For more than a decade, the blog known as the “Proviso Insider” has sat nearly completely silent.
“Nearly completely,” but for a single entry posted since 2010. Dated July 14, 2012, that lone relatively recent entry stands as a relic of a years-long court fight that once embroiled the man who served for years as president of the school board in Proviso Township High School District 209, and who in recent weeks has been installed into one of the most powerful offices in Illinois.
The court fight centered on claims former Proviso District 209 Board of Education President Emanuel “Chris” Welch, who was recently selected as the new Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, used the blog to smear the names of the district’s former lawyers to end their long-running legal services contract with District 209 and steer that business elsewhere.
Burt Odelson
| Odelson & Sterk
The July 14, 2012, entry reads:
“The Subject Statements made on the Proviso Insider on July 12, 2007, July 19, 2007, August 27, 2007, and December 15, 2007 regarding Burton S. Odelson, Mark H. Sterk and Odelson & Sterk, Ltd. are hereby unconditionally and unequivocally retracted and the Proviso Insider regrets the publication of those statements on the blog which were made without factual basis.”
The post simply labeled “RETRACTION” has its roots in litigation brought by attorneys Burt Odelson and Mark Sterk, and their firm, Evergreen Park-based Odelson & Sterk, against Welch and one of his legal co-workers and political supporters, years before Welch was elected to Springfield.
PROVISO INSIDER
Welch in January made Illinois state history, becoming the first Black person selected by the members of the state House to serve as Speaker. His ascension to that office came about eight years after Welch first was sworn in as a state representative in 2013.
Welch, a Democrat from suburban Hillside, succeeded former Speaker Michael J. Madigan, of Chicago, who had previously occupied the Speaker’s office for nearly all of the past four decades. Madigan was all but forced out of the office, however, after a cohort of at least 19 Democratic state representatives publicly pledged to refuse to support his reelection as Speaker, amid an ongoing federal bribery investigation that has engulfed Madigan’s political operations.
Welch has not been named in any documents filed by federal investigators concerning that probe.
Welch has long been considered a political ally of Madigan’s. He was, for instance, accused by Illinois House Republicans of undermining and ultimately torpedoing a committee created to investigate the corruption allegations surrounding Madigan.
However, Welch’s legal disputes preceded his arrival in the State Capitol, dating back to the years he spent at the top of Proviso High School district.
The district, based in Forest Park, now educates
Welch was elected to the Proviso school board in 2001, and became board president in 2003. He remained in that post until he became a state representative.
According to Illinois attorney registration records, Welch has worked as a lawyer since 1997.
Since 2003, he has worked at three firms: James J. Roche & Associates, from 2003-2007; Sanchez Daniels & Hoffman, from 2007-2018; and, from 2018-present, for the firm of Ancel Glink. Since becoming Speaker, Welch has "stepped back" from his role as partner, and remains with the firm in an "Of Counsel" capacity.
During his tenure on the board, the Proviso Insider blog first appeared online. None of the blog posts included any bylines, and in the “About the Author” section of the blog, it merely describes the author as a “journalist” from suburban Forest Park, who enjoys watching “The Wizard of Oz” and “Mary Poppins,” listening to The Beatles, and reading the 9-11 Report and “The Grapes of Wrath.”
However, in 2007, a court fight was engaged that exposed the actual author of the blog site as then-school board president Welch.
The action landed in Cook County court after Welch and, perhaps, a co-worker and 2006 campaign worker, identified as Emily Robinson, allegedly published a series of posts on the blog attacking attorneys Odelson and Sterk and their firm.
The posts posited the belief that Odelson and Sterk were about to be indicted by federal investigators, allegedly for helping Guy “Ric” Cervone, a former police commander in Melrose Park and a school board member in Melrose Park Elementary School District 89, lie to a grand jury.
After Cervone served his sentence, he was later hired by Welch to a part-time position in Welch’s district office after Welch became a state representative.
‘POLITICAL MUSCLE HAS BEEN FLEXED’
After Cervone was indicted, the Proviso Insider posted a blog entry asking: “Are Burt Odelson and Mark Sterk crooks? Will they be indicted next?”
The series of blog posts prompted Odelson and Sterk to respond with a defamation lawsuit. Initially, the lawsuit targeted only “John Doe” and the Proviso Insider blog. However, a forensic examination later determined the posts had come from computers at the law firm of Sanchez Daniels and Hoffman.
The Odelson firm then contacted the Sanchez firm, who then revealed those computers belonged to Welch and Robinson.
In December 2007, the Odelson firm sent a letter to Welch and Robinson, demanding they immediately delete those posts, post a public retraction explaining that the statements were false, and apologize for the false statements – exactly what would come to be written in the retraction posted in July 2012.
Rather than give in, however, Welch doubled down, arguing the statements implying criminal conduct on by the Odelson lawyers were merely political opinion and rhetorical, and not defamatory.
