Campton Hills trustee resigns amid legal fight with state’s attorney
After barely serving a year, Campton Hills Trustee Timothy Morgan resigned at the end of Tuesday’s village board meeting.
He said he was tired of fighting the Kane County state’s attorney’s office to keep his seat.
Morgan was elected last year, but a 2002 felony DUI conviction in Michigan dogged his ability to keep his seat.
“There was supposed to be a deposition today, and I resigned last night,” Morgan said. “I don’t feel I deserve to go through a deposition for something that was 23 years old and doesn’t have anything to do with anything.”
State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser had first warned Morgan not to take his seat because the conviction made him ineligible.
When he took the oath and was seated, her office filed a civil action – which was still pending – seeking to remove Morgan from office, alleging that the felony conviction disqualified him from holding office in Illinois.
Morgan characterized the action to remove him as “wasting taxpayers’ money.”
Michigan records showed that Morgan had fulfilled all his requirements following the 2002 DUI, including probation and community service.
Prosecutors said Morgan's right to serve in elected office would have been restored in Michigan but not in Illinois.
Illinois law states that if someone was convicted or pleaded guilty to a felony, the office to which he or she was elected “is rendered vacant.”
Morgan’s attorney, Jeffrey Meyer, argued last year that Illinois law did not bar someone from holding a constitutional office – such as a judge or legislator – upon completion of a sentence for a felony conviction.
A felony conviction bars anyone in Illinois from holding a municipal office, such as a village trustee.
Meyer tried to have the 2nd District Appellate Court in Elgin review unresolved areas of Illinois law in connection with Morgan’s case, but the court declined.
Village President Barbara Wojnicki said Morgan had been a good trustee. “We will miss him,” she said.
Campton Hills is now taking applications to fill the village board vacancy.
“I was duly elected,” Morgan said. “I was trying to give back to my community. I could hold any office – just not a small municipal office. It just didn’t make sense.”