'I screwed up and have no defense,' Cunningham says
Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham pleaded guilty Thursday to violating the county's ethics ordinance for conducting campaign business using county email.
Cunningham appeared in Kane Branch Court in St. Charles before Judge Elizabeth Flood. He paid a $500 fine and $45 in court costs. “I deserve the maximum,” Cunningham told reporters afterward.
“I screwed up and I did it, and I have no defense for it,” he said.
He blamed it on his lack of knowledge about computer technology, particularly that of his personal iPhone and iPad.
He said he was accessing work email on the iPhone and iPad, and that his personal emails were forwarded to his work email address. “ ... I'm probably not the only person who has not quite kept up with technology,” he said.
The charge was filed Wednesday. Charles Colburn, a special prosecutor from the state's attorney's office of the appellate prosecutor, handled the investigation and the case, because the Kane County state's attorney's office had a conflict of interest, as it represents county officers.
Cunningham was represented in court by attorney Gary Johnson.
According to the plea agreement, Cunningham sent and received emails about personal political and campaign matters, using county-related computer resources, from October 2013 until March 2014. Colburn said there were about a dozen emails.
Among other things, they contained a campaign brochure Cunningham was to approve, correspondence about fixing a mistake on a state campaign finance report form, and correspondence about responding to a newspaper questionnaire about his candidacy.
In March, Deputy Clerk Jeff Ward was suspended without pay for a week after he sent an email from his work computer to a state official to correct an error on a report of contributions to Cunningham's campaign for re-election. The email was carbon copied to Cunningham, and Ward signed it as “Jeff Ward Deputy Clerk.” Ward was a volunteer on Cunningham's campaign.
Cunningham was re-elected in November to a fourth term.
Mark Davoust, who challenged Cunningham in the spring primary for the Republican nomination, brought the matter to the county's ethics adviser. The ethics adviser halted his investigation once the state's attorney's office began investigating.
Colburn said a lack of criminal intent was the reason Cunningham was not prosecuted for violating state law.
Cunningham eliminated Ward's position in the spring. Ward received a $11,298 severance payout.