Not guilty plea in Lake Co. campaign forgery

The second of two men charged with forging signatures on ballot petitions for state Sen. Terry Link pleaded guilty Thursday in Lake County Circuit Court.

Jerry Knight, 50, was placed on probation for two years and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service after pleading guilty to perjury.

Knight, formerly of Zion, and Kenneth Davison, 40, of Waukegan, were among a group of people paid to circulate nominating petitions to place Link's name on the 2008 primary election ballot in Senate District 30.

They were caught when investigators called many of the people whose signatures appeared on petitions submitted by Knight and Davison and discovered those people had not signed the petitions.

Link cooperated with the investigation and was not accused of any wrongdoing.

Knight was found mentally unfit for trial in December, but a psychiatrist treating him in St. Paul, Minn., where he now lives, recently certified him fit to go to trial or plead guilty.

Charles Zalar, an attorney for the appellate prosecutor's office who handled the case, agreed to drop a charge of forgery in return for Knight's guilty plea.

Circuit Judge Fred Foreman also barred Knight from participating in election activity, other than voting, for the length of his probation.

Davison pleaded guilty earlier this year and was also placed on probation.