Grand jury investigating Cicero town president election: FIRST ON FOX
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By Dane Placko, FOX 32 News Investigative Reporter - bio | email
CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -
The town of Cicero, long known for its history of corruption, is under siege once again.
FOX 32 has exclusively learned Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez has been firing out subpoenas connected to Tuesday's election. Those subpoenas are part of a grand jury investigation into possible fraud and voter suppression in Cicero, which came just days before Tuesday's big victory by incumbent Town President Larry Dominick.
Moments after his landslide victory Tuesday night, Larry Dominick answered critics who questioned his integrity.
"Ask the people of Cicero. I think they just showed you how much integrity I have," Dominick said.
But, FOX 32 News has learned Dominick is facing new questions from Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez.
On Friday, Alvarez served grand jury subpoenas on the town of Cicero for Larry Dominick's campaign and the campaign of Dominick's election opponent, Juan Ochoa.
Sources tell FOX 32 News Alvarez is investigating allegations that Dominick used on-duty town of Cicero employees to go door-to-door intimidating Hispanic voters who had taken out absentee ballots.
"The intimidation tactics here are out of control," Ochoa said. "Larry Dominick has in fact admitted, his administration, of using public employees that are uniformed to intimidate and to suppress voters."
A spokesman for Dominick says the Cicero workers were actually conducting an investigation into possible campaign fraud committed by Ochoa. The spokesman says they found large numbers of absentee ballots coming from ghost voters and fictitious addresses.
In fact, the grand jury will be looking into the unusually large number of absentee ballots pulled for the election. The investigation is being conducted by the election fraud unit of the state's attorney's special investigations unit.
A spokesperson for State's Attorney Anita Alvarez refused to comment.
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