EDWARDSVILLE – Former Madison County officials Doug Hulme and Rob Dorman say they continue gathering evidence that proves a two-year-long criminal investigation of them was started because they tried to stop Democratic Party political activity on county time.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who investigated Hulme and Dorman for allegedly spying on internal emails of county officials and employees, ended the case in late 2019 after finding no basis for bringing charges.
Since then, through multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, Raoul’s office has released to Hulme and Dorman more than 2,000 pages of documents related to the investigation initiated by former state’s attorney Tom Gibbons, a Democrat. Gibbons assembled a task force of 33 city, county and state law enforcement officers in December 2017, which then carried out a mid-day raid on offices in the county administration building on Jan. 10, 2018.
To date, Hulme said Raoul’s office has released some of the video-recorded interviews of 34 total witnesses. Hulme said he expects to receive all of them as the AG slowly rolls out evidence gathered over the course of the investigation.
Hulme said that last week he obtained a message that had been circulated among county officials organizing a meeting of Democrat precinct committee members. The message carried a date of Jan. 27, 2017, a month after Republican Kurt Prenzler took office as county board chairman.
Hulme worked for Prenzler as county administrator and Dorman worked for him as information technology director until their firing by the County Board last April 16.
“Politics on county time was part of the culture,” Hulme said.
Within a few months into his job as administrator, Hulme said he first saw a message about a meeting of Democrats at Argosy Casino. He said his position as administrator allowed for review of electronic messages, according to the county’s electronic communications policy.
“I didn’t need to go far to figure out we had a problem,” Hulme said. “The problem was sitting on the surface."
Hulme said he had a responsibility to make sure there wasn’t prohibited political activity, “and I had access to emails by county ordinance.”
He said the policy allows the county chair and the administrator to look at email, to be sure the network is being used for proper purposes.
In a joint interview on Feb. 9, Dorman added that the county employee handbook also says employees should have no expectation of privacy “and they should assume their email is being monitored.”
Regarding his initial discovery of political activity on county communications, Hulme said, “I think it brought anxiety to people who had done political activity on county time.
“People didn’t want us to do our jobs. People were concerned about what we might find.”
The release of information provided by Raoul’s office has shed some light on the origin of the investigation.
Raoul provided a recording of police interviewing Gibbons as a witness.
In the Jan. 8, 2018 interview with Lt. Kenneth Wojtowicz, Gibbons said he made initial contact with Dorman in January 2017 when he learned that a folder stored on the SAO's electronic hard drive had been missing. He said he sent notice to the IT department, like he had with the previous director, advising that sensitive information stored on SAO servers needed to be protected. He said he later found out the missing folder had been restored.
An excerpt of the interview also shows that Gibbons said that over the next "five to six months," he "continued to hear rumors about emails being looked at" but "still absolutely no evidence supporting that" from some Republicans and county board members.
"Those rumors persisted, but nothing to substantiate," Gibbons said.
Gibbons also said there were concerns over the frequency of rumors and concerns that the law may have been broken and felonies committed.
On the day of the Jan. 10, 2018 raid, Gibbons’ office issued a release, stating that it had received evidence of possible illegal conduct by unnamed county officials.
“Based on the information provided through multiple sources and individuals, State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons called for the formation of a special investigative task force, comprised of members of multiple state and local law enforcement agencies to investigate the allegations and determine the extent of any wrongdoing,” the release stated.
The search warrants executed were “the result of significant evidence developed by the Madison County Public Corruption Task Force, as part of a larger, ongoing investigation.” Due to the “highly sensitive nature of the investigation,” further information will be released at “such time as is legally appropriate,” it stated.
As the investigation launched, Hulme and Dorman moved to disqualify Gibbons, claiming his position obligated him to represent Prenzler and his staff rather than prosecute them.
Though Gibbons insisted he was not conflicted in pursuing an investigation, outside judge Jerry Crisel granted disqualification and appointed Raoul in 2018.
Raoul closed the case in late 2019. Crisel then issued an order ending the investigation on Jan. 24, 2020.
In April, however, the county board fired Hulme and Dorman.
They have sued to get their jobs back. They moved for an outside judge last August and the motion remains pending.
Gibbons ran for circuit judge last year and lost.
He applied for associate judge for two recent vacancies created by the retirements of associate judge Barry Julian and election of associate judge Stephen Stobbs to circuit judge, but the circuit judges picked attorneys Angela Donohoo and Ron Motil.