Remember him? Revisiting the Napergate man

I remember this case a little differently than most bloggers. I recall it as being a Selective Enforcement case by the Naperville Police Dept. against a small liquor retailer possibly for his very strong political views and/or campaign contributions. His ads at one point revealed he made campaign contributions for political reasons. One of his first Napergate ads indicated so, if I recall correctly!

It seems like the Napergate guy was confiscating hundreds and hundreds of fake IDS and even turning them in to the NPD and obtaining police report numbers. His ads reported not only that he confiscated more fake IDs than all other liquor establishments(retail liquor, bar, hotel, taverns, restaurants, nightclubs, etc.)combined, but 3 times as many as all the others in town. Almost unbelievable!

No one can ever forget that full page ad with 200 FAKE IDS listed in one Napergate AD each documented with police report number. That specific ad sticks in my mind as I had 2 teenage boys who had liquor on their mind every other day! So it gave me comfort we had such a strict retailer in town.

Yet, the police dept. wanted us to believe he was freely selling liquor to every minor east of the Mississippi River.

I believe it was a political case! Chief David Dial may have been receiving his orders to harass him from former Mayors Margaret Price and Sam McCrane. It appeared he may have complied...not sure! However after Mayor George Pradel was elected, it almost seems certain he ordered Chief Dial and the entire police dept. to stop harassing him. And I believe they did!

Kudos to Mayor George Pradel for stopping the unjustified selective enforcement of this retailer! My hat goes off to Mayor Pradel for not utilizing his political office for gain or harassment by engaging the NPD as the former Mayors did.

It is obvious to me why our current Mayor is so popular and it has a lot more to do than strictly his friendliness. He is an honorable Mayor!

With all due respect I don't think there is any justified comparison between the Napergate Man and Furstenau.

The Napergate Man was abused and mistreated for a decade or two by the Naperville Police Dept. and falsely charged repeately. There was a pattern and a long trail to document the case! He had his Baily Rd. Extra Value liquor license revoked not once but twice despite having the best record of any liquor establishment far and away.

What is not known by new timers bloggin here, is he had another very long and tiring battle with the City of Naperville that actually reached the Supreme Court of Illinois in the early to mid-eighties. This was way before the second battle which he coined Napergate that reached the Illinios Appellant court before city officials threw in the towels.

In the first battle I recall the Supreme Court reversed his revocation and accused the City of Naperville of abusing its discretion and powers in revoking his license. If the Supreme Court did not overturn the revocaton there would be no store at that location for those who need some evidence or proof.

Regarding than Furstenau Case, we have a "he said he touched and a he said he did not touch." This is a silly and ridiculous case.
I suspect the minute the judge hears this case he will giggle and tell both parties to go home and mature. The police should have never charged Furstenau for something so petty. And Furstenau made a huge mistake by lowering himself to the standards of those who bought petty if not unnecessary charges agasint him.

It does not matter that they "thought" about a felony case. Thinking does not count! They did not "act"! They charged him with an insigificant misdemeanor which at worse he would have gotten a fine for and a slap on the wrist if he was found guilty.

PS. I recall the Napergate Man living in a small apartment at Olive Trees for nearly a decade in the 80's while I was also there. His legal fees drained him so badly it took him nearly 10 years to save for a down payment on a home despite being a very successful businessman.

I am a relative new comer to town. I don't remember any liquor battles. However, I do know he was a thorn in the side of city officials during the battles of Spring Green and that other commercial developments on 75th St. and Naper Blvd.

I remember him as an organizer, leader and motivator. I attended some of those Napergate meetings in various homes in Pembroke Commons. I recall when he spoke, you could hear a pin drop. Everyone wanted to hear what he said!

What really puzzled me is how he spent all that personal money on the Napergate Ads and never asked people to particpate. When offered contributions, he always said thank you and politely rejected.

He was one of a kind individual who seemed to care about the community and development. He never mentioned his lquor license once and it never came up. I guess you can say the man was able to focus on one thing at a time.

And of course he was notorious for the large grassroots movement that he built to fight commercial development in residentially zoned single family home parcels.

I think the town has fallen apart since he stopped his Napergate ads. No one can get anything accomplised in City Hall anymore.

Mr Host,

Regarding the below quote in your introduction,

"A liquor store owner who believed he was unfairly targeted by Naperville government officials back in the early '90s, he battled long and hard against City Hall and won."

I think after a District Court and an Appellant Court rule that he was unfairly targeted, and the city chooses not to appeal to the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois, you can no longer say, "who believed." It is really no longer "he believed." But the "COURTS BELIEVED" he was "unfairly targeted by Naperville government officials back in the early '90s." That is why people go to courts...to prove what they believe! After the court's verdict it is no longer "he or she beleived," but the court believed, the judge believed, or the jury believed!

I was not aware of his first battle to the Supreme Court in the mid 80s, but if in fact true, it becomes even more difficult to understand and comprehend your words of "whom believed."

I am not sure if this was a slip on behalf of the Naperville Sun or a softness of approach in dealing with City Officials.

Either way it would be nice to see the wording corrected.

And thanks for allowing us to blog on the subject which seemed to be a taboo subject outside of his ads in those days. It seemed all newspapers and not only the Sun, were reluctant to use the word Napergate in their numerous articles and coverage at the time. Napergate was the "Watergate" of Naperville in that period. It was a very touchy subject with city officials and even local newspapers. It seems the Furstenau case has made the Napergate Case a little less taboo to discuss!

Naperville lawyer: Your point about the "court believed" is well taken. Consider it a slip on my part, and I stand corrected. I look forward to your take on the matter after you read the story in Sunday's Sun. Thanks for setting the record straight.

Randy,
I'd like to respond to your comment. I stopped blogging on the Furstenau topic weeks ago due to the ridiculous amount of time it was taking to read all the blogger's comments. Now that this topic is fresh, I'd like to throw in my opinion. Sorry in advance if this gets lengthy.

It's mind boggling to me that bloggers continue to think that Furstenau's Civil Rights lawsuit has anything to do with the "he said he touched and he said he did not touch" battery charges. Taking the words from Naperville Lawyer: The COURTS BELIEVED Furstenau did not touch anyone. This case has already been ruled upon, and FURSTENAU WON. That case has nothing to do with the civil rights case.

If you truly think the judge will "giggle" and tell everyone to go home the minute he sees this case, you are either misinformed, or uniformed...or both. Again, the Civil Rights case is not due to the fact that Furstenau was merely charged with battery (felony or misdemeanor, or otherwise), but the lengths that the City went to (Police Officers changing their story and timeline, etc)to make sure the charges stuck and stayed in the newspapers for as long as they did (18 months).

You are correct with the fact that Furstenau was never formally charged with Felony battery of a Police Officer; however, that doesn't change the fact that it was reported in the newspaper for 2 weeks (while the police got their story straight...which took a couple times) that Furstenau WOULD BE charged with a Felony. A very key fact (that Furstenau must prove in court) to his case is regarding what the City (NPD) did when charges were filed in court. When the Judge was presented with FELONY BATTERY charges by the NPD, the Judge could not justify a FELONY charge given that they had NO evidence except for Officer Hull's story that changed a couple of times. The Judge ruled that the charges would be reduced to misdemeanor battery. What happened next is key to Furstenau's case (and again the burden of proof falls on Furstenau). This is a detail that casual case-followers probably don't know. Upon hearing of the reduced charges, multiple NPD Officers lobbied to the Judge, in person, to have the charges upgraded back to a felony. The Judge refused. This went on for HOURS. After this ploy was unsuccessful, a phone call was place to the Judge by none other than Chief David Dial again lobbying for the charges to be upgraded to a FELONY. I also believe that The EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR Peter Burchard also placed a call to the courts to lobby for FELONY charges (the Burchard part is my OPINION, and I don't know if there is proof, but just because there isn't proof doesn't mean it didn't happen). Whether all this "lobbying" did or did not happen is for the courts to decide. But you can not honestly say that this is a ridiculous lawsuit IF this did happen.

