Felony Charges Tied To Elmhurst Politician's Petition

ELMHURST, IL – A longtime Republican Party official faces 14 felony counts in connection with signatures on an Elmhurst politician's petition last year.

On Aug. 21, a grand jury indicted 74-year-old Lawrence Moretti of Addison on charges of possession with intent to deliver any document known to be altered or forged, according to DuPage County court records.

Last December, Patch reported on problems with the signatures that Moretti purportedly collected for then-mayoral candidate Mark Mulliner's petition.

The questionable signatures were on four pages of Mulliner's 72-page petition. Moretti, a Republican precinct committeeman from Addison Township, gathered the signatures on those pages.

In December, Patch left messages with 14 households whose signatures were in question.

At seven addresses, residents said no one in their houses signed Mulliner's petition. At least one person said he would testify to that fact.

The four pages were much different from the other 68. All the signatures on the four pages were illegible, while that was only the case with some on the other pages.

The signatures on Moretti's pages were typically angled scribbles.

Moretti's pages were notarized by his wife, Pamela Moretti, Addison Township's former clerk. In April, she lost her re-election bid, as Democrats swept township offices county-wide.

Mulliner, who lost to Mayor Scott Levin in April's election, and the Morettis have not returned repeated messages since December.

The DuPage County State's Attorney's Office, headed by Republican Robert Berlin, handled the investigation.

In 2010, Moretti caused a stir near an election polling place in Addison when he wore a hat reading "ICE," the acronym for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, according to the Daily Herald.

Democrats accused Moretti of trying to intimidate voters in a heavily Hispanic area, the newspaper said. He was a credentialed Republican Party poll watcher.

In a December interview, Levin said Moretti had been around politics long enough to know how petitions were done.

"Everyone knows it's not legal. It's a forgery. You're forging someone's signature," the mayor said. "We don't do it that way in Elmhurst. The perjured nature of the petition is so obvious on the face that they shouldn't have been included. Mulliner didn't need them. Including them was bad judgment."

Kevin Coyne, chairman of the DuPage County Republican Party, declined to comment on Moretti's situation Tuesday. He said the party does not typically comment on court matters and that he did not know about Moretti's indictment before Patch contacted him.

Mulliner served for 24 years on the Elmhurst City Council before losing to progressive Rex Irby in 2023. This followed Mulliner's high-profile involvement in conservative causes.