He further filed a countersuit against the Odelson lawyers, as well as against Welch’s former employer, attorney James Roche.
In the counterclaim, Welch asserted he had actually been the target of a “conspiracy,” between the Odelson firm and Roche, to prevent him from persuading the Proviso school board from firing the Odelson firm.
According to the counterclaim, the administrators who answered to Welch allegedly told him they believed the Odelson firm had improperly overbilled for their legal services. Welch claimed the Odelson lawyers then contacted Roche and allegedly told him to lean on Welch, to get him to “call off the dogs.”
The Proviso school board then fired Odelson. Welch was also terminated at the Roche firm.
However, the Odelson firm did not go quietly, accusing Welch, in turn, of pushing them out in favor of a different firm, the Del Galdo Law Group, a Berwyn firm with ties to Welch’s ally, Melrose Park Mayor Ron Serpico, and to former Speaker Madigan. Del Galdo continued to provide services to the Proviso district until 2015, two years after Welch departed for Springfield. According to published reports, the contract was worth $182,000 a year as recently as 2013.
In a public statement issued in July 2007, and addressed to federal and state prosecutors and news organizations, Odelson said he also believed Welch and Serpico were positioning Welch to also steer the legal representation of District 89 to the Sanchez Daniels firm to benefit Welch personally.
“If nothing else, the public will be aware and should monitor the legal bills of Morton College, School District 209, School District 88 and School District 89 as the dust settles and the political muscle that has been flexed is now extended to reap the benefits of years of political work,” Odelson wrote.
Shortly after, Welch and Robinson allegedly published the alleged defamatory blog posts on Proviso Insider, sparking the legal actions that followed.
For his part, Roche responded to Welch’s counterclaim by noting Welch could not produce any proof of any conspiracy or even of any conversation between Roche and the Odelson firm.
“… The crux of Counter-Plaintiff’s (Welch’s) claim for civil conspiracy is based ‘on information and belief,’” Roche wrote in his motion to dismiss the counterclaim. “Curiously, there are absolutely no facts pleaded to support Welch’s alleged ‘information and belief.’”
The legal fight would continue in the courts for five years, before the parties purportedly agreed to a settlement.
The exact terms of the final settlement have remained confidential.
However, on July 24, 2012, Cook County Circuit Judge Eileen Brewer entered an order granting the parties’ motion to dismiss the litigation. In that order, Brewer dismissed all of the claims against all of the litigants with prejudice – meaning they cannot be refiled – all except the claims against Welch.
Those were dismissed without prejudice – meaning the judge did not bar them from being reintroduce.
Further, in 2012, published reports indicated Welch attempted to persuade the Proviso school board to pay $40,000 of his legal bills and a $400,000 settlement to the Odelson firm. However, that was stopped by the intervention of a financial oversight panel, that had been appointed by the state of Illinois to supervise the Proviso district’s finances under Welch’s leadership.
MORE LEGAL FIGHTS
While the longest and likely the most costly of Welch’s legal disputes, the fight with the Odelson firm was not the only one he endured during his tenure at the Proviso school district.
In 2005, for instance, Welch and his brother, Billy Welch, sued suburban blogger Carl Nyberg. Welch was then still an attorney with the Roche firm. The lawsuit accused Nyberg of defamation in connection with the blogger’s work, which drew attention to Welch for his role in legally representing his brother, after Billy Welch was arrested in connection with a drug bust.
Welch asserted Nyberg had defamed him by insinuating his brother was a “hoodlum,” and therefore, by association, “Chris” Welch claimed Nyberg accused him of also being a "hoodlum."
That lawsuit was dismissed a year later.
Billy Welch was hired as a custodian in the Proviso district, becoming one of several of Welch’s family members and friends to be hired to work at the Proviso high schools while Welch was on the school board.
In 2011, Welch allegedly sparked a lawsuit against the Proviso district in federal court by Dylester Palm, a former dean of students in the Proviso district.
According to the complaint filed by Palm, Welch retaliated against her after she refused to hug him at a high school football game.
According to the complaint, Welch allegedly accused her and other administrators working under Palm’s sister, former Proviso West High School Principal Alexis Wallace, of “disrespecting” him.
According to the complaint, Welch then allegedly revised the district’s anti-nepotism policy, forcing Palm to be transferred to a different high school, while allowing Welch’s family members to remain in their positions.
The complaint further alleges Wallace was abruptly demoted in 2011, allegedly in retaliation for an article published in a local newspaper that “exposed some of Welch’s relatives that are working for the District.”
Other administrators were allegedly also removed, including Nikita Johnson, Welch’s former fiancé.
Palm voluntarily dismissed her lawsuit in January 2012, saying she lacked “funds to pay attorney fees.”
Neither Welch nor the Proviso School District 209 responded to Palm’s lawsuit prior to its dismissal.