Douglas Co. (ECWd)-
The Murdock Township Road District Highway Commissioner, William Deckard, appears to have some serious issues coming his way. We first reported on the fact that he does not reside in the district he was elected to in this article.
As we stated in the prior article, there is no 103 W Main Street in Murdock. This fact has been confirmed through a simple FOIA request for property tax records.
Requested information:
“copy of the Property Tax parcel records for 103 West. Main Street, Murdock, IL for the last 5 years. “
Response:
Your request has been granted; however, neither the Douglas County Supervisor of Assessments office nor 911 found any parcel associated with that address.
Considering there is no property parcel with that address, how can a person be residing at such a location?
We provided key information to the Douglas County State’s Attorney, requesting that the matter be reviewed and that an appropriate criminal investigation be initiated by law enforcement, as the paper trail indicates that the voter registration address filed by William Deckard is bogus.
The response from the State’s Attorney is as follows:
“Mr. Allen:
Thank you for submitting this information; it will be reviewed quickly to assess for law enforcement investigation.”
We believe a criminal investigation is in order due to the voter registration being bogus.
The filing of a false voter registration form may well rise to the level of criminal conduct. A proper law enforcement investigation provided to the State’s Attorney could then lead to a charging decision by that office. If the laws in our state are going to matter, I would not want to be in Deckard’s shoes.
Having dealt with numerous residency issues with elected officials over the last 15 years, all indications are that, by operation of law, the position of Murdock Township Road District Highway Commissioner is vacant. The reason is that the person who was holding that seat resides in Coles County, as confirmed with his property tax record, which indicates his claim of owner-occupied exemption, which establishes his residence in a location other than the Murdock Township Road District. We must note that he also confirmed it directly with me over the phone, and we are prepared to provide an affidavit to that fact if contacted by law enforcement.
It was brought to our attention yesterday, after we published the first article, that Deckard is continuing to insist he rents an apartment at the bogus address, which, if permitted to be the justification for holding the elected position, puts him in a trick box in Coles County, where he is claiming a property tax exemption for having an owner-occupied residence.
He can’t have it both ways, which I think everyone understands.
We will keep our fingers crossed on the investigation by law enforcement and hope that they reach out for more information regarding my personal conversation with Mr. Deckard.
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