To our readers: An incomplete version of this post was inadvertently published on September 29; and it took us until the morning of October 1 to correct and complete the post. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion.

As the curtain rises on Act 2 of “Assgate” two Ancel Glink attorneys, Robert T. McCabe and Margaret Kostopulos, are conducting their interview of Jones on June 7 – 16 days after Jones’ accusation of Carrabotta and 13 days after Jones filed her “Formal Complaint” against him at the suggestion of Township attorney Keri-Lynn Krafthefer.

In the Formal Complaint, Jones described Carrabotta’s alleged acts of harassment on January 24, 2018, as his having “lightly swiped his hand across [her] bottom,” which she “chalked…up as being an inadvertent mistake”; and on May 16 as his having “again lightly swiped his hand across [her] bottom” to which she responded with “a dirty look” that Carrabotta “pretended” not to notice.

According to the transcript of Jones’ interview by the attorneys, they started by explaining that their questions would be “specifically and narrowly tailored” to that Formal Complaint. (Page 3, lines 6-11). But they also told her that she was free to provide any other relevant details she may have. (Page 3, lines 13-22)

Jones described Carrabotta’s actions as being, variously, “a brush…maybe that was inadvertent” (Page 7, lines 20-22), “a real faint brush” (Page 11, line 24), a “light brushing” (Page 28, lines 7-9) and a “touch” (Page 14, line 2; page 16, lines 17-18; and page 38, line 10) to her “butt” (Page 16, lines 17-18) or “ass” (Page 14, line 2; page 38, line 10). Heck, she wasn’t even sure whether she might have “backed up into his hand.” (Page 12, lines 23-24)

In both the Formal Complaint and in her interview with the attorneys, Jones described how she promptly reported both incidents to her fellow Township government RINOs: Supervisor Laura Morask, Non-Assessor Susan Moylan-Krey, her “longtime friend [Highway Commissioner] Walter Kazmierczak,” and Clerk Pete Gialamas. (Page 14, lines 1-13; page 20, line 8 through page 21, line 9; page 38, line 4 through page 39, line 14)

If these incidents actually occurred, however, and if Jones reasonably perceived them as sexual harassment, why didn’t she say anything directly to Carrabotta? After all, she admitted to the Township’s attorneys that there was “nothing personal” between her and him, despite the fact that “[h]e usually [voted] with Susan Sweeney and [she/Jones] usually [didn’t].” (Page 19, lines 7-18).

And if politics wasn’t an issue, why did Jones tell only her fellow Township RINOs about the incidents? Why didn’t she also tell fellow Trustees McKenzie and Sweeney that their Reformer colleague, Carrabotta, was harassing her?

Curiously, the attorneys – both before they started questioning Jones (page 4, lines 6-22) and again at the end of the questioning (page 57, lines 4-7) – requested that Jones treat all information about the incidents as confidential until the investigation was completed; and she said she would. But on July 7, with the investigation still in progress, she signed a letter, along with nine other members of the Maine Township Republican Women’s Club, addressed to Township Republican Committeeman Char Foss Eggemann but widely distributed, demanding that Foss Eggemann “condemn [Carrabotta’s] behavior and call for his resignation immediately.”

Jones and her nine friends (including Morask, Moylan-Krey and their consummate political hack/lackey, Jean Dietsch) didn’t call for a criminal investigation. They didn’t call for an ethics investigation. They called for Carrabotta’s resignation from the Board.

Why? Because they wanted to strip The Reformers’ 3-2 Board majority of his vote so that Morask (as we understand Illinois law in this regard) could appoint another RINO as his replacement – perhaps Kelly Schaefer, who lost her Trustee’s race in 2017 before Morask promptly created a $30K/year part-time Township job for her without Board approval, but which Schaefer quit in the face of withering Daily Herald articles and a Daily Herald editorial ripping the kinky deal.

