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Franks, Althoff feuding over bill
Sheriff’s deputies tell of ‘ambush’
Rep. wants senator removed as sponsor By KEVIN P. CRAVER SCOTT B. PETERS
kcraver@shawmedia.com
Defense: Holiday Hills man thought it was a break-in attempt By CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com
Northwest Herald file photo
State Police troopers and K-9 officers search neighborhood for Scott B. Peters of Holiday Hills in October. Peters is accused of shooting and injuring two McHenry County sheriff’s deputies at 1313 W. Northeast Shore Drive, Holiday Hills. Peters later was arrested and charged. The deputies continued to ask Peters to come outside. “It seemed like we were walking into an ambush,” Maness said. That’s when Maness said Peters yelled: “If we’re going to do this, let’s do this,” and then finally he shouted: “Airborne!” and began firing through his front door. Hearing the gunshots, Luna ran to the front of the house. Amid a volley of gunfire, Peters, according to Luna’s testimony, yelled, “I’m a U.S. Army paratrooper. I hope you’re ready to die today.” Maness was shot in the back, and both he and Satkiewicz were shot in the left leg. Luna was uninjured.
DWIGHT MANESS
See PETERS, page A2
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TESTIMONY BEGINS IN TRIAL OF ALLEGED SHOOTER SCOTT B. PETERS
WOODSTOCK – It started as a routine call for police service. It’s about 1:16 a.m. on a Thursday. Well-being check. Third party caller from Michigan. Woman believes her husband, 52-year-old Scott B. Peters, will kill her. McHenry County Sheriff’s Deputies Dwight Maness, Khalia Satkiewicz and Eric Luna respond to the Holiday Hills home. They park down the street and leave the lights turned off on their squad cars. Maness and Satkiewicz take the front door, and Luna circles around the back of the home. Within minutes of responding, Maness and Satkiewicz are shot and injured, and Luna is returning Peters’ fire, according to testimony. Peters is standing trial this week on allegations that he shot at the deputies. In the first day of testimony, three deputies – for the first time publicly – detailed the events that occurred on Oct. 16, 2014. Peters has pleaded not guilty to all charges, including seven for attempted murder of a police officer. Deputy Maness was wheeled before the jury. The bullets shattered his femur and severed a vein in his leg. Peters sat across the courtroom, sitting motionless and straight faced as he watched the proceedings unfold. “It was a nondescript night. … The kinds of things these deputies who serve and protect do every day,” Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Combs said in his opening statement. “… They were doing their job serving and protecting every one of us, and in return for that were shot.” The officers knocked. No answer. They knocked a few more times before Peters answered, but refused to open the door, Maness said. There was some back and forth, then Peters invited the deputies inside. “He said, ‘Come on in,’ ” Deputy Satkiewicz said, raising the inflection in her voice.
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In a rare open feud between two McHenry County state lawmakers, Rep. Jack Franks is asking Senate President John Cullerton to remove Sen. Pam Althoff as chief sponsor of his recently passed government consolidation bill. The Illinois House on a 61-40 vote last Friday passed House Bill 229, a bill by Franks, D-Marengo, that would grant the McHenry and Lake county boards the same power to eliminate certain units of government that DuPage County was granted by state lawmakers. But Franks alleges that Althoff, R-McHenry, intends to either kill the bill or strip McHenry County from it. An effort to talk Althoff into handing the bill over to Sen. Melinda Bush, a former Lake County Board member who supports it, failed late Tuesday, both Franks and Bush, D-Grayslake, confirmed. Franks said Althoff asked for a number of concessions that he said were unreasonable because he does not want any exemptions or “sacred cows.” General Assembly rules allow the sponsor of a bill to request in writing to have a chief sponsor removed if he or she intends to kill it. “She’s doing this purely for political reasons to protect entrenched interests and fiefdoms to keep our property taxes high. There’s no other reason. She’s supported this bill before,” Franks said, referring to the Senate’s vote years ago to grant DuPage County some ability to eliminate certain governments. Althoff strongly disputed Franks’ allegations regarding her motives, and said she has serious reservations about the bill. The compromises she said she wanted included exempting certain entities that were created by voters, such as the McHenry County Conservation District and the Mental Health Board, requiring any consolidation request to go to voter referendum, or giving the power to all 102 counties in Illinois, which the original version of Franks’ bill sought to do. “I have grave reservations about giving that type of authority to a unit of government and not giving it [directly] to the people,” Althoff said. “If the people created these things, they
See BILL, page A4
KHALIA SATKIEWICZ
Group starts new effort to put redistricting on 2016 ballot By SOPHIA TAREEN The Associated Press CHICAGO – A coalition of business, clergy and civic leaders has launched a petition drive and fundraising efforts for a 2016 ballot question aimed at changing how Illinois draws political boundaries, an initiative group officials said Tuesday builds on a previous failed attempt. Independent Maps, which wants to take the mapmaking process out of the hands of politicians and give it to an independent commission, said the
state’s once-a-decade process of redistricting is too political. The group bills itself as nonpartisan and board members include former Tribune Company CEO Dennis FitzSimons, former White House chief of staff Bill Daley, the Rev. Byron Brazier of Chicago’s Apostolic Church of God and former Playboy Enterprises CEO Christie Hefner. FitzSimons, the group’s chairman, said they’d made changes to a proposal a judge found unconstitutional in 2014 and planned to raise more than $3 million, the amount previously spent. Fitz-
Simons, chairman of the Robert McCormick Foundation, has donated $25,000 of his own money to the effort and the McCormick Foundation has donated $250,000, according to state campaign finance filings. “This is a bipartisan issue of slanting the maps,” FitzSimons said. “What we’re going after is not any individual or party. We’re going after the process. That’s what needs to be changed.” The Independent Map Amendment would establish an 11-member commission with geographic
and demographic diversity and it would require seven commissioners to approve a map, including at least two Democrats and two Republicans. A review panel, chosen at random from a pool of registered voters who adhere to “standards of ethical conduct,” would select commission members. However, members of the previous attempt, Yes for Independent Maps, were skeptical. Former spokesman Michael Kolenc questioned whether the new group had Republican and corporate leanings, which he called
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“problematic.” In filings with the Illinois State Board of Elections, the group’s address is listed as the law office of John Fogarty, who serves as legal counsel to the Illinois Republican Party. The filing also states that the group is not affiliated with any political party. FitzSimons and others dismissed the notion that the group is aligned with the GOP. They said initial interest started while former Democratic Gov. Pat
See REDISTRICTING, page A4
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Dennis FitzSimons Former Tribune Company CEO and current chairman of the Robert McCormick Foundation