I believe that if facts are presented in court to prove these phone calls took place (I think they have Secretaries at the Judge's office that say the calls were made) then Furstenau will win the case along with a LARGE sum of money (Jury's don't like Cops trumping up charges that never existed). Nevermind that Furstenau was trying to reform the NPD pension and questioning undocumented overtime pay to NPD officers (MOTIVE). Nevermind that Officer Hull and the NPD took 2 weeks to figure out their story and timeline and then that timeline was changed because Furstenau had proof that he wasn't even in downtown Naperville at the time the alleged battery took place. Moreover, Hull's story changed multiple times. He originally said that Furstenau hit him so hard it stunned him, and the punch was heard by a parking enforcement officer some 50 feet away. He then changed the story that it was a slap with the back of the hand, then finally ended on the story that it was a "touch with the back of his hand in a non-threatening manner." Hull never had to testify under oath as to what actually happened. It is my opinion that Hull was able to slander Furstenau for 18 months with no consequences.

Randy (or any other blogger thinking this is a ridiculous case): I appreciate your opinion and I thank the Sun for this forum to discuss various issues within the city. However, put yourself in Furstenau's place. He did nothing wrong (again which was proven in Court...there is NO denying that fact regardless of whether you think Furstenau actually battered Officer Hull). I think any of us would go to these legal lengths to defend our Constitutional Rights. I don't want to sound too hokey here, but a lot of young men and women have given their lives to see that we all have these civil rights. I believe it is Furstenau's OBLIGATION to the citizens of Naperville to pursue this lawsuit.

Posada705

Jim Lynch,

I'm looking forward to the Sun's upcoming article.

It seems clear that once every decade our local polititians become entrenched, fall victim to special interests and lose touch with the voters. There are far too many examples described on the blogs hosted by the Naperville Sun to ignore.

Well-connected politians and councilmen that vote on issues without fully disclosing their ties to the issue seems rampant. Wherli, Rosonova and Boyajian each have family ties to local developers and law firms that represent these developers. While these same councilmen fail to disclose these ties. And, these local developers succeed against huge public outcry to get their unpopular projects approved by Council (Hobson Ponds, Edwards Hospital, etc., etc.) When a voter ask about the councilmen's ties the developer, the voter is attacked or publicly humiliated.

It seems to me that Furstenau has consistently proved himself to be a thorn in the side of developer's or others business interests that have business with the City. He simply will not "play ball" and let the fox run the hen house. He's crusty, cantankerous, argumentative and a ridiculous micro-manager of city officials. Hurray - we need at least one councilman willing to do that job.

I'm not surprised that Furstenau has been singled out by business interest with a bull's eye on his chest. I'm not surprised that certain councilmen gleefully pushed through a kangaroo court censure of Furstenau.

I am pleasantly surprised that the Sun is willing to point out the parallels between Furstenau and others who have "gone against City Hall." A free press and an informed public is the best defense against bad govenment. Naperville City Hall needs some serious house-cleaning. At the elected and at the staff level.

If the Furstenau Affair can lead to a better, more responsive local government, the cost of Furstenau's Federal litigation will be a good investment for the taxpayer.

Posada75,
Randy is obviously a layman and may have made the same mistake the moderator made. It is a common layman mistake to continue to say "he or she said" after a court rules.

There was a ruling in the Furstenau case. If I recall correctly the courts did not rule as you stated, "The COURTS BELIEVED Furstenau did not touch anyone." I believe they ruled that there is no EVIDENCE Furstenau touched or hit the Police Officer. That is significantly different and weakens the Furstenau case.

Police officers lobby prosecutors all the time for charges against defendants. This is a common practice! I do not believe you can go after a police dept. for lobbying the prosecutor for charges unless they provide a false document or a doctored video tape, and the prosecutor falls for it, if you catch my drift.

But in this "he said she said" case, I believe and suspect it was the State's Attorney of Illinois who made the decision to charge Furstenau with the misdemeanor and not the NPD. Thus the primary responsibility shifts to the State's Attorney and off the NPD's back.

Here is where Randy may be right. A State's Attorney has an enormous amount of immunity. Not quite as much as a USA Attorney who almost has full immunity from bringing forward a wrongful case due to bad decision making. Can you go after a State's Attorney and win? Yes, it is rare but happened recently in the Duke Lacrosse Case which I am assuming the bloggers are familiar with. Note, they went after the State's Attorney and not the police. Unless, I am missing something if Furstenau believes he was charged wrongfully, he should be going after the State's Attorney who brought the case forward against him based on digesting the evidence put forward before him by the NPD. Will he succeed? I doubt it because Furstenau does not have hard core evidence such as a video the State's Attorney may have seen and deliberately discounted.

Randy is right that a Federal Court will give no weight to the fact they thought or tried to obtain Felony Charges from the State's Attorney. The system worked and the State's Attorney denied them their "unsubstantiated" and "ridiculous" felony charges for possibly touching a police officer.(It is not believable that Furstenau would punch a police officer and not be arrested on the spot....absolutely not believable!) Since the system worked for Furstenau, it is hard to bring a case forward based on the contemplated Felony Charges.

Fusteanau has another serious hurdle that the Napergate Man did not have to overcome. Furstenau is a POLITICAL FIGURE. The standard for a political or public figure to go after a city for slander and libel is much higher than for a civilian such as a Napergate Man. One can argue that the Napergate Man is a public figure now, but the bottom line is he was not initially. If he is a public figure, it is because the City of Naperville made him a public figure...not because he wanted to be.

I had a chance to talk to some colleagues since writing my original post this morning. Another major difference is the Napergate Man was charged by a City Attorney and not the State's Attorney. The City Attorney is an employee of the City of Naperville and thus the city would have responsibility for false charges. Furstenau was most probably charged by the State's Attorney thus the state would have responsibility for possible "false charges" as in the Duke Lacrosse Case. I am not sure if City Attorneys have the same level of immunity as State and Federal Prosecutors but my guess is they have little or no immunity since they are really attorneys performing on occasion prosecutorial duties. The Napergate Man had a much stronger case due to the above mentioned reason.

According to a colleague of mine who is familiar with the 2 Napergate cases, the Napergate Man was initially tried by the NPD or City Attorney and tried by a Liquor Commissioner in City Hall. I believe it was in essence a City Court set up special for the Napergate Man. He actually had video tape and pictures in both of his cases and my colleague believes the City chose to ignore the hard facts and evidence of the case and ruled against him wrongfully. Maybe, they were hoping he would not appeal and it would not be exposed. I was not there and have no clue as to the reasons for convicting an innocent man.

The path of both of his cases were the same. They proceeded from the City Hall hearings, to the Illinois Liquor Control Commission in the State of Illinois Building in downtown Chicago, Dupage County Court, the Illinois Appellant Court, and only to the Supreme Court in the first case. Randy is correct in his statement, "reached the Illinois Appellant court before city officials threw in the towels." But to clarify it did NOT only reach but went through the Illinois Appellant Court which ruled in favor of the Napergate Man upholding lower court decisions that overturned the City Hall proceedings. I think what Randy meant to say is it did not reach the Supreme Court as the case in fact was reviewed and ruled on by the Illinois Appellant Court. Again these are typical layman errors and I believe Randy was trying to describe the situation in the best way he could.

In summary, the Napergate Man has a much stronger case than Furstenau. Much stronger! He was fighting a City of Naperville attorney who was employed by the city and not a State's Attorney employed by the state with enormous immunity. The Napergate Man had a trial by a "court" set up and controlled by the City of Naperville. That is where all the evidence, facts and testimony were entered. The other courts did not try the Napergate Man. They overruled the City of Naperville proceeding based on the evidence and facts. I assume the video tape was damning for the city and it simply could not overcome such hard core evidence regardless of all the in-house and Chicago Law firms retained.

