Lawyer Warns Bensenville Official's Critics

BENSENVILLE, IL – An attorney for the Bensenville Park District recently suggested a park official's critics may have committed defamation. And she hinted they may be sued.

In a March 17 email, Mary Dickson, attorney for the Bensenville Park District, defended park board President Rich Johnson.

She said she was writing in her capacity as the attorney for the park district. But her focus seemed to be on the private concern of Johnson's reputation.

Dickson was addressing the White Pines Community Alliance, which has criticized the park district.

She focused on a recent newsletter from the group, in which the alliance said Johnson was seeking candidates to run for the Bensenville Village Board, a separate entity. The group said Johnson wanted to keep his opponents from running for the park board.

"Johnson was so adamant about keeping them away from the Park District Board that he broke the Park District's own ethics rules to collect petition signatures for the opponents to run for Village Board seats instead," the alliance said. "We’ll have more on Johnson’s ethics violations in part 2 of our newsletter and it is unbelievable how low he is prone to go."

State law and the park board's ethics ordinance bars employees and elected officials from using public resources for political purposes. (Last year, such a violation was found in Bensenville Fire District No. 1, but no one was charged.)

In her email, Dickson said that unless the alliance had evidence to the contrary, the allegation against Johnson was "false and defamatory" because it suggests a "want of integrity."

"The statement is also actionable as placing President Johnson in a false light," Dickson said. "The fact that your newsletter has consistently attempted to besmirch Mr. Johnson’s reputation establishes a pattern of malice directed toward him."

Dickson said that if the alliance lacks the evidence, it should retract its statement and apologize to Johnson in its newsletter.

"Alternatively, if you have facts to support the allegation of an Ethics violation, rather than post them in a newsletter for political purposes, you would be doing the residents of the Park District a better service by reporting them to the Park District for proper investigation," Dickson wrote.

On Sunday, the alliance reported about the attorney's letter in the second part of its newsletter.

“If Johnson thought that his personal reputation was 'besmirched,' why was he using the Park District’s attorney to represent him?” the newsletter said.

In a March 20 email to Dickson, Jim Brill of the alliance said his group was made aware that Johnson was circulating candidate petitions introducing himself as the "president of the park district."

Brill also said the group was informed that Johnson was seen politicking in the park district's Deer Grove Leisure Center.

In his email, Brill said the alliance was not trying to "besmirch" Johnson's reputation and that its members had no political ambitions or motivations.

"Lastly, for the record, we need to ask whether you are representing Mr. Johnson in his personal capacity or as the President of the Bensenville Park District," Brill said.

A day later, Dickson responded that she was representing the president in his official capacity only. She told Brill she had no further comment.

Dickson and Johnson have not responded to Patch's messages.