Police called to Des Plaines alderman’s home

Conflicts between Des Plaines 8th Ward Alderman Mike Charewicz and his wife have escalated to the point where she recently filed a domestic battery complaint with police but later decided not to press charges.

Officers have been called to the Charewicz home three times since 1998 for heated arguments between Mike and Doris Charewicz, according to Des Plaines Police Department reports.

The latest, on July 31, resulted in Doris Charewicz filing a domestic battery complaint that she later chose not to act upon, Des Plaines Police Chief Jim Prandini said.

According to the police report, the argument started after Mike Charewicz asked whether Doris was going to file for divorce the next day. When she denied it, Charewicz began tearing apart a television cabinet in the couple’s bedroom, the report said. He later grabbed Doris by the arm and snatched her cellphone, which he then smashed on a kitchen countertop, according to the report.

The fight had calmed by the time police arrived. Charewicz told police that he had been drinking earlier that day, the report said.

The other two police reports in 1998 and 2009 were not domestic battery complaints, Prandini said.

“They were just fights we wound up getting called on,” he said, adding that no one has ever been arrested.

Prandini said police did not find that Doris had any significant or visible injury that would justify filing a complaint on her behalf.

Mike Charewicz said he and his wife have been struggling to keep the marriage together for years.

According to court records, they each separately filed for divorce in 1992 and 2000, though neither went through with it and the cases were dismissed.

Mike Charewicz said this week he and Doris are trying to work through their differences.

“There was never any physical abuse of any kind, ever, even once,” he said. “If there is such a thing, they were all relatively minor incidents.”

Doris Charewicz could not be reached for comment. The couple have three children, all young adults.

Mike Charewicz, who was elected 8th Ward alderman in April, said it is too early to say whether the couple may be headed for a separation.