Algonquin Township Trustee Ed Zimel, left, then a candidate, talks with a Fox River Grove resident during a 2021 meet-and-greet event at Cary Ale House. (Matthew Apgar/Shaw Local News Network)
A case that will decide whether an Algonquin Township trustee with a 30-year-old felony can stay in his role will move forward after a McHenry County judge denied a request to dismiss the suit on Thursday.
Judge Joel D. Berg on Thursday said while state election code does not state that the specific crime Trustee Ed Zimel committed in 1990 precludes him from holding office, Illinois township code is more wide-ranging than the election statutes, meriting a deeper look into the case.
“What a magnificent issue. I mean, it’s a very complex issue,” Berg said. “The township code is different than the election code. And it’s clearly different.”
Zimel was convicted in 1990 of felony intimidation in Cook County and sentenced to three months of home confinement and 30 months of court supervision.
State election code holds that a person becomes ineligible for office if they have been convicted of an “infamous crime,” which both sides on Thursday agreed did not include intimidation.
However, an Illinois township code provision states that a person is ineligible to hold office if they have “been convicted in any court located in the United States of any infamous crime, bribery, perjury or other felony.”
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