Ex-Island Lake mayor's forgery trial opens
Two pictures of former Island Lake mayor Thomas Hyde were drawn Tuesday in Lake County Circuit Court.
One was by prosecutors who said Hyde acted with blatant disregard for the law when he changed the name of a village liquor license holder May 5, 2008.
The other came from defense attorneys who claimed Hyde acted legally when he ordered the document altered, and is being prosecuted only because of the efforts of a "cabal" of political opponents.
Hyde, 61, is on trial for official misconduct and forgery for changing the name of the owner of 3D Bowl/Sideouts after a plan to sell the establishment fell through.
"The people of Lake County expect and deserve honesty in government," Assistant State's Attorney Jason Grindel said in his opening statement. "This is a case about dishonesty in government."
Hyde, as the village liquor control commissioner, and the village liquor control commission and village board had approved transferring the license from Jerry DeLaurentis Jr., to his son, Jerry DeLaurentis III, in anticipation of the younger man's purchase of the establishment.
However, when the sale stalled, the name of the younger DeLaurentis on the document was covered with correction fluid and his father's name was written over the fluid.
Grindel told the jury of nine men and three women Hyde had no authority to change the document in that manner, and had been told by the village attorney not to do so.
In addition, Grindel said, Jerry DeLaurentis Jr. was ineligible to receive a liquor license because he owed the village $4,000, and village ordinances prohibited giving a license to someone who owed the village money.
Defense attorney Charles Smith of Waukegan told jurors they were there because of "the pettiness, vindictiveness and outright animosity," of a pair of Hyde's rivals.
Former village clerk Christine Kaczmarek and village Trustee Donald Saville waged a campaign with a state's attorney's office investigator to bring criminal charges against Hyde, Smith said.
"We are about to descend over the next few days, just like Dante's 'Inferno,' into various levels of local political hell," Smith told the jurors. "It will not be pretty."
While Hyde did not change the name on the liquor license himself, Smith said, he ordered it done and will admit that when he testifies in the trial.
Hyde did so because by May 5, 3D Bowl/Sideouts had been operating without a liquor license for five days, Smith said, and the establishment's license could not be revoked without a hearing.
Hyde was the only person who decides who is issued a liquor license, Smith said, and was aware DeLaurentis had made arrangements to settle the $4,000 debt.
The debt Saville claimed was owed to the village was actually owed to an engineering company, Smith said, and officials from the company had told Hyde about a month before the license was changed that they were reaching a payment agreement with DeLaurentis.
Kaczmarek conducted a "vendetta" against Hyde, Smith said, and contacted a state's attorney's investigator more than 130 times between December 2007 and May 2008 concerning Hyde.
Hyde was charged last week in a separate criminal case in connection with a ghost payrolling scam involving his wife, Sharon. Thomas Hyde is charged in that case with official misconduct and having a prohibitive interest in contracts.