FOR THOSE WHO ARE WONDERING WHAT THE SECOND NAPERGATE CASE WAS ABOUT:

It was a simple "sting operation" case! The Napergate Man retained a minor to check on his employees to make sure they were carding. He used marked US currency and videotaped. The city charged him with selling to a minor despite massive evidence to the contrary. The lower and higher courts ruled that a liquor licensee has every right to monitor his employees using "sting operations" and it can not be construed as a "sale to a minor." I am sure the courts were made aware in the "mitigation and aggravation phase" which is a requirement in such trials and occurs after the initial proceedings on the charges, that he had confiscated hundreds and hundreds of fake IDS from the minors that were documented with NPD police report numbers. He was also won the State Championship for the most responsible drinking campaign in the State of Illinois. He proceeded to the Nationals that were held in Las Vegas, and came in 1st place and beat out 49 other state champions. This is according to county records one of my colleagues looked up. I believe he published a picture of his 1st Place National Trophy in one of his Napergate ads according to another reliable source.(This is something the Naperville Sun can easily verify for authenticity)

I think with the nature of this overwhelming evidence combined with the Selective Enforcement the first blogger mentioned in her post, he had a very overwhelming case against the City of Naperville.

Based on my information and what the bloggers have provided assuming it is accurate, I would conclusively concur that the Napergate Man had a much stronger case than Furstenau. Furstenau may possibly have a case but most likely a very weak case. The Judge may dismiss his case and ask him to refile it against the State's Attorney since I am presuming according to the bloggers he was charged by the State and not the City.

I can see that you are very emotional in your support for Fursteana, Posada705, but unfortunately emotion and passion have no place in a courtroom. You need facts and hard evidence to win cases and especially when you are a public/political figure with a higher standard of libel/slander combined with the fact you are suing a State Prosecutor with enormous immunity, a notch below the almost absolute immunity a USA Attorney commands.

I hope I did not get to legalistic as I was trying to communicate to bloggers who I assume are mostly lay people. Sorry for the length, but if one does not explain in detail more confusion arises.

And just for the record, I want to say that Mr. Dick Furstenau is my favorite Council Member and I love how he fights for the citizens. I am just trying to be objective with my legal analysis of his case. Nothing is worse than the "down feeling" of dealing with "prior false hope and high expectations," shattered after one receives a stunning and adverse court ruling!

Bloggers,
I made a minor error in the below quote,

"According to a colleague of mine who is familiar with the 2 Napergate cases, the Napergate Man was "initially tried" by the NPD or City Attorney and later tried by a Liquor Commissioner in City."

My colleague called me to notify me I misquoted him. I meant to properly quote him and say "initially charged" but erroneously stated "initially tried" in the haste of writing without reviewing. My apologies!

He also emphasized that the "allegations" were presented by the Naperville Police Dept. to the City Attorney acting in his capacity as a prosecutor, who then brought the "formal charges" against the Napergate Man.

Of course this does not change my analysis or conclusions, but as attorneys we have to be very PRECISE! Other than my errors, my colleague concurred with my analysis and conclusions. He found no other errors!

For the record, neither my colleague or I are Judges, have ever been Judges, and have no business arriving at conclusions or verdicts. A Federal Judge may completely disagree with our analysis and conclusions!

Posada705 stated:

"Upon hearing of the reduced charges, multiple NPD Officers lobbied to the Judge, in person, to have the charges upgraded back to a felony. The Judge refused. This went on for HOURS. After this ploy was unsuccessful, a phone call was place to the Judge by none other than Chief David Dial again lobbying for the charges to be upgraded to a FELONY."

******************************************************************
I am not an attorney. But I don' believe you can lobby a Judge for charges. That would be illegal! You can lobby the State's Attorney for charges. The Judge is suppose to be the neutral finder of facts in our system of justice. So if what you are saying has any credibility we have a very corrupt judicial system. I am guessing you don't know what you are talking about.

The Naperville Lawyer makes much sense to me. I think that is why most of us hire lawyers. It is at times difficult to understand our complex legal system. The apparently very brilliant and educated Napergate Man even hired lawyers so I guess we all need lawyers.

I also agree with the Naperville Lawyer that the Napergate Man had a very strong case while unfortunately DF has a very weak case. It seems obvious! You can not sue a police dept. for lobbying a State's Attorney for charges. In essence the State's Attorney backed Mr. Furstenau by not bringing very serious felony charges. However, I think he made a mistake bringing petty misdemeanor charges and that is why we are here bloggin. And Fusrstenau is suing! Does that make sense???

Here is my take on the Napergate Man and what got me going on my research and off my towing nightmare with the City of Naperville regarding that infamous 4th cab spot in front of Features. Of course, I was also getting tired fighting Joe who was producing Google Satellite Photos from outer space to show me that even the Space Aliens could see and interpret the faint paint on that infamous 4th spot! Enough said!

***********************************************************************************************

Ted, are you able to go through the NaperSun archives and scan a couple of these advertisements? The whole fiasco sounds pretty entertaining. I imagine the library has archives of The Sun on microfiche if you guys don't keep archives, where would be a good place to start looking? Do you have any specific dates when the ads were published readily available?

Posted by: Eli Hodapp | December 21, 2007 10:53 AM

***********************************************************************************************

Ever since Eli posted the above and tipped me off where I could find old Napergate Ads, I have spent many evenings in the library looking for them. Of course Host Ted was extremely helpful posting the dates of most of the ads titled Napergate. I think besides the 50 or so titled Napergate there were 50 or so ads not titled Napergate such as some ads he ran for ATT and one he ran to show a picture of his National Kylix Award. They were identifiable thru the Extra Value Liquor headings. I should point out the full page ads of the 90s for the Sun were much larger than today's pages so he got a good bang for his buck as he filled them to the hilt with information, facts, evidence, court rulings, dates of rallies, opinion and political commentary.

LET ME TRY TO PROVIDE A FEW INTERESTING TIDBITS THAT I LEARNED AT THE LIBRARY

1. He won the National Kylix Award Competition which was sponsored jointly by the Newspaper Advertising Bureau of America and the National Liquor Store Association for the most "Responsible Drinking Campaign in the Nation." He beat out 500 contestants from all 50 states at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas on March 24, 1992. The Kylix Trophy, a mounted museum reproduction of the Kylix Apollon from the Delphi Museum, was pictured in a non-Napergate full page ad in the Naperville Sun dated April 1, 1992.

2. On the eve of the annual convention, the Beverage Alcohol Report of New York, praised Extra Value Liquors in Naperville for having the most outstanding program against minors in the country.

3. On July 7, 1993 the Illinois Alcohol Beverage Task Force issued a rebuke to the City of Naperville. Here is part of the rebuke:

"The penalties invoked by Naperville against this retailer have been ridiculously harsh and designed to put him out of business even for the first offense.
The evidence seems to indicate harassment, discrimination, and trumped up charges and testimony. The conduct exhibited by the government of the City on Naperville, the City Attorney and some members of its police department is conspiratorial and is reminiscent of fascism."

The IABTF encompassed almost every retail and wholesale liquor organization in the State of Illinois. Apparently 33 heavy weights in the liquor industry put their names and organizations behind the letter. The Napergate Man published the entire letter as a readable picture in his Napergate XI ad in the Sun dated October 8, 1993. This finding came 19 months prior to the unanimous decision of the Illinois Appellant Court for this same case, in which not one Appellant Judge dissented!

4. In October of 1993, at a meeting of the Presidents of the Naperville Homeowners Association, the Presidents wanted to know why the Napergate Man and his business were being harassed. They asked former Mayor Macrane if it is true that Extra Value Liquors confiscated 226 fake IDs. He rumbled and jumbled and stated we can't tie these fake IDs to "bodies." Police Chief Dial was also there and the Presidents directed the same question to him. He admitted that it was true that Extra Value Liquors confiscated 226 fake I.D.s from minors and that in fact it was more than all other establishments in Naperville combined. (Source Napergate XV dated Oct 29, 1993, Page 21A)

5. Apparently former Mayors Price and Macrane both had vendettas against the Napergate Man. A reliable source had come forward and stated Mayor Macrane made the following quote: "THAT FORMER MAYOR PRICE COULDN'T RUN HIM OUT OF TOWN BUT I WILL." At about this time, CBS TV news(8/5/1992) and NBC TV news(8/6/1992) both ran reports on the Napergate Man's exemplary efforts to combat minors.

