La Grange Apology Sought Amid Sex Abuse Allegations

LA GRANGE, IL – A family member has defended La Grange's long-ago village attorney against allegations of sex abuse, which triggered a street name change.

In July, the Village Board unanimously voted to return the three-block Linklater Court to its original name, 48th Street.

This was after William John Linklater's daughter, Anne Brandt, asked the board to remove the name. At a June meeting, she told trustees Linklater groomed and sexually abused her when she was a young child.

A former teacher colleague of Brandt backed her request, saying Brandt had told her about the situation years earlier.

After the meeting, Erin Linklater Palumbo, a granddaughter of William Linklater, wrote to the board. She asked the village to issue a formal public apology, affirming that the village does not endorse the "serious and unproven" allegations.

In their decision, the trustees did not comment on the allegations either way. Patch's message with Village President Mark Kuchler on Friday went unreturned.

In her three-page letter, Palumbo recounted her family's long ties to La Grange. She said her grandfather, who died in 1971, served the village honorably and was well-regarded for his integrity and service.

She said William Linklater and his wife, Jean Linklater, raised three children, Anne, Joe and Margaret.

In the late 1980s, Palumbo said, Brandt informed her siblings that their father had abused her.

But Palumbo said no contemporaneous reports, witnesses, documentation or legal findings ever substantiated these claims.

After thoughtful consideration of all available information, Palumbo said her father, Joe Linklater, an attorney, and his older sister, Margaret Van Dagens, did not find the claims to be credible.

More than two decades ago, Palumbo said, Brandt requested the village revoke the honorary designation. A compromise was reached: Part of the street kept the Linklater name, while the rest reverted to 48th Street, Palumbo said.

The difference between the 1980s process and the recent one was that Palumbo's father, Joe Linklater, who died in February, was not around to defend William Linklater, Palumbo said. (Brandt's name was not included in Joe Linklater's obituary.)

"By reopening this matter nearly 40 years later without due process, without new facts, and without affording the family any opportunity to respond, the Village has not only defamed a deceased public servant who can no longer defend himself, but it has also allowed itself to become an unwitting accomplice in the amplification of baseless accusations," Palumbo said in her letter. "This action has caused unnecessary harm to our family and has diminished the legacy of a man who served La Grange with integrity."

She said the family is not requesting the village to reverse its decision, but to issue an apology.

Asked for a response, Brandt said in a statement that it saddened her that some family members who were not alive at the time cannot believe the truth.

"Incest doesn’t take place out in the open," Brandt said. "Inherently, it’s a secret. Only the victim and the offender know the truth."

Brandt also forwarded an Aug. 14 letter to the village from Jon Conte, a professor emeritus from the University of Washington. It was in response to Palumbo's.

Conte said he has known Brandt for more than 30 years. He said he met her when he was a professor at the University of Chicago and maintained a therapy practice working with those who had been sexually abused.

"While I had Ms. Brandt as a therapy client, she described incestuous sexual abuse," Conte said. "Her accounts were consistent, believable, non-delusional and accompanied by emotional difficulties known to be associated with childhood sexual abuse."

Conte said one can only feel sad for Brandt's extended family, in which they feel apparent shame for events that took place before they were born.

"Denial, false beliefs and accusations, blaming others, and anger are all defenses that protect us from pain," Conte said. "The pain of the family is obvious, but this should not detract from the truth."

Conte noted Palumbo's call for contemporaneous reports and witnesses. But he said incest, by its very nature, occurs in secret and that evidence rarely exists.

The best indication of what happened, he said, is usually the victim's statements.

"The quest for corroboration or new evidence and attacking the victim or a character witness divert attention from the fundamental truth, which is that extended family, the siblings of a victim, and other interested parties, such as the younger generation, have no way of knowing what did or did not happen between a father and daughter," Conte said.

Sex offenders, Conte said, are often well-respected, powerful and influential people in communities.

"They are often loved by family members who do not and cannot possibly know what they do in secret," Conte said. "If the universe were to pass out medals for courage in speaking truth to power, Ms. Brandt and the Village of La Grange should be first in line for such medals."

Palumbo did not return Patch's message, which was left through her Facebook account.