‘Jerk’ Road Boss Not Guilty of Battering Old Men

A judge ruled the New Lenox Township Road Commissioner is guilty — but only of acting like a jerk, not of breaking any actual laws.

“I think you acted like a complete jerk in this situation,” Will County Judge Daniel Rippy told Road Commissioner Dennis McPartlin just before he found him not guilty of four counts of battery Thursday afternoon.

McPartlin, 66, was arrested in February 2015 for allegedly roughing up two men who came to the township garage after their mailboxes were damaged. The two men — 83-year-old James Haddon and Dennis Baldauf, 64 — suspected a township snowplow had hit their mailboxes.

McPartlin invited Haddon into the garage so he could compare some debris he found by his mailbox with the township trucks.

McPartlin’s attorney, Stephen White, said McPartlin changed his mind and ordered Haddon to leave the garage. That, along with a sign outside that said, “Authorized Personnel Only,” and the fact that Baldauf failed to park in a designated parking spot, made them trespassers and apparently gave McPartlin the right to batter them.

“I do believe they trespassed,” Judge Rippy said.

On Wednesday, Haddon testified how McPartlin knocked him down to one knee, then grabbed him by the collar and belt and pushed him out of the garage. As McPartlin did this, he shouted at the top of his lungs, “Don’t f--k with me, you don’t f--k with me, you don’t know who you’re f--king with,” Haddon said.

Baldauf called out for McPartlin to stop, Haddon said. McPartlin then grabbed Baldauf by the collar and shook him, he said.

White said he did not believe McPartlin used excessive force when he ejected Haddon and Baldauf from the garage.

Just before Judge Rippy handed down the not-guilty verdict, prosecutor Jaclyn Hilderbrand read several quotes from a video of McPartlin’s interview with the New Lenox police. She said he told the police:

• “I am upset with myself for what I’ve done.”
• “Do I absolutely feel terrible? Yes.”
• “I definitely know I had a meltdown.”
• “I’m a nervous wreck. My life is over because I lost my temper.”“I really thought I had my anger management under control and I obviously do not.”
• “I’m totally ashamed of myself.”

Haddon and Baldauf sued McPartlin over the alleged attack. The civil case is still pending.