Editor's note: This article has been corrected from an earlier version to correct errors in identifying the mayor and police chief of the village of Summit.
Oakbrook Terrace and Summit village officials are arguing they should be dropped from a suit, which alleges they took bribes to install red light cameras, because the plaintiff, who was cited via a camera, apparently never paid the fine and so never suffered a loss.
In addition, the red light camera company is contending the plaintiff lodged his suit, because he is sore he was not hired by the government-run PACE suburban transit service.
Former State Sen. Martin Sandoval resigned from the Illinois General Assembly and pleaded guilty to charges he accepted bribes, in part, to aid the installation of red light cameras in suburban communities, including Oakbrook Terrace.
| http://www.ilga.gov/senate/Senator.asp?MemberID=1050&GA=94
Lawrence H. Gress filed for a class action Feb. 2 in Chicago federal court against the city of Oakbrook Terrace, and a number of other defendants, including Summit Village Mayor Sergio Rodriguez and Summit Police Chief John Kosmowski, as well as former Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Tony Ragucci and former Democratic State Sen. Martin Sandoval. The red light camera vendor SafeSpeed and two of its executives, Nikki Zollar and Chris Lai, are also defendants. Gress also sued leaders of several other southwest suburban communities that have used red light cameras.
Gress received a traffic citation, through a red light camera, in 2018 in Oakbrook Terrace. In his suit, he alleged SafeSpeed used bribes and other graft to induce Sandoval and officials in Oakbrook Terrace and elsewhere to install the cameras to make money for SafeSpeed and generate fines for municipalities, not promote traffic safety. Gress said he and at least 100,000 other cited motorists deserve to be refunded more than $100 million in fines, because the cameras were allegedly installed under illicit circumstances.
According to Gress, the cameras yielded more than $5 million per year in fines for Oakbrook Terrace, of which more than $2 million went to SafeSpeed.
In 2019, the FBI raided the homes of Sandoval, Ragucci and Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski, seizing $60,000 cash from Ragucci and $51,000 from Tobolski. Sandoval has since pleaded guilty to corruption; he awaits sentencing.
Ragucci resigned as mayor in late January.
Ragucci, Rodriguez, Kosmowski, Oakbrook Terrace, and the SafeSpeed executives each filed motions in July to dismiss themselves from the suit.
They argued Gress didn't say in his suit he contested the citation through administrative channels, much less paid a fine, so he suffered no injury and has no standing to sue. Rather than challenge the citation, Gress "focuses on the process that led to the red light camera’s installation," the village noted.
"The Village is no more than a location in Gress’s story," the village contended.
The village continued, “It is well-settled law in Illinois that red light cameras are a legal use of a municipality’s police power, holding that no one has a fundamental right to run a red light or avoid being seen by a camera on a public street."
The village also said the auto photographed by the camera was not owned by Lawrence Gress, but by a Gail P. Gress, of Downers Grove, which is another reason Lawrence Gress has no standing to sue, in the village's eyes.
The two SafeSpeed executives said, "There are no facts that warrant" the suit against them, as the alleged bribery scheme did not involve them, but rather a now former executive and cooperating witness, Omar Maani.
The two executives claimed Gress is "disgruntled" because he was unsuccessful in securing a job with PACE, which provides bus transportation in the suburbs. The executives pointed out Gress also lodged a suit against Sandoval and others in the wake of his failed job application, with the suit alleging Sandoval engaged in racketeering with PACE, the Chicago Transit Authority and the Regional Transit Authority.
The Summit mayor and police chief are defended by Del Galdo Law Group, of Berwyn, which is headed by Michael Del Galdo.
Del Galdo, who has described his firm as “one of the most prominent political firms in the state," has represented a slew of local governments in the Chicago area. Former State Rep. Lou Lang, who has been a deputy of Illinois House Speaker and Illinois Democratic Party Chairman Michael Madigan, joined Del Galdo's firm in 2018.
Del Galdo carried enough water in political circles to host a meeting in 2017 at his office between then-Illinois Democratic gubernatorial candidate JB Pritzker, Cicero Town President Larry Dominick and other political figures, the purported purpose of which was for Pritzker to procure Dominick’s support. Pritzker went on to become governor in 2018.
Gress and his Chicago attorney, Kent Maynard Jr., are also pressing a suit against ComEd, alleging the utility giant bribed Madigan to pass legislation, which funneled billions of dollars to the power company. Gress' action is one of two putative class actions filed in late July, demanding ComEd pay back to consumers the money the utility obtained through the allegedly improper means.
The village of Oakbrook Terrace is defended by Storino, Ramello & Durkin, of Rosemont.
Ragucci is defended by Westmont lawyer Steven C. Rueckert.
The SafeSpeed executives are defended by former U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon, who is now managing partner and head of litigation at the Chicago office of King & Spalding. Fardon served as U.S. Attorney in Chicago from 2013-2017, after he was appointed by President Barack Obama.