6.City Officials were so stunned by the Dupage County Court ruling against them, that Judge Bonnie Wheaton has to issue 3 separate orders before city officials would implement her ruling. (Napergate XX in the Naperville Sun on April 1, 1994)

7. The Napergate Man had so badly penetrated City Hall, with his supporters from all walks of life including city employees/officials, that he would report on secret Executive Session votes. He reported that the 7 member council had ruled 5-2 to further appeal his case during Executive Session. The 2 dissenters were former member Jack Tenison and current member Douglas Krause.

8. The Napergate Man even reviewed Dupage County Courthouse records and discovered that the City of Naperville issued a liquor license to Chicago Bear Coach Mike Ditka despite still being on Court Supervision for a DUI without questioning his suitability or qualifications to hold a liquor license.

9. The Napergate Man owned a second liquor store in Roselle. According to the Roselle Police Dept. he had gone 3,796 days without selling liquor to a minor or failing rigorous sting operations run by the RPD. It was believed to be one of the longest streaks in the nation if not the longest before it ended on May 14, 1993 at 5:10pm when one of his employees finally failed a police sting operation.

Detective Ralph Briscoe of RPD stated he had confiscated 42 fake IDs. in the last year and a half which was 3 times the total of all other establishments combined in Roselle. Mayor Rak of Roselle issued the Napergate Man 3 letters of commendation during his last year in office. The letters are in the 3000 page court file in Dupage County Courthouse! His petition of 3340 supporters is also part of the court record as detailed in Napergate XXXIX.

10. As some bloggers correctly pointed out there was a prior 2nd legal battle in the 80s between the Napergate Man and the City of Naperville that was vicious and lasted over 5 years before the Supreme Court of Illinois overturned the revocation of his license on 01/27/88. In this ruling, the Supreme Court of Illinois accused the City of Naperville of abusing its authority, power and discretion in issuing this revocation to the Napergate Man and Extra Value Liquors .

BELOW ARE SOME OF HIS EFFORTS UNRELATED TO HIS LIQUOR LICENSE THAT PRECEDED THE INFAMOUS SPRING GREEN BATTLE WHERE HE MAY HAVE BEEN DEVELOPING SOME GRASSROOTS BUILDING TALENTS

11.In Napergate XXXIV he called on residents to hold a CITY WIDE RALLY on May 16th 1998 at 1:00pm at the Riverwalk in front of City Hall to protest commercial and high density projects being promoted by Brestal in 6 different residential neighborhoods throughout Naperville. His previous rally on November 1, 1997 attracted 300 residents, 2 Chicago TV stations and 3 newspapers. He had pre-arranged for TV coverage for this rally also.

12. On Sept. 7, 1993 the City Council voted 7-0 to switch its city phone service from ATT to MCI to save the residents a penny and a half each per year. AT@T (later Lucent) employed 7600 workers in its Naperville Complexes paying enormous real estate taxes to the city. The employees were outraged and launched an electronic mail and phone offensive against City Hall in an attempt to shut the city down by bombarding it with phone calls of disappointment and tying up all its phone lines. They also contacted the Napergate Man who ran them a few full page ads at his expense. He called on AT@T employees to join him in City Hall Chambers on Sept. 21, 1993 to reverse the vote. Hundreds joined him and the City Council reversed its vote from MCI back to AT@T.

The reversal vote was also 7-0 taking place only 2 weeks later. Basically by rallying AT@T employees with his Napergate Ads, informing the residents of Naperville what a terrible decision the city council had made, rallying them to attend the next city council meeting, etc. etc. he was able to get a complete reversal back from MCI to AT@T. The Napergate Man with his grassroots AT@T supporters, got the entire council to flip flop. (Napergate X on Sept. 24, 1993 on page 11A contained all the details.) This huge but short battle was 6 years prior to Spring Gate. Apparently he eventually brought his grassroots building experiences to Pembroke Commons, his own subdivision, taught and motivated them, before he launched them to fight the fiercest and longest battle in Naperville Zoning history. In that battle there were 5 city council votes on Spring Green with 4 flip flops. In addition the Planning Commission voted twice with the residents and against Brestal, never flip flopping!

***********************************************************************************************

The roughly 100 full page Napergate ads(somewhere between 200-300 if you count repeats) would probably amount to a 700-800 page book with fine print. Many of the same ads were published 3 times in the Sun in the same week apparently to make sure no one missed them and for maximum effectiveness. I could never cover it all! But I will end by stating that in many ads he called for on Mayor Samuel Macrane to resign while calling for City Attorney Michael Roth and Prosecutor Francis Cuneo to be terminated. In those few attempts, he obviously failed! In everything else he seemed to have a massively successful track record.

***********************************************************************************************

PS. Another remarkable ad I found by the Napergate Man in the Sun on April 6, 1994, during all these heated political and legal battles, is an ad in which he advertised 3 new businesses he was opening up simultaneously. One was a video store, one was a nightclub, and one was a 3rd liquor store. In that ad he thanked his 3340 Petition signers and "assured them one of the top priorities of our 6 businesses will be exposing improprieties in the City of Naperville including the waste of the taxpayers' hard earned dollars." He apparently kept his word and used his personal money from his multiple business to continue running non-stop Napergate ads for at least another 7 years. Why he suddenly stopped is the 64,000 question, I can not answer??? Does any blogger have an answer or possibly can shed some light???

Next time you say there is not enough time in the day to go to a rally or city council meeting, think of how the Napergate Man squeezed so much time out of each day. In addition he did not have a writer for his ads! Yes, I believe he even wrote his own ads! The Naperville Sun employees would know for certain as he had to coordinate with them to have them published.

Thanks for allowing me to publish my partial findings! There is much more to disclose but it will take much more research, effort and lots of time!

Ameena...

Ameena,

Thanks for all the research and helpful additional info. You carry on the activist spirit that was key to the Napergate movement.

While some may same there are comparisons between the Basim Esmail case of the 1990's and the current case involving Naperville's own (Big) Dick Furstenau, there is one major difference betweem the two. Basim Esmail was just an Average Joe kind of guy who was just trying to etch a career for himself and who thought he was getting unfairly kicked around by city hall and decided to fight back. (Big) Dick Furstenau is an elected city official who likes to have himself painted as being some Voice of The People, but who happens to have a track record of giving paid city employees a hard time, to the point that some were forced to leave their jobs. He also may or may not have struck a police officer who was just performing his duties. He also was just recently censured by the City Council for his past performance with city employees. And he also has a thing about suing anyone who so much as looks at him the wrong way. To the best of my recollection, all Basim Esmail did was fight for his rights. (Big) Dick Furstenau on the other hand seems to be on a campaign to get revenge for what he feels were a violation of his rights, when it actuality, I think it all comes down to his failure to win a seat in the State Legislature due to his being a complete jerk to the police officer he may or may not have struck that is the driving force behind his current lawsuit against the city. The one difference between the two cases is that all Basim Esmail wanted was justice and vindication. All (Big) Dick Furstenau wants is revenge, embarrassment and public disgrace of certain key individuals and the city council as a whole, not to mention lots and lots of money. The other difference is that Basim Esmail was an honorable man. (Big) Dick Furstenau is just a bully, and a fool.

Moderator,
I read the article in the Sun about the Napergate Man. While it is a major breakthrough that the Naperville Sun is willing to write about him and use the Napergate phrase that he coined, I feel we have a long ways to go.

The article was very soft and tried to blame all the troubles on a "deceased Mayor." While the Mayor was definetly guilty, I doubt this was a one man operation and he operated in a vacuum. Here is a quote from the Sunday Sun article,

"Esmail won at the appellate level in April 2005. The court ruled in favor of Esmail's claim of unequal treatment that was the result solely of the mayor's vindictive campaign and ruled it should not have been dismissed, court records indicate.

