[Drizzt]

Washington Park mayor admits having gun in car

BY GEORGE PAWLACZYK
gpawlaczyk@bnd.com

"O'FALLON - Washington Park Mayor Sherman Sorrell's shopping trip Friday ended with his village-owned car being towed and police investigating why a 9 mm pistol was found inside. ..."

(Deleted due to copyright issues.)

http://www.belleville.com/mld/newsdemocrat/5515328.htm

[OF]

No man is above the law. Yeah, right.

- Gabe

[Coronach]

Well, not like I'm going to go out on a limb to defend a politician (and probably a liberal), who had his car repo'd...by the city, no less... but...

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? THis dude is the mayor....the city counctil is repoing the car...

and he admits to having a gun in the car? Good Lord. How amazingly stupid is all of this?

And yeah, if he's breaking the law, he needs to be charged.

:confuzzled:

Mike

[SaintofKillers]

The mayor said he has a permit to carry. Where in Illinois is this possible??? Hmmmmm? (Sarcasm)

[Standing Wolf]

I have a car gun, too—but my car's legally owned, and I've never ripped off any city or town I've ever lived in.

[El Tejon]

SaintofKillers, oh, the joys of Illinois laws. Even the small suburbs of Chicago (villages) exempted themselves from their handgun bans.:D

In Illinois, equality before the law depends on how big the envelope you give the city council or the judge is.

[Don Gwinn]

If it was unloaded, but assembled, in the glove box without a case then it was illegal. Doesn't matter where the ammunition was.

There is no such thing as a "permit to carry" a gun in Illinois. Your FOID allows you to own it and shoot it for approved reasons at approved places, but not carry a loaded or uncased gun off your own property.

It has long been said that public officials such as aldermen and mayors can carry legally because they are considered "Peace Officers" under the law. Few are willing to talk about this, so we only know about the few crazies like Dorothy "The Hat" Tillman, who waved her revolver all over the place at a Chicago city council meeting. Maybe this will shed more light on the subject. There wouldn't be a permit in any case, as I understand it.

[cordex]

Wow ... big gun.
"Sherman was running alongside it as we towed it, probably to get at the gun that was under the seat," said Tommie Davis.
Sorrell said Saturday he has a permit to carry the pistol, which he said was unloaded but lying next to a fully loaded ammunition clip in the glove box.

[El Tejon]

Don, you're right. However, many "special deputies" have "permits" than consist of "get out of jail free" letters.

Sorry about the quotation marks, but it's Illinois, you understand.

[Dash Riprock]

About 15 years ago, my father was a village president in Illinois. He told me that under Illinois statute, the village president was the chief law enforcement officer of the village and legally allowed to carry a gun. He never did, because he wasn’t into guns, but he practiced law in Illinois for a long time and I do trust his judgement as to whether or not it was legal.

[Jeff White]

Municpal officials in Illinois are indeed Peace Officers under the Illinois Revised Statutes. As such they may be permitted to carry a firearm.

If an appointment card was filed with the State Standards and Training Board and if the municipal official completed the mandated 40 hour training course, it would have been legal for the mayor to pack heat. His election to office is not sufficient under Illinois law to allow him to carry a weapon even though he is a Peace Officer under the statute.

Washington Park is a suburb of East St. Louis. Part of the large blighted ghetto area in St. Clair and Madison County just across the river from St. Louis. Venice, Brooklyn, National City and Washington Park all have quite a colorful history. Open corruption that makes what goes on in downtown Chicago look like an example for freshman civics, in one of the more blatant examples, the police chief of either Brooklyn or Venice shot it out with political rivals on main street in a showdown that could have been in a Hollywood western.

Jeff

[Don Gwinn]

Jeff, when was that incident? I would like to look into it. Might make a good story.

What I'd kill for is a list of all the civic officials who are carrying guns as "Peace Officers." Maybe a FOIA request for those appointment cards?

[shadow 1]

Mr. Gwinn,

Maybe you could start with all the Alderman in Chicago! Friend of mine on the dept. says that Alderman/woman have 'Stars' with their Aldermanic IDs and are allowed to carry firearms under the revised statute. Be pretty interesting to see who went for the mandated firearms training!

I am so glad I moved out of that palce, now I just have to cross the state line!

[Jeff White]

Don,
It happened in the late 70s or early 80s. The police chiefs name was Skinner IIRC. A search of the St. Louis Post Dispatch archives would probably get the story.

I have no idea how many city officials are carrying firearms because they are peace officers by statute. I would bet that of those that do, many have never completed the mandatory firearms training required for all peace officers under the revised statutes. It's currently 40 hours worth.

You might try a FOIA request for the appointment card of an official you want to check on. I don't think that they keep them by category.

Jeff

[seeker_two]

Sorrell said he cannot depend on his own police department to protect him from what he said are regular threats from trustees and citizens.

And we should?...:cuss:


P.S. I wonder what kind of gun you'd carry in a Taurus...:scrutiny:

[TallPine]

P.S. I wonder what kind of gun you'd carry in a Taurus

A Hi-Point, of course.

