Two months after IT Director Rob Dorman requested attorney’s fees for representation in a corruption investigation, the Madison County Finance Committee removed his request from the agenda until they know if they can legally address the issue.
Dorman first requested payment on his legal bill totaling $19,812.50 during February’s committee meeting. After some disagreement over whether the discussion should be held in closed session, the purchasing request was “tabled.”
During Wednesday’s Finance Committee meeting, Chair Don Moore said they were waiting to vote on the request until Dorman or his attorney, G. Edward Moorman of Alton, produced a court decision allowing the committee to legally address the bill.
At the February committee meeting, Moore suggested the county should pay for $7,875 in legal fees, which were incurred before visiting Associate Judge Jerry Crisel concluded that Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons was still charged with representing Dorman after a conflict of interest was confirmed. However, he did not think the county should pay for the remainder of the $19,812.50 bill.
“At the beginning of this, [Dorman] went out and secured legal counsel himself,” Moore said. “Seemed practical to me. I would prefer that we had used our own defense attorneys in his office, but we know that there was a problem there at the beginning because our defense attorney was involved in the prosecution side of the house, in that he had helped initiate and put together the task force to investigate the administration. So it makes sense to me that Mr. Dorman would want to seek his own legal counsel.”
“I think we should use taxpayer dollars to fund a portion of Mr. Dorman’s bill up until the time that the judge made the decision denying legal counsel or personal private legal counsel. So up until that time, the bill, the original bill was $18,625. There’s been an addendum to it for another $1,087, for a total of $19,812.50. Mr. Dorman incurred charges of $7,875 up until May 28,” he continued.
The legal bill relates to a recently unsealed investigation of alleged illegal conduct in the administration of Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler, which resulted in no charges. The offices of county administrator Doug Hulme, Dorman, and communications manager Cynthia Ellis were subjected to a series of raids beginning January 2018. Prenzler’s office was not subjected to the raid. Crisel terminated the investigation on Jan. 24 and ordered the seized property to be returned on Feb. 5.
Dorman sought outside counsel from Moorman, arguing that a conflict of interest existed with Gibbons. Crisel agreed and appointed the Illinois Attorney General’s Office to take over the investigation and prosecution. However, Crisel concluded that Gibbons was still charged with the duty of representing Dorman, Hulme and Ellis, “the conflict having been removed.”
Crisel declared a conflict of interest because Gibbons initially called for the formation of a special investigative taskforce based on evidence of possible illegal conduct.
According to police affidavits previously under seal, Madison County treasurer Chris Slusser testified against Hulme before a grand jury and wore a wire in conversation with Hulme in 2018.