SPRINGFIELD – A former Republican member of the State House was fired from his new job at the Department of Illinois Corrections after he was found groping women during a Christmas party earlier this month, the Chicago Sun Times reported exclusively last Friday.
John Anthony was fired on Dec. 7, five days after the holiday party at the Wyndham Hotel in Springfield. Anthony, a Republican from Morris, worked as executive assistant to the director of the Illinois Department of Corrections. His annual salary was about $120,000, records show.
The corrections department on Friday released records about Anthony in response to a Chicago Sun-Times Freedom of Information Act request. Those records included the surveillance video.
The video can be viewed on the Sun-Times' story.
The corrections department on Friday said an investigation was launched and “immediate action” was taken as soon as officials learned of the allegations of misconduct.
In a statement, the governor’s office applauded the corrections department. “Our administration does not tolerate this type of behavior,” spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said. “The Department of Corrections did the right thing by taking immediate action.”
Why not take this John Anthony story a little further? I would pose the question–“Why did State Representative John Anthony “SUDDENLY” decide to resign as a state representative prior to being hired by the Illinois Department of Corrections?” I propose the possibility (aka. likelihood?) that he had already been reprimanded for unwanted sexual advances by other females in Springfield. I also wonder if he was given this “golden” opportunity to “suddenly & quietly” resign his position as a state representative in exchange for a $120,000 a year job with the Illinois Department of Corrections if he agreed to leave quietly? I doubt that the Illinois taxpayers will ever find out if my theory is correct because accountability for one’s actions doesn’t usually take place down in Springfield where the “Good Old Boy’s Club” covers for their own members. Dirt is quietly and discreetly swept under rugs rather than make voters & taxpayers aware of the ineptness that takes place down there. Both parties (Dems & GOP) prefer to operate in the shadows where mistakes and misbehavior is cloaked in darkness rather than in the sunshine where Illinois voters can view what they are getting for their dollar and their vote. I propose the very real “possibility” that Mr. Anthony was given a “golden bone” to leave the House of Representatives quietly. Yet (like Humpty Dumpty and most defective objects) he still remained broken and defective and “true to his form” when he was handed to the Illinois Department of Corrections. This is “just a theory” mind you but an interesting one. Then the next question would be, “Who covered for him and got him the golden job at the IDOC in order to pass this cracked egg on to the next guy?” That is the guy who needs to be kicked out. That person (or persons) is the facilitator of a crime against the Illinois taxpayers and voters in my humble opinion.