My adoring throng knows that I rarely apply my limited journalistic skillset to my own defense, but that self-imposed caveat never applies to the Geneva Police – and for good reason, too. There’s one set of rules for the 21,246 Genevans who aren’t Jeff Ward, and another entirely different set for the Genevan who is.
And the events of yesterday morning (12/14) clearly indicate that nothing’s changed in that 26-year regard. Please allow me to explain.
I was about a mile into my traditional morning dog walk when a white IOC Construction pickup truck pulled out of an upcoming driveway and stopped in the street as if he forgot something and was going to pull back in. Out of caution, I waited for the driver parked on the street and proceeded down the sidewalk.
Since I was focused on the truck, I didn’t notice the adjoining minivan driver, who was completely oblivious to our presence, put the vehicle into reverse and back out of the driveway while we were just two feet away. As you might imagine, I pulled the dogs out of the way and yelled, “Hey! Head’s up! Ya gotta look before you back out.”
Please keep in mind that this was at 7:10 on a December morning, and with those ubiquitous tinted car windows, I couldn’t begin to tell who the driver was. To her credit, when she finally saw me, she rolled down the window to profusely apologize.
But before I could say “no harm, no foul,” her husband came charging out of the white pickup shouting that I couldn’t talk to his wife that way and he was going to kick my ass among many other fascinating physically impossible things.
Surprised by the swift turn of events, I turned to face him as he continued his verbal assault just millimeters away from my face. He was going to hit me, too, but at the last minute he pulled the punch back.
That’s when his wife slammed into him at full speed, knocking him back exclaiming, “He didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t see him and I apologized. Please don’t do this again!” So, clearly he’s prone to this kind of unreasonable outburst.
All I can say is, the fact that the wife supported me was even more shocking than the unexpected verbal assault. That’s certainly not the Geneva I’ve come to know and love.
But not even that intervention could get this asshole to relent. Given past history, I knew if I didn’t call 911 first, I’d be the one who got arrested. So, when his tirade persisted despite his wife’s pleas to the contrary, I did just that.
It was difficult to hear the 911 operator over his continued howling, but she asked me to move away to the nearest intersection and wait for the officers, which is exactly what I did – for the next ten long freezing 25-degree ten minutes. That’s the point at which I called 911 back to explain that the officers could meet me at my house.
When I relayed this story to a local attorney and a DuPage judge, they both said the same thing. “If you were the subject of the 911 call and not the caller, the GPD would’ve been out there in less than two minutes.”
I couldn’t disagree.
Of course, the officer – a friend of mine, no less – was waiting for me when the dogs and I got home. I invited him in and explained that I wanted this idiot charged with disorderly conduct because that’s exactly what would’ve happened to me had the roles been reversed.
But even after he admitted that the wife corroborated EXACTLY what I said had happened, the officer threatened me with a littering ticket if I insisted on pressing charges. You see, while I was dialing 911, I dropped my single bag of doggie doo and now that lunatic was insisting I be charged with littering.
And I know this officer. He made it seem like it was a joke, but trust me, it wasn’t.
This is classic Geneva Police intimidation tactics going all the way back to 2006 when my first local attorney, Sandi Byrd, regaled me with the tale of how a motorist threatened her attorney husband with a knife in traffic. When he demanded that the GPD officers press charges, they threatened to charge him with starting the incident, instead.
Nice huh!
You see, mayor Kevin Burns doesn’t like those kinds of police reports because it reflects poorly on “his” city. So, he’s instructed the GPD to avoid filing them no matter what it takes.
When I continued to refuse to relent in my quest for charges to be filed, the officer actually had the nerve to excuse this barbarian’s behavior by claiming, “Well, you did yell at his wife.” My response was I didn’t “yell” at anyone. I simply reacted as anyone would to a dangerous situation. Then I politely asked the officer to leave.
I subsequently spoke with GPD Chief Eric Passarelli, who similarly refused to charge this loon, despite my contention that I’d been arrested for far less, including but not limited to asking children to be a little more quiet at 10 p.m. on a weeknight. That charge was so bogus that even “my friend” former Kane County state’s attorney Joe McMahon declined to proceed with the case.
Of course, both the officer in my foyer and the Chief tried to dismiss this vast imbalance to “events that happened in the past.”
Make no mistake, none of this “decision making” happened without mayor Burns’ express written consent. In a future First Ward special report we’ll discuss how he uses the GPD as weapon – even against his own family members – who are terrified of his legendary vindictiveness. I still have those emails.
We’ll also cover how the perpetually drunk mayor (he’s three sheets to the wind in the photo above), who’s been given more DUI passes than Lindsay Lohan, sold former GPD Commander Joe Frega out to the press for failing to immediately notify him of a KC jail commanders DUI arrest. Joe was in line to become the next chief, you know.
Then we’ll move onto how a now-terminated GPD officer tried to have me charged with a felony because I wouldn’t take his verbal crap. Again, even the KCSAO laughed that one off. The officer “resigned” because he let a woman slide on a DUI after she offered to sleep with him. But when he wouldn’t commit to a long-term relationship, she went directly to the mayor who did his best to cover it up.
I wish I could say I’m making this all up, but truth is, indeed, far stranger than fiction. Like I said. There’s one set of Geneva rules for Jeff Ward, and another set for everyone else. My eventual lawsuit against the City of Geneva is going to be epic!
Though I have to say, through all of this pointless bullshit, I really have to give that wife credit for being so honest in the face of what was clearly a lunatic husband. That doesn’t happen much in this existence.