Had they succeeded in that effort, they also would have deprived all the Carrabotta voters of their duly-elected representative – which obviously would have been readily-acceptable collateral damage for Morask, Jones and the rest of the Maine Township RINO cabal politically aligned more with Maine Township Democrats like state rep. Marty Moylan and state sen. Laura Murphy.

Another curious aspect to that July 7 letter is how Jones’ prior description of Carrabotta’s actions as consisting of a “touch” or a “brush” that might even have been “inadvertent” somehow became “actual groping.” To date, neither Jones nor her nine friends have explained that sudden metamorphosis.

Jones insists Carrabotta touched/groped her and that she’s a victim of sexual harassment, not one of the perpetrators of purely political maneuvering. But actual proof of any touching/groping is something Jones and her supporters so far appear to totally lack.

For example, Jones told the attorneys that Gialamas and Kazmierczak told her stories about Carrabotta’s also having harassed Township employees Dayna Berman and Vicki Rizzo. (Jones transcript, page 38, line 4-16; page 40, lines 10-18; page 42, lines 12-23).

And according to the transcript of Gialamas’ testimony, Berman and Rizzo told him not only was Carrabotta “very handsy” and made them uncomfortable” but, also, that Berman told him that Carrabotta “even had touched her rear end.” (Page 9, line 18 through Page 10, line 4; page 11, line 13 through page 12, line 11) Gialamas admitted to the attorneys, however, that he never saw Carrabotta do anything inappropriate” because, if he had, he would have called Carrabotta on it. (Page 19, lines 3-14)

So, instead, he merely gossiped about it.

And when the attorneys got around to Kazmierczak, the transcript of his testimony shows that he, too, was spreading unsubstantiated hearsay about what Berman and Rizzo told him concerning Carrabotta’s conduct: That “somehow their buttocks were touched” by Carrabotta. (Page 19, line 9 through page 20, line 6)

Not surprisingly, Morask’s testimony to the attorneys consisted of the same hearsay as Gialamas and Kazmierczak conveyed to them about Berman and Rizzo having been made to feel uncomfortable by Carrabotta and afraid of retaliation for saying so. (Page 36, line 1 through page 40, line 6)

But when the attorneys interviewed Berman, the transcript of her interview discloses that she insisted that she never told anyone that Carrabotta “was ever inappropriate” around her; and that she wasn’t afraid of any form of retaliation for telling the truth. (Page 20, lines 17-23).

Similarly, the transcript of Rizzo’s interview establishes that Rizzo told the attorneys she “never felt uncomfortable around…[Carrabotta], in any way.” (Page 33, lines 17-21). Rizzo also explained how Morask – supposedly at the direction of Township attorney Keri-Lynn Krafthefer – pre-interviewed Rizzo (Page 27, lines 2-24), which made Rizzo angry because she didn’t have any problem whatsoever with Carrabotta. (Page 29, line 4 through page 30, line 23).

For those keeping score, Krafthefer is the Township attorney who privately counseled Jones about how to deal with Carrabotta – including telling Jones to file the Formal Complaint against him – without Krafthefer disclosing to Carrabotta or the Board that she was counseling one Trustee (Jones) in her personal claims against another Trustee (Carrabotta).

Can you say “conflict of interest”?

Good for you! Because Krafthefer apparently couldn’t, or wouldn’t – at least not if it might jeopardize the prospect of additional fees flowing into her firm’s coffers as a result of her advice to Jones.

Based on the totality of the facts and circumstances disclosed during the investigation, the attorneys issued their final Investigation Report dated July 30, 2018, finding that there was inadequate evidence from which they could conclude that Carrabotta touched Jones’ buttocks or sexually harassed her in any other way. And, not surprisingly, the accuracy of the report’s summaries of the various testimony has been demonstrated by the transcripts of that testimony.

With the issuance of that report and with the sound of preternatural howling and wailing in the background, the curtain falls on Act 2.

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