I am 99% certain that the court ruling was not based solely because of the "mayor's vindicative campaign of unequal treatment." The Mayor could not have accomplised all he attempted to accomplish without the help of the Naperville Police and City Prosecutors. He is suppose to have no authority over them so I believe there was a conspiracy of sorts as that very large liquor organization(IABTF) in Ameemna's blog stated with certainty.

Furthermore, if one has been following these blogs and kept up with all the different directions and turns the Napergate Case took, it would be impossible that it only cost $5,000 to $10,000 for outside lawyers. Sitting city manager Bob Marshall is clueless and should not make such statements. How would he know since it has been established the city lost, hid or destroyed the records? Did he not hear what Mayor Macrane told the Sun? Did he not know that Sun Editor Tim West demanded those records on more than one ocassion and was told they do NOT EXIST? So coming up with a ridiculous number just shoots his CREDIBILITY right into outer space along side the Joe Aliens who can read fainted paint on a cab spot from outer space using Google Satellite Technology before they park their Space Vehicles in that particular spot!!!

If it is true we fought the Napergate Case for 5-10k of outside legal help, why are we budgeting 400k and expecting 1 million for legal expenses for Furstenau Case. That is utter nonsense! The Napergate Man was required to jump thru 2 extra hurdles just to reach Dupage County Court or Federal Court. The City Hall proceedings and the Illinios Liquor Control Commission Hearings! Furstenau did not have to jump thru these 2 hurdles to reach Dupage Ct. or Federal Ct.

The Napergate Man was fighting his case on 3 legal fronts.

1. The liquor license hearings which went to the Illinois Appellant Court because the city continued to appeal after 2 lower court rulings of reversal of the City Proceedings!

2. The civil rights action which the Napergate Man was forced to appeal because it was erroneously thrown out by a lower court before he finally won also before an Appellant Court.

3. Separate charges in Dupage County which included a bottle of liquor bottle that was in possession of the "sting operator" just for a few short minutes. I think this 3rd charge was dismissed by the city after requesting 7 or 8 continuances over nearly 2 years to wear down the Napergate Man but he never wore out. They must have known the "sting" he ran was legal or why did they not proceed to trial instead of wasting 2 years of continuances only to ultimately DISMISS the case!

In summary, I feel I have learned much more from bloggin than that article. It was a very soft article that did no justice for the Napergate Man or Napergate. It was very apparent the reporter was using kid's gloves on the City Officials and trying to blame one dead man for all the problems of Napergate in order to "bury" them with the dead Mayor and give current city officials a clean bill of health or credibility if you will!!!

I did not buy reporter Sarah's story. I find Ameena's version much more credible and believable. Ameemna seems to be basing her story mostly on the Napergate Ads. The reporter Sarah Koci, appeared to base most of her information on quotes from city officials in old Naperville Sun articles. Well since the courts ruled with the Napergate Man, it would seem to make his ads more credible than comments of city officials in Sun articles and it would have been logical that she would have used the more credible source for her article.

I would like to see Sarah do another article based on Napergate ads and see if she can take a tough stand on city officials after taking such an incredibly soft stand. All she needs is to review the Napergate ads which are at her disposal to give us a more accurate picture. I am sure Ameena would not mind sharing her information with Sarah to save her time. Or she could just look at Ameena's numerous posts which just seem so accurate. She tells you where you can dig up all her facts by time and date. No wonder she is the leading vote getter for Best Blogger! And I have not even voted for her yet, but I promise to get around to it! Just took some time off until this morning article I picked up in my driveway infuriated me! I am still infuriated!

I believe if the Naperville Sun does not toughen up a bit, it will lose credibilty and readership. Its peak readship was when the Napergate Man was blasting away. Since he is not blasting away someone in the Naperville Sun has to blast away at the truth to balance reporters who are extremely soft. Hirng a columnist with half the Napergate Man's courage would probably increase print readership by 5000. One with his full courage would probably increase readership by at least 10,000.

I believe the Sun is trying but treading waters it is not familiar with. Let us see if they can get use to the rough waters the Napergate Man was taking on each and every day. He took on the biggest of waves coming his way. The Sun seems to only want to tackle the smalllest of waves. It just seem to obvious especially if you have been bloggin for a while.

I am sorry but this bloggin forum is 10 times more accurate and interesting than the Print Newspaper of the Sun. Much more bold and fun! I have no interest in reading the Naperville Sun after reading that article in the paper about the Napergate Man. Maybe a more balanced article that quotes sources like the Mayor of Roselle, the IABC, the Beverage Alcohol of New York, or the Illinois Appellant Court would be much more palatable enabling me to enjoy reading the Sun again like in those Napergate Days when I could not wait to pick up my paper from my driveway! These days I really have to drag myself down the driveway to pick up the paper...don't know how much longer this exercise will last!

PS. I see no comparisons between the Napergate Man and the Furstenau Case. The Napergate Man was abused for 2 decades and somehow documented his abuse day by day. He had video, pics, police report #s, fake IDs and it seems his evidence never ends. He had support from across the USA including the Newspaper Advertising Bureau of America and the National Liquor Store Assosiation. They were trying to run him out of town! He was dealing with blatant selective enforcement that would not stop under 3 former Mayors.(not Mayor Pradel, of course!)

DF was charged possibly wrongfully with a misdemeanor. A misdemeanor charge means nothing and is wiped off your record after court supervision. What does he really think a Federal Court will award him...a nickel...a dime!!! And our city officials are completely overreacting by hiring outside legal firms for 400k to fight a civil rights case based on a misdemeanor charge brought in error. It seems like one attorney should be able to go to court and dismiss it or settle for 10k or 20k. But to spend up to a million is a waste of taxpayer's money. Since DF is the only one who watches out for the waste of taxpayer's money, ironically this time there is not one council member who is watching for this waste as DF is out of the equation. It shows you the value of DF as a council man for the citizens as opposed to a litigant against the citizens. The Napergate Man had no choice in what he did. He was the defendant in almost all his cases and they were even trying to run him out of town. No one is trying to run DF out of town! He should entertain a peace offer and make peace! And end all this nonsense! His case is not even in the same ball park with the Napergate Man's Struggles!

Posada705 has a great handle on DF's case against the city.

Comparing it to Napergate may or may not be a good comparision, but the bottom-line is that there was a clear abuse (or at least an attempt at an abuse) of power involving representatives of the City. Specifically, it started with employees and moved upward to Council members.

The issue is NOT whether or not DF was a bully ---- that is a different question that has nothing to do, legally, with his case (or the attempt at a case against DF in the altercation with the officer). DF as a bully is a HR issue for the City to figure out separately.

The issue is one of a denial of rights and abuse of power. Being an elected official does not mean DF must or should forfeit his rights under the law to remedy his perceived wrong (whether it costs us money or not). As easily as some believe DF is causing this money issue by suing, others can say the City is causing it by it's continuation of it;s abuses. Settle and it's over, folks.

All in all, I have two comments: the first is the immaturity of many posters who appear to take a 2nd grader's delight in using DF's first name (often in caps and proceeded with an adjectivem such as big, etc), and the second is that I fully expect that without a settlement this case will cost the taxpayers easily the $500k to $1 million the City has already advertised, and if DF wins (which I think is at leadt a 50/50 chance), it will cost 3-4 Mil.

JOMO.

First I would like to say Mr. Bob Marshall's statement in today's Naperville Sun that it only cost the City of Naperville 5-10k for outside attorneys in the Napergate Case is simply not credible based on my research. The Napergate Man admitted the battle cost him over 200,000 dollars and he was only using one attorney for each component of the case.

1. He was only using Attorney Tim McLaughlin for his civil rights case that was denied by a lower court but overturned by an Appellant Court.

2. He was only using Attorney Irene Bahr for his Liquor Commission Hearings that rose from City Hall to the Illinois Appellant Court after making 2 other stops along the way at the Illinois Liquor Control Commission and Dupage County Court.