:D

[Jeff White]

Gun charge could cost mayor of Washington Park his office
By Michael Shaw Of the Post-Dispatch
updated: 04/02/2003 06:58 AM



Washington Park Mayor Sherman Sorrell is facing a felony weapons charge that could jeopardize his position as mayor if he is convicted.

Sorrell appeared Tuesday at the St. Clair County Courthouse and posted a $1,000 bond after being charged Monday with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

The charge stems from an incident Friday night in O'Fallon, Ill., in which Sorrell's village-owned car was towed at the direction of the Village Board.

Since being elected mayor in 2001, Sorrell had been driving a Ford Taurus that was designated as a police administration vehicle. The Village Board members wanted the car returned to the village motor pool. Sorrell had refused to return it, saying he was entitled to drive the car as mayor.

Sorrell said he was shopping Friday with his wife at a Wal-Mart store at 1530 West Highway 50. When he left the store, he saw a tow truck from Davis Towing in Washington Park taking the car away.

"I jumped on the back of the truck, but they were pulling away so I hopped off," he said.

O'Fallon police were called to the scene, and Sorrell told them he had a 9 mm pistol in the car's glove compartment. The tow truck driver returned with the car and police located the pistol.

An officer told Sorrell that he would have to arrest him on a weapons charge because it is illegal to keep the pistol in the car, Sorrell said. The pistol was not loaded, but it did not have a trigger lock and was not locked away in a secure container, authorities said.

As mayor, Sorrell is authorized to carry the pistol in Washington Park, but not elsewhere.

The weapons charge is a class 4 felony that carries a one-year to three-year prison term. In Illinois, felony convictions can prevent elected officials from serving in office.

Sorrell is now driving a village-owned pickup that the Village Board also wants returned, board member Charlie Byrd said Tuesday.

Reporter Michael Shaw:
E-mail: mshaw@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 618-235-3988
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

A couple things here. A trigger lock is immaterial. There is nothing in the law on transportation of firearms that would make it legal had there been a trigger lock on the weapon.

Another little quirk of Illinois law. A peace officer is only empowered within his/her jurisdiction. Unless he was out of the village on official business, he would not have been cloaked with the authority of his office. For instance a Chicago Alderman who carried a firearm because of their status as a Peace Officer would be in violation of the same law the mayor of Washington Park was the minute they left the city limits of Chicago. The only legal state-wide carry of firearms would be a member of a sate police agency or a member of the military in the course of their official duties.

I'd still like to know if Mayor Sorrell or any other elected offical who is carrying a firearm because their office makes them a Peace Officer has completed the mandatory firearms training as established by the IL Rev. Statutes.

Jeff

[TrusteeTaglia]

All,

I've checked into this quite thoroughly as an elected village trustee.
I have been informed by my police chief and the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board that I need to attend and pass the 400 hour basic police training academy to be certified as a conservator of the peace. This gives the trustee full police powers including powers of arrest and to carry a weapon concealed or otherwise.(unpaid) You avoid conflict by never applying to work for your own police department.(you may apply as a part time or full time officer at a different municipality if you want to get paid to be a policeman)

This is little known information and I believe by design. I have included the most current IL state statute for reference.

Illinois Compiled Statutes 65 ILCS 5 Illinois Municipal Code. Section 3.1-15-25

(65 ILCS 5/3.1-15-25) (from Ch. 24, par. 3.1-15-25)

Sec. 3.1-15-25. Conservators of the peace; service of warrants.
(a) After receiving a certificate attesting to the successful completion of a training course administered by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board, the mayor, aldermen, president, trustees, marshal, deputy marshals, and policemen in municipalities shall be conservators of the peace. Those persons and others authorized by ordinance shall have power (i) to arrest or cause to be arrested, with or without process, all persons who break the peace or are found violating any municipal ordinance or any criminal law of the State, (ii) to commit arrested persons for examination, (iii) if necessary, to detain arrested persons in custody over night or Sunday in any safe place or until they can be brought before the proper court, and (iv) to exercise all other powers as conservators of the peace prescribed by the corporate authorities.
(b) All warrants for the violation of municipal ordinances or the State criminal law, directed to any person, may be served and executed within the limits of a municipality by any policeman or marshal of the municipality. For that purpose, policemen and marshals have all the common law and statutory powers of sheriffs.
(Source: P.A. 90-540, eff. 12-1-97.)

[kingpin008]

A seven-year old thread, back from the dead? Hooray for Halloween! :evil::evil:

[belercous]

I live just a few minutes away from Washington Park. If one doesn't carry down there, one is either stoopid or well-known as a bad-a**.

A pistol in that town is a neccessary piece of hardware. And Illinois does not allow C.C.W. A conundrum, to be sure.

[wildbilll]

Based on recent Illinois Supreme Court rulings, if its true the that the gun was unloaded and in a case (the glovebox), he was OK. The court case dealt with a gun is a console, but the ruling means that any type of container, fixed or portable is OK.

[Igloodude]

So perhaps belercous or TrusteeTaglia could update us on the actual result of this particular case?

[TexasRifleman]

7 year old thread guys. 7 years. If there is any updated info on the case someone PM me and we'll talk about reopening, but for now.....