Urbana Withholds Records of Illinois State Representative’s Alleged Retail Theft

The City of Urbana and Urbana Police Department have been withholding records and documents related to the alleged retail theft by State Representative and Chair of Champaign County Democratic Party Carol Ammons.

On January 10th, 2020, Urbana Police Department was contacted regarding an alleged theft by Ammons at the Carle Auxiliary Resale Boutique, a charity resale store in Urbana. The incident happened on January 7^th, where Ammons allegedly left the resale boutique without paying for a purse. The investigation was then handed over to the Illinois State Police.

Citing a conflict of interest, Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Rietz directed Court Judge Tom Difanis to appoint a special prosecutor to determine if Ammons should be prosecuted.

Multiple Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests to obtain documents and records pertaining to the incident, including a request filed by Edgar County Watchdogs on January 23rd have been denied by the City of Urbana and Illinois State Police.

On March 6th, 2020, Edgar County Watchdogs filed a FOIA lawsuit against the City of Urbana and the Urbana Police Department for their alleged improper withholding of these records.

The plaintiffs are challenging three FOIA statute exemptions invoked by the City. The defendants are represented by City Attorney James Simon.

Exemptions invoked by the City of Urbana:

• 5ILCS140/7(1)(b) Private information, unless disclosure is required by another provision of the Act, a State or federal law or a court order
• 5ILCS140/7(1)(c) Personal information contained within public records, the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, unless the disclosure is consented to in writing by the individual subjects of the information
• 5ILCS140/7(1)(d)(i) Disclosure would interfere with pending or actually and reasonably contemplated law enforcement proceedings conducted by any law enforcement or correctional agency that is the recipient of the request