3. The city went after the Napergate Man for at least 12 other charges in Dupage County. The infamous one was charging him with providing a minor with alcohol during a "sting operation." His agent succeeded in busting his employee so of course he/she will have possssion of the alcohol until he retrieves it. An attorney named Brian Telander beat this part of the case down to dismissal in Dupage County Court after 7 continuances all by the city from 9/17/91 to 12/17/93. A court would never extend such a courtesy to a defendent but exteneded it to the City of Naperville!

4.All the other petty charges such as a manager missing for an hour and a half from his store was handled by Attorney Lawrence Serlin who successfully defeated all except this one petty charge which the Napergate Man admitted to but the Judge said was to insignificant and petty for her to consider against him.

In the civil rights case the city utilized 3 outside attorneys to fight his one civil rights attorney. Their names were Marvin Glink, Thomas Dicianni and Brian Mack. Glink was the number 2 attorney/partner for the powerful Chicago Law Firm of Ancel, Glink, Diamond, Cope, Bush PC. These big boys from Chicago don't take cases for $5-10k. Try maybe a %50-100k retainer for each for starters. It was 3 attorneys against 1 in this part of the case.

Against Attorney Irene Bahr they used in house Attorney Michael Roth plus Proseutor Cuneo. According to Napergate XII, another law firm named Collander and Gillen was retained to assist with this part of the case when the in-house realized they had their hands full with Ms. Bahr. So it was 4 against one in this part of the case. But Irene Bahr was the former Chief Legal Council for the State of Illinois Liquor Commission so she was able to handle all 4 city attorneys with relative ease and win. Of course she had the facts and the law on her side which helped immensely!

I have not yet read all the Napergate ads so I do not know who the city put up against Napergate Attorneys Brian Telander and Lawrence Serlin.

The Napergate Man had 4 attorneys to handle the various charges brought in various courts everywhere resulting from a "sting operation" that was eventually ruled legal by the Illinois Appellant Court. The sting charge was reportedly embelished and surrounded by an additional 12 fabricated charges accoprding to Napergate XX. Once the sting charge fell, the embelished charges fell like dominos.

The city was using 3-4 in-house and out of house attorneys to handle each one of the Napergate Man's attorneys. They wanted to win so bad they left no stone unturned and no dollar unspent!

Based on my deep study of this Napergate Case, the number of outside attorneys used(5 uncovered so far) and in house attorneys used(it was a 9 person in-house legal dept.), I believe this case cost the City of Naperville at least 1 million dollars for both in house and out house attorneys.

The Napergate Man was able to show an increase from nearly 300k for the in house legal dept before his case started to a budgeted $787,877 dollars for 93-94 using graphs that he charted with data obtained from sources inside the city I assume. (Napergate XIX dated Feb. 25, 1994) This was nearly an increase of a half a million due to his case for only in-house. Out house attorneys are much more expensive than in-house attorneys so one can reasonably conclude if the in house were costing an extra half a million, the out house were probably costing at least a million but for sure not less than a half of a million.

This 2nd Napergate battle started in 1990 and ended in 1995. It was all over the place being appealed at each juncture. The first Napergate battle started in 1983 and ended 01/27/88 with the Supreme Court of Illinois overturning the revocation and accusing the city with ABUSE OF DISCRETION AND AUTHORITY.

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed when the Sun Reproter Sarah Koci, accepted Mr. Bob Marshall's estimate of 5 or 10k at face value. If she had done her homework, in my opinion she would never accepted such a ludicrous and ridiculous number that he pulled from thin air.

I believe this is why our town is falling apart. The City can tell the Naperville Sun anything they want and the Sun takes City Officials words at face value. We have no watchdog since the Napergate Man.

The Napergate Man would accept nothing the city officials said at face value. He would launch an investigation until he found the truth.

It just seems beyond comprehension that the City already budgeted 400k for the Furstena Case for outside lawyers, but suddenly only spent 5-10k for outside attorneys in 5 years in 3 different legal tracks with 2 involving lengthy appeals in the Napergate Case.

I hope reporter Sarah Koci can revisit Mr. Marshall and call him out on that 5-10k that the legal dept. spent on 5 years for outside attorneys over the Napergate Case. A dishwasher working for minimum wages would make more than that in 3 -6 months! Common let's get real! Who would in his/her mind believe that!

It is time for the Sun Reporters to step up to the plate and question blatant misinformation by our city officials. This statement by Mr. Marshall was so blatantly incorrect, I am utterly shocked the reporter did not question it and published it as if it was factual. Where was Editor Tim West to tell this reporter, that they already told him they did not keep records and if they did they would never provide them. Suddenly they have a number 10 year later! Bring back the Napergate Man not to revist but reinvestigate again!

Ameena and, earlier, Eric : We're not done with this story - and it's with your help and insights that we can continue to pursue it. Through your incisive blogging you've become citizen journalists and we welcome and thank you for your participation. keep reading the Sun for more on this story.

I agree with Eric and Ameena tha the city's claim they spent $5-10k on legal expenses for outside attorneys is not believable.

If so, why not admit this petty amount instead of cover it up in 1995 when asked about it? The cover-up of the outside legal fees was because they were horrnedous.

And I like how Blogger Eric, noticed Reporter Sarah was trying to give the city a pass by blaming the whole mess on one FORMER DEAD MAYOR! Not believable! This is scapegoating! I bet former Mayor Price is still alive and thus no mention. She was even more involved than former Mayor Macrane.

Finally, this article did really not reveal any of the numerous accomplishments of the Napergate Man that were hidden from us and it appears there is reason to keep hidden from us for reasons beyond me.

The Napergate Man seems like a man who could shake mountains! I did not know he flipped that ATT vote until Ameena dug it up. When I read that I said WOW! There does not seem to be anyone quite like him, past or present! Now, I can really see why the ESTABLISHMENT would want to run him out of town. HIS OUTSPOKENESS for starters! His NAPERGATE ADS! His ablity to RALLY residents! And his razor sharp pen was simply a little to SHARP for them! Who else could run a slate of 4 for City Council in 1999 and have all 4 win! When he failed 2 or 3 of his ENDORSEES WON as in 2001!

As the introduction to this blog states he was a THORN to all City Officials. And I believe they feared him for his political power and his ability to fill up City Hall anytime he took his PEN out and purchased some BOLD INK.

Attacking a retailer for an innocent mistake or two in the 80s and a legitmate sting operation in the 90s, in this manner speaks volumes that the city had an ULTERIOR MOTIVE.

Sarah should be looking for the ULTERIOR MOTIVE and not buying City Official versions of the past which really have been put to rest with all these court rulings.

You just don't try to close down the strictest retailer in the nation against minors for a innocent MISTAKE by an EMPLOYEE once a decade. I also don't believe his ads showing all the fake IDs that embarrassed the city and was the SOLE REASON they attacked him in this vicious matter. Not believable!

I think it was about his politics and ability to rally residents to call city officials out when they were COVERING UP! Yes, he coined his ads NAPERGATE because major cover ups were taking place in City Hall. The article by Sarah today proves they are continuing as if the Napergate Man never visited us in the first place let alone revisiting us!

Yes, they are covering up the cost of this gigantic legal battle!

They are covering up for all of those responsible for the persecution of the Napergate Man!

They are covering up the CONSPIRACY that existed against him!

The IABTF would never dare make the statement BELOW if they could not back it up. The city would have sued them. That organization is loaded with money. I mean loaded as they represent the entire liquor industry in the State of Illinois!

Here is the statment copied from Ameena's blog. Yes, this statement can be verified by the Naperville Sun as it was published in a Napergate Ad right inside the Sun on IABTF stationary. Read it and you be the judge!

" On July 7, 1993 the Illinois Alcohol Beverage Task Force issued a rebuke to the City of Naperville. Here is part of the rebuke:

##################################################################

"The penalties invoked by Naperville against this retailer have been ridiculously harsh and designed to put him out of business even for the first offense. The evidence seems to indicate harassment, discrimination, and trumped up charges and testimony. The conduct exhibited by the government of the City of Naperville, the City Attorney and some members of its police department is conspiratorial and is reminiscent of fascism."

