Nov. 17--A suburban school board president booted from office by a judge last year after a decades-old felony conviction was discovered on his record has been reinstated to the same board.
The Thornton Township School Board last week appointed Kenneth Williams to fill a vacant seat on the panel. One of the three board members who voted to appoint Williams is his wife.
Illinois law prohibits anyone with a felony conviction from serving as an elected official. But Williams said his 1985 felony conviction for aiding, inducing or causing a forgery in Indiana has now been expunged, which removes any barrier to his return to elected office.
"I don't have a conviction anymore, so I'm eligible to run for anything in the state of Illinois," Williams said after he returned to office last week.
"They can't even say that I'm a convicted felon anymore -- unless they want a civil lawsuit," Williams said.
On Wednesday, Williams' wife, Toni Williams, and two others voted to have him fill the seat of a board member who resigned after moving out of the district. The other two board members were not present. Williams said he didn't discuss his return with his spouse and said he interviewed for the position.
It is unclear whether Williams' expungement would open the door for his return to public office. Under Illinois election law, a person convicted of forgery or another "infamous crime ... shall thereafter be prohibited from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit, unless such person is again restored to such rights by the terms of a pardon for the offense or otherwise according to law."
David Powell, executive director of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council, said Indiana's expungement statute seals a person's record from public review, though it is still accessible to law enforcement. He said an expungement is not the same as a pardon -- in which a person is forgiven for a crime -- or exoneration, which means the person never committed the crime for which he or she was convicted.
"It removes the conviction from public access, which means that the public cannot see that conviction anymore," Powell said. "It does not mean the conviction is gone."
Williams has not been pardoned by Indiana authorities and declined to explain how the expungement he is relying upon to enable his return to the board meets the requirements of state election law.
"I have no comment on that," he said.
Last week's vote prompted the union that represents the district's teachers to pen a letter to Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, asking her office to investigate.
"I am writing to notify you of this recent action by the board and to ask for your intervention and assistance in securing all appropriate remedies," Illinois Education Association attorney Elizabeth Pawlicki wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Tribune.
A spokeswoman for Alvarez would not comment except to say that "we are aware of it and are looking into the matter."
Williams, 51, of South Holland, was elected in 2009 to serve as one of seven members on the District 205 board, which serves approximately 5,000 students in Harvey, Markham, South Holland and several other neighboring suburbs. Shortly before the end of his first term, the Cook County state's attorney sued in January 2013 to have him removed after learning of the 1985 conviction.
The suit was still pending when Williams was elected to his second term in April 2013, but in October that year Cook County Associate Judge Rita Novak ordered Williams removed from office due the conviction. Williams' appeal of the judge's decision is still pending.
District 205 spokesman Glenn Harston acknowledged that Williams was not pardoned but said the expungement was enough to allow his return -- something he said he believed the school district's voters want.
"In fact ... there was an outcry from the people that they had been disenfranchised because the court had taken their vote away," Harston said.
mwalberg@tribpub.com
Twitter @mattwalberg1
