Mel Thillens faced DUI, property destruction charges
A Republican candidate for state representative admits to "youthful indiscretions" some 15 years ago when he was charged with driving under the influence and destruction of property in two separate incidents.
Mel Thillens, now 43, is the Park Ridge park board president running for the 55th District House seat in the state legislature, against freshman Democratic state Rep. Marty Moylan of Des Plaines.
Thillens recently sent out a letter to voters explaining the charges, in what he said was an effort to get out in front of the issue before Moylan did.
Thillens had been upfront about the charges back in the March primary, responding "yes" to a Daily Herald questionnaire asking if he had ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime. He admitted to the charges on both the primary candidate questionnaire and again on the general election questionnaire.
Thillens said he was pulled over for an illegal U-turn in Chicago in 1999 and after declining a breath test was charged with driving under the influence. He says that charge later was dismissed.
A year later, Thillens said he got into a disagreement with someone on a sidewalk on Chicago's Near North Side, pushed over a trash can, and was charged with destruction of property.
"A cop stopped the whole thing. He saw us getting angry at each other and decided to stop us," he said. That ticket also was dismissed, Thillens said.
"These are things I did long before I got married, long before I had kids and are things that I regret," he said.
However, in both his primary and general election candidate questionnaires for the Daily Herald, Thillens had written the DUI charge was downgraded to reckless driving. He said this week that information was incorrect; instead he was only given a ticket for a moving violation and paid a fine, he said.
Thillens said he filled out the questionnaire based off his memory, but recently looked up records that showed there was no reckless driving charge.
"I just remembered it that way because I heard (pleading down a DUI to reckless driving) is what often happens to those, but that isn't what happened," Thillens said. "The whole thing was stricken."
The Thillens campaign could not immediately provide documents relating to the DUI case.
However, a search of Cook County court records showed the Jan. 27, 1999 DUI charge was stricken on April 30, 1999.
Thillens is vice president of the Chicago armored truck company that bears his family name.
"(House Speaker Mike) Madigan and Moylan have spent $200,000 on negative propaganda, attacking my family, and lying about who I am," Thillens writes in his letter to voters. "Now they are digging up youthful indiscretions from over 15 years ago to avoid defending their record."
Moylan said he wasn't aware of Thillens' past and isn't making it a campaign issue - though in an interview he did take a swipe at his opponent.
"His uncontrollable temper is between him and his family and the person who filed charges against him," Moylan said. "It's not about his personal issues. That's between him, his family, and the people he endangered when he was driving drunk. We had no plans to put that out."
Thillens said he told his 9-year-old twin boys about the incidents before mailing the letter to voters, but he hasn't told his two younger children.
"I always knew I was going to have a 'Daddy's made some mistakes' conversation. I knew it was coming in the election," he said.
The 55th District encompasses parts of Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village, Park Ridge, Rosemont, Mount Prospect, Arlington Heights and Rolling Meadows.
• Daily Herald staff writer Barbara Vitello contributed to this story.