Former Madison County IT director Rob Dorman has filed a lawsuit against Democrat candidate for county board chairman, Robert Daiber, claiming statements he made in an April 13 press release were false and defamatory, and cost him his job.
Dorman, along with former administrator Doug Hulme were fired by the county board on April 16, more than two years after a special task force made up of several local law enforcement agencies raided offices of the county administration. An ensuing public corruption probe prosecuted by the Illinois Attorney General and presided over by a visiting judge ended in January when the AG's office said there was insufficient evidence to support charges against any of the potential targets.
“The criminal investigation referred to in the Defendant’s false and defamatory statement had been concluded prior to the making of these statements,” Dorman says in the suit filed Sept. 16 in Madison County. “The investigation resulted in no arrests and no indictments. The Plaintiff was completely exonerated. Nonetheless, the content of Mr. Daiber’s press release was reported as fact, as a result of which the Plaintiff lost his job and his professional reputation was damaged.”r
Daiber responded to the lawsuit:
"This is nothing more than a frivolous lawsuit filed by a former appointee of Kurt Prenzler. That employee was discharged from his position by a 26-1 vote of the Madison County
Board after they reviewed court documents related to alleged corruption within the Prenzler administration.
"Neither I, nor my campaign, have made any direct allegations against this individual. We have simply referenced the investigation and the media reports related to it. Kurt Prenzler owes the public answers about the alleged corruption within his administration, and I will not be intimidated by frivolous lawsuits as I continue to raise the issue of corruption in Madison County.
"I have consulted with legal counsel and will not be commenting further on this frivolous lawsuit."
The press release attached to Dorman’s suit as an exhibit, begins by stating that Daiber and several Democratic county board members were calling for the dismissal of top officials in chairman Kurt Prenzler’s administration.
Daiber is quoted as stating, “A criminal investigation by six law enforcement agencies has made it clear how extensive corruption and abuses of power are in the Prenzler administration. Madison County must act now to restore public trust by immediately dismissing the Prenzler aides who have committed these truly shocking actions.”
The release then cites affidavits released from the investigation, stating they “provide conclusive evidence that top aides" to Prenzler engaged in these actions:
“They attempted a pay-for-play scheme by offering a county job to a congressional staff person in exchange for the appointment to a U.S. Attorney position of their political accomplice Don Weber.
"They created a scheme to hack into and spy on e-mails of the Madison County judiciary and the offices of elected county officials (neither of which are under the jurisdiction of the County Chairman or County Board) for political purposes.
“In doing so, they compromised victim information, released sensitive and legally privileged information regarding ongoing cases and reviewed the emails of judges in conflict with eavesdropping on judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officials’ statutes.
“They gave access to a non-employee to conduct searches of county e-mails for campaign purposes and breached the security of the county’s network and put personal data at risk by using personal computers to access and search county e-mails.”
The lawsuit can be found here, and press release here.
After their firing, Dorman and Hulme sued the county board claiming it violated the Open Meetings Act, a claim rejected by county counsel.
Dorman also sued Lisa Ciampoli on Aug. 5, claiming she filed a false affidavit against him in the investigationn.
And, he sued State's Attorney Tom Gibbons on Sept. 1, over his alleged failure to produce records requested under the Freedom of Information Act related to the county Public Corruption Task Force that had investigated him for allegedly spying on internal emails.
Attorney Richard Bullock of Town Square Legal Advocates, which has an office in Collinsville, represents Dorman in his suits against Daiber, Ciampoli and Gibbons.