Island Lake mayor Hyde charged with altering liquor license

Island Lake Mayor Tom Hyde was arrested today for illegally changing the name of the business owner listed on a village liquor license, Lake County state's attorney officials said.

Assistant States Attorney Steve Scheller said Hyde is charged with one count of forgery and two counts of official misconduct for using White Out to change the liquor license for 3-D/Sideouts Bar and Eatery. Scheller said Hyde turned himself into the Lake County sheriff's office.

If convicted of the class three felony counts against him, Scheller said, Hyde could spend up to three to five years behind bars.

Scheller said Hyde has been released on a $50,000 personal recognizance bond and will return to court Oct. 27 for a preliminary hearing before Judge Raymond Collins.

Village Trustee Donald Seville said the case dates back to April when Jerry DeLaurentis III told the village board he intended to purchase the business on Liberty Avenue from his father, Jerry DeLaurentis Jr., who has owned it since the 1960s. At that time, DeLaurentis asked the village board to transfer the current license from his father's name to a corporation the son intended to create, Seville said.

"That was fine and the board voted 'yes' to give a new license to the son under the new corporation name," Seville said.

However, Seville said, when the time came to issue the license a few weeks later, the younger DeLaurentis informed Hyde the corporation had still not been formed, so the license could not be issued to it.

He asked Hyde if the license could be reinstated to his father while details were finalized. Seville said Hyde used White Out to erase the corporation name on the license, and then added the father's name to the document.

The younger DeLaurentis said today he went to Hyde, not in an attempt to do anything improper, but to continue operating his business.

"The clerk was on vacation, and all I wanted was to put it back into my father's name until we could work out the details," he said.

Seville said the way Hyde changed the license was illegal.

"The whole thing should have to back to the board and a new license should have been issued. Instead, he just erased the corporation name and cut the license as is," he said.

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