##################################################################

Moderator Jim,
Please point this letter out to Reporter Sarah! This Napergate Case is very complex and not easy to cover, so she could have easily overlooked it. Seeing such a quote in the PRINT Naperville Sun would indicate to me and many residents that you are FINALLY TURNING THE CORNER to being the newspaper your readers expect and not one catering to a few old time ESTABLISHMENT FOLKS that want to keep everything on the HUSH and HUSH!

Thanks,
Maryann

PS. I will give the Sun some credit for daring to write about the Napergate Man and finally using the popular term he coined. In the past, we only heard from him thru his ads. So it is a step in the right direction that we can hear about him from a reporter. But the reporter must give the Man the credit he deserves without HOLDING BACK! Sarah really seemed to be HOLDING BACK! Like she was afraid she would get in trouble if she told the TRUTH and nothing but the TRUTH! No one should fear telling the truth! The Napergate Man apparently paid a very gigantic price so we can all tell the truth and not worry about being charged falsely for our beliefs. We need to honor him and continue his platform of telling IT AS IT is regardless of the consequences. Yes, he paid a heavy price so the rest of us could have FREEDOM OF SPEECH!

THANK YOU!

This statement by Ameena sums up the legal expense cover up part of the Napergate Case!

"I hope reporter Sarah Koci can revisit Mr. Marshall and call him out on that 5-10k that the legal dept. spent on 5 years for outside attorneys over the Napergate Case. A dishwasher working for minimum wages would make more than that in 3 -6 months! Common let's get real! Who would in his/her mind believe that!"

In Watergate they knew how to hide and sound reasonable. In Napergate they don't even make a reasonable effort to cover up because they know all local newspapers, and not just the Sun, are not playing the WATCHDOG ROLE!

Eric,
I loved your below statement....

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In summary, I feel I have learned much more from bloggin than that article. It was a very soft article that did no justice for the Napergate Man or Napergate. It was very apparent the reporter was using kid's gloves on the City Officials and trying to blame one dead man for all the problems of Napergate in order to "bury" them with the dead Mayor and give current city officials a clean bill of health or credibility if you will!!!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You hit the bulleye with that Statement! I can't wait to show it to my husband when he gets home. That was so INSIGHTFUL!

Moderator,
I commend you for putting up this thread. People bloggin on this thread are unusually articulate. Much more so than those ill mannered folks on District 204 blogs! It is so much fun to read what they write and learn from their research....especially that Ameena girl! Someone would should pay her for going to the library and digging up this mess all over again! I thought Napergate was over but if the City is telling us they just spent $5000 dollars in this 5 year case, then Napergate is just heating up all over again.

Five thousand in 5 years is a $1000 a year for these 5 high powered Chicago lawyers or $200 dollars per lawyer per year! As one blogger said a dishwasher makes at least that. At the mininum wage of $7.50 an hour, a dishwasher makes $15,600 a year. If we were to believe the new City Manager, one diswasher make 15.6 times what 5 high powered attorneys make in one year! That remark by the City Manager was news that is NOT FIT TO PRINT! What possessed the Sun to publish that remark! I can see why this City Manager is only TEMPORARY!

Maybe the chambers at City Hall can be bought for $5000, too! Do you think I should make a bid, Moderator? They may just accept! Everything seems to be so cheap in City Hall!

Bloggers,

I notice there is a lot of confusion about this Napergate Man and his case both on the blogs and in the PRINT EDITION of the Sun. I found a section of a Napergate XXIV ad in the Naperville Sun (February 8th, 1995*Page 7A) in the library, that summarized the 25 page ruling, in which the Appellant Court unanimously overturned the District Judge in the Napergate Second Liquor Battle. There was another huge Napergate One Liquor Battle that unfortunately is not documented with Napergate ads. Below is the verbatim from Section One of Napergate XXIV.

***********************************************************************************************

CITY ATTORNEYS DEFEATED

We appreciate the comments of several council members regarding "quitting the fight with Extra Value Liquors." We never wanted the fight but it was imposed on us by the Legal Dept. and specifically City Prosecutor Francis Cuneo. The city council members may have forgotten but in the early stages of this battle we apologized for this legitimate sting and promised never to run one again in an "offer and compromise settlement" drafted by our attorney Ms. Irene Bahr. We even offered to pay a fine of $1500.00 for this sting which the Appellant Court described as not only legal but a "furtherance of the Liquor Control Act."(Napegate Man quote)

The 3 judge panel who ruled UNANIMOUSLY in favor of Extra Value Liquors went on to say "Charging Esmail in the present case with a sale to a minor is akin to charging the police in Roberts(58 Ill App ad 171) with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The police were not so charged and we determine neither should Esmail be penalized for his actions. The law is not intended to punish sting operators conducting their stings in the furtherance of THE LIQUOR CONTROL ACT."(Appellant Court quote)

The appellant court went on to further state "our review of the record discloses that the plaintiffs have implemented an exemplary program for catching minors attempting to purchase alcohol at their stores. Other evidence presented in mitigation, such as the large numbers of confiscated identifications turned over to the Naperville Police(206) as compared to the other 104 Naperville liquor licenses combined(38) and also the testimony of a Naperville police officer which would have stated that Esmail's enforcement's effort were exemplary as compared to other licenses, was erroneously excluded at the local hearing. Furthermore, testimony as to the city prosecutor's statement that a self sting operation would be "commendable" and evidence of other penalties of other penalties imposed on the Naperville licenses for sales to minors should have also been allowed into evidence at the mitigation stage to help determine the appropriate penalty for Extra Value Liquors."(Appellant Court quote).

The above paragraphs are verbatim quotes from the UNANIMOUS decision of the 3 judge panel of the appellant court. We wish we could publish the 25 page ruling in its entirety. As our attorney stated "the ruling totally and utterly vindicated us."(Napergate Man quote.)

***********************************************************************************************

PS. I was unable to bold, underline, or enlarge as his Print Ad allowed him to do for EMPHASIS and easier smooth reading.(Ameena quote)

Editor,
I did buy the Naperville Sun for the first time since the Napergate ads stopped. I commend you guys for finally coming out of the closet....it took a decade but you guys finally showed some courage and came out of the closet. Kudos to the new liberal ownership of the Naperville Sun! I understand it used to be owned by the "establishment" at one time and later after it was sold the first time was still beholden to them!

I recall that the Naperville Sun never used the word Napergate in the decade of those ads in any of its articles. Not once! It was as if it was agreed between City Officials, the Naperville Sun and the Establishment that this word was taboo! The Napergate Man was not to be coverered so he basically covered himself with his own newspaper inside of your newspaper which I believe could not be stopped under the 1st Amendment Right to Free Speech!

While I was pleasantly surprised to see you guys come out of the closet, the article was extremely weak and biased towards the city position which was deemed not credible by at least 2 Appellant Courts in the 90s and one Supreme Court ruling in the 80s. The article was a travesty of justice as far as expressing the Napergate Man's point of view and his numerous accomplishments that have just began to surface on these blogs. Much more has not yet surfaced.

I would like to see the Naperville Sun write an article about the Napergate Man without referring to your old articles filled with quotes from City Officilas and police, which were biased and proved not credible by numerous lower and higher court decisions favoring the Napergate Man!

But once again kudos for finally coming out of the closet in a big way by splashing that word across your front pages in a way no one can miss it. Since you gus at the Sun, apparently wanted to come out of the closet, you sure came out the right way with a big splash!

