State police: background check sent months before Stroger alleged

State police: background check sent months before Stroger alleged
Posted by Hal Dardick
Copyright by The Chicago Tribune
April 23, 2009 10:50 a.m.; updated at 11:08 a.m.
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/04/state-police-county-mailed-background-check-months-before-stroger-alleged.html


A criminal background check at the heart of a growing controversy surrounding Cook County Board President Todd Stroger was completed long before Stroger has suggested, according to the Illinois State Police.

In interviews this week, Stroger said he fired troubled steakhouse busboy-turned-patronage-worker Tony Cole earlier this month for not disclosing a felony conviction on his job application. Stroger also said Cole's criminal background check took several months to complete.

Today, State Police Lt. Scott Compton said the agency mailed background check results on Cole to Cook County on Dec. 20---nearly four months before Stroger fired Cole. (The Tribune called a different state police spokesman Monday but did not get a return call until today.)

Stroger spokesman James Ramos said today that the state police report was not received in December and suggested it could have been lost in the mail. Ramos said another request was made to state police and the agency faxed it to the county Feb. 11. Then on Apr. 2, the county inspector general issued a report on the matter. Within days, Cole was fired, he said.

Stroger, who met Cole when he was a busboy at a River North steakhouse, hired him on Oct. 14 and later promoted him to a $61,189-a-year human resources job. Prior to that, Cole worked as an assistant to former county Chief Financial Officer Donna Dunnings, who is Stroger’s cousin.

Cole was promoted after Dunnings bailed him out of jail, where he was being held for allegedly violating an order of protection. When she bailed him out, Dunnings was accompanied by Eugene Mullins, Stroger’s boyhood friend and his communications director, and Stroger said he knew about that Nov. 20 incident.

Dunnings also bailed Cole out of jail after he was arrested a second time. Stroger said he was not aware of that.

Late last Thursday, Stroger booted Dunnings from her county job and called the Tribune to reveal the move as details about Dunnings bailing Cole out of jail were about to emerge. It caused a controversy that will be discussed this morning at a special Cook County Board meeting.

Update: At today' s meeting, Cook County Commissioner Tim Schneider (R-Bartlett) suggested Stroger has provided inconsistent statements to the media about Cole's firing.

Speaking to Stroger, Schneider referred to "the inconsistencies that have perhaps come across. . . . I would hope you would use this opportunity to clear the air."

Stroger told Schneider he was wrong.

"My answers have been consistent," he said.

Stroger then said the media had printed "half truths" on the issue.