely to the statutes," Waller said.

On Thursday, Keller said he was unaware Knight or Johnson had worked on his petitions. The four Democratic candidates for countywide office combined efforts to gather signatures, he said.

"I found out later that (the paperwork) included those gentlemen and that there were irregularities," Keller said.

Hewitt said she knew Knight gathered signatures for her but was unaware of any irregularities.

Parks said he learned Knight and Davison worked on his petition after the fact, and called the irregularities embarrassing. Both he and Hewitt were confident they had enough valid signatures without the ones Knight or Davison provided.

The four other Democrats couldn't be reached for comment.

The seven petitions could be used during sentencing hearings if the current cases against Knight and Davison lead to convictions, Waller said.

Although Waller's staff conducted the investigation, the state appellate prosecutor's office will prosecute Davison and Knight to remove any appearance of political or legal conflict.