Only time will tell if this is a one time fluke or a serious effort by the Naperville Sun to be unbiased in its reporting and taking a tougher approach to incompetent city officials such as our new "temporary" city manager who thinks we are naive and gullible to believe the lengthy and difficult Napergate Case cost us taxpayers somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000. I am sorry but I thought he was joking!

many people say furstenau has a weak case and that it should not take a huge amount of outside help to defend. the fact the city hired all the outside help and said it will cost a million $ to defend is a clear sign his case is legit.

the states attorney doesn't bare the responsibility in this suit and he shouldn't be named as the person in this suit. i respect naperville lawyer's opinion but it is wrong in this instance. posada was right on the money, almost. the npd originally lobbied the states attorney, not a judge, and it did last for hours. the states attorney told them to get lost. and several officers, including dial were involved. now it may not be illegal to ask for felony charges, but it is illegal to go to a certain extent to try and get them. there is a line that can be crossed in an over-zealous attempt to get felony charges. it also matters who is involved. why was dial calling the state attorney? why was burchard? the npd and chief dial went to far. if nothing else, this shows just how motivated the npd was out to get furstenau. that is how the felony charges will be relevant to this case. it won't be about the fact they actually tried for felony charges, it will be more about what lengths they went to to get them and did they violate any rules in their over-zealous attempt to do so.

after the sa said no, the npd went to a judge and asked the judge for a felony charge, he said no so they asked for misdemeanor charges. all the npd needed to receive misdemeanor charges was an officer who said he was battered. if they go to a judge with a story that the officer was battered, the judge must grant misdemeanor charges. the states attorney was out of the loop on that and hot nothing to do with the charges that actually went forward against furstenau. he wasn't going to charge furstenau with anything.

another very important point posada made was the fact that there was a leak a the NPD 2 weeks before the arrest, at the very beginning of the investigation, that they were going to charge furstenau with a felony. THEY DECIDED THEY WERE GOING TO CHARGE HIM WITH A FELONY BEFORE THEY EVEN CONDUCTED THE INVESTIGATION. sounds like they decided what they wanted to do then tried to build and mold a case to match it. that is illegal.

so put it into the context of a normal citizen. lets say someone batters you and you go to the NPD to file charges. they ask you your version of the story and you say you were punched and that it happened 5 days earlier and you waited to now to file. later in the investigation, they interview several eye witnesses who refute your version of the story. not only do they say the defendant never touched you but they also make it clear that your version of events didn't even have the right time and location of the incident. so you go back to the NPD and change your story to line up more accurately with what the eye witnesses said, including changing your story about the manner in which you were battered. do you think that investigation and those charges would go forward? ABSOLUTELY NOT! the cops drop the investigation, tell you sorry, you should have filed immediately, and your version of the events doesn't match the testimony of several eye witnesses. you had the wrong time, the wrong location of where the defendant was, and your version of events doesn't match the eye witness testimony of several people.

thats exactly what happened in this case only it was a cop, and not a private citizen who filed the charges. his story was directly refuted by several eye witnesses who said the defendant never touched him, and he didn't have the right time and location. so he went back and changed his story several times to match the right time, the right location of the defendant, and even changed the story about the manner in which he was battered. AND THE CASE STILL WENT FORWARD AFTER FELONY CHARGES.

you may think furstenau is a bully and a jerk but let me assure you that will have no bearing on this case. the judge won't throw out the case because furstenau was censured or because some people don't like him. it has no relevance.

and if furstenau can prove burchard was involved during the investigation it will crush the cities defense because it will provide a link between the phony arrest, burchard's letter, and the fast response by some councilman and the mayor to censure him and bring up the idea of a recall vote against him to remove him from office.

the city will lose this case, and several city employees and officers will find themselves in very hot water when all the facts come out.

Reporter Sarah,
I found your article offensive because you allowed this quote in.

"My inclination is to say 'Let's leave this dog lie." Siddall said.

I know it is a quote by an illiterate Council Member, but he is basically calling a human a dog. A good human a dog!

I would have thought a reporter with so much at her disposal with old Napergate Ads could do much better than rely on a city official who should not be representing the citizens of this town and sullying our and their reputations with such underhanded remarks!

I am willing to to look past this mistake in your judgment! Apparently the editors of the Sun do not review your work before it is published and must have rushed you to do this difficult assignment based on old archives.

Anonymous(assuming Taxpayer),
You are way to emotional and can not seem to differentiate what is permissible in court and what is not. Attempts to lobby a prosecutor for felony charges is not admissible in a courtroom unless they bribe him and he charges. They did not bribe him and he correctly rejected the ridiculous lobbying. The system protected DF! It worked for DF! You can not sue when the system rules in your favor by denying the wrongful police attempts even if Police Chief David Dial was involved! Your blog is not focused!

Here is what you got at best:

A police officer brought possibly wrongful misdemeanor charges against DF! If DF can prove it, a Judge will award him his legal expenses and maybe an extra 1000 dollars. That is it! Is it worth a lawsuit and the time needed! I would say no! All the rest of what you said is propaganda and hearsay and would never be allowed in a courtroom! So stop writing so much and get to the facts of the case! The Napergate Man was successful because he had the ability to focus...you need to develop that ability!

HERE IS A SHORT ANALYTICAL COMPARISON...............

1.The bloggers are saying DF has weak case in relation to the Napergate Man. That does not mean he has no case! If you want to keep your credibility, Taxpayer, you need to admit the obvious! Which is the Napergate Man's case was much much stronger! And we already know he won in all his courts battles! So he has a little edge since his verdicts are already in.

2.If you refer to the 9:18 am Ameena posting today, regarding the Illinois Appellant ruling, it should be obvious why the bloggers are correct. Take for example one sentence from it.

" Other evidence presented in mitigation, such as the large numbers of confiscated identifications turned over to the Naperville Police(206) as compared to the other 104 Naperville liquor licenses combined(38) and also the testimony of a Naperville police officer which would have stated that Esmail's enforcement's effort were exemplary as compared to other licenses, was erroneously excluded at the local hearing."

3. If you do the math, you have a liquor retailer that confiscated 5.42 times(206/38) the amount of fake IDs as 104 other retailers in Naperville "COMBINED" and the city is going after him for being an "incompetent retailer," and trying to run him out of town. This one sentence indicates why he had an enormous civil rights suit....ENORMOUS, may add for emphasis! Now this is coming from the unanimous decision of an Appellant Court and obviously had to be proved after being entered, ruled on, and made into a verdict.

4.Neither the bloggers, the Naperville Sun, or Police Chief David Dial ever got those facts straight. His Napergatian buddies were even underestimating when saying 3 times as many. They were guessing but at least not exaggerating. Apparently, none of them are consulting with the Napergate Man or their estimate would have been a little better.

5.The Police Chief has to know this statistic but only admitted to the Naperville Homeowners Presidents under pressure that he got more than all other retailers combined, without revealing that it was 5.42 times more when the Presidents were badgering him about the treatment of the Napergate Man in one of their monthly meetings. The Police Chief obviously had to know these astonishing numbers.(they had risen to 226 Fake IDs by the time of this meeting from 206) And one has to wonder why this Police Chief who is still our current Chief, did not step in to stop this UNBELIEVABLE CHARADE. This has never been investigated by Internal Affairs or our City Council. Why? Try cover-up!

6.The Police Chief would be hard pressed to say it was handled by a subordinate who may or may not work for the dept. anymore. Numerous Napergate ads published these IDs in the Naperville Sun. He is a columnist for the Sun, so he would be hard pressed to say he does not read the newspaper he writes for. Plus every Police Chief reads the newspaper of his town to keep up with the ongoings!

7. What is even more shocking is the proceedings that were set up special for the Napergate Man excluded such relevant information. Many city officials have to be involved in order to have "court like proceedings" and for this kind of relevant data to have been deliberately and improperly excluded. One has to conclude a conspiracy of sorts was going on as the IABTF letter indicated 2 years before the Illinois Appellant Court stunning ruling!

8. I would guess the former Mayor, the current Police Chief, many police officers, the head of the legal dept, the prosecutor for the legal dept, the liquor commissioner of the city, some council members, and many others were involved to be able to pull such a CHARADE based on only one sentence of the 25 page damning ruling by the Appellant Court against the City of Naperville. I would love to see that ruling. I would pay to be able to see it!

9. The Naperville Sun slightly underestimated by stating both his stores confiscated 174 IDs when only the store in question had confiscated 206 IDs by an earlier date. The Sun reporter could have lost her chronological time order of things, but should make an immediate correction to maintain her credibility. And I am sure the true number was much