Here are some major stories that made headlines in Kane County in 2025:

ICE activity outside courthouse, elsewhere in the county

With President Donald Trump’s promise to ramp up immigration enforcement across the country came Operation Midway Blitz. It brought targeted arrests by federal authorities to Chicago and surrounding areas, an action that Trump said was meant to crack down on illegal immigration.

Increased arrests outside of the Kane County courthouse by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were reported and in some cases interrupted by multiple people.

In many cases, federal authorities did not respond to requests for comment surrounding specific arrests, including what a person was charged with or where they were being held.

Hours after a Bolingbrook man was arrested outside the courthouse in July, Elgin attorney Caroline Hernandez emailed Chief Kane County Judge Robert Villa asking that Villa’s office reinstate the option for remote court appearances over Zoom, “particularly those involving people of Latino descent who are now being actively targeted by ICE outside the Kane County courthouse.”

A group of St. Charles residents has since petitioned the City Council to ban ICE from using public property for immigration-related arrests. There’s been no vote on the matter to date.

Texas lawmakers in St. Charles center of bomb threats at Q Center

Texas Democratic lawmakers were among 400 people evacuated in response to multiple bomb threats at the Q Center in St. Charles, authorities said.

Police responded to the reported threat about 7:15 a.m. one morning in August at the hotel and convention center at 1405 N. Fifth Ave. Just days later, authorities responded to a second bomb threat.

Police and the Kane County Sheriff’s bomb squad searched the center and found no explosive devices either day. St. Charles police increased patrols in the area.

The threat came as tensions erupted after several Texas Democrats fled to Illinois days before in a last-resort attempt, ultimately unsuccessful, to block redrawn U.S. House maps that President Donald Trump wanted before the 2026 midterm election.

St. Charles police chief resigns, lawsuit filed months later alleging unlawful practices

The city’s top cop resigned in March and then was the subject of a lawsuit filed in September by a former St. Charles Police Department employee.

The employee filed a federal lawsuit against the city, claiming she was the target of sexual harassment and was forced to resign under retaliatory pressure for whistleblowing unlawful department practices, records show.

In the civil lawsuit, Lisa Lullo, who worked in the city police department’s records division for a year and a half, argued former police chief James Keegan – who resigned in March – sexually harassed her. Keegan is not named in the lawsuit, records show.

Lullo also claimed in the suit that St. Charles Police Department staff inflated arrest statistics by recording warrant pickups as actual arrests. She claimed records staff altered the narrative of police reports at the direction of supervisors and denied public records requests, according to the lawsuit filed Sept. 5 in federal court by her attorneys at Chicago-based Lavelle Law.

The filing also claims that the department failed to fingerprint multiple city staff members who have access to sensitive information, as is required as part of their background checks, and that supervisors disregarded Lullo’s reports.

At the time of her employment, Lullo was the only female supervisory staff member, according to court records. The filing recounts instances in which other supervisors berated Lullo in front of her staff, causing her to feel “degraded, belittled, and disrespected.”

22 Geneva businesses vandalized

Twenty-two Geneva businesses along South Randall Road reported their glass windows and doors shattered.

The vandalism occurred the night of March 18, according to Geneva police.

The damage occurred the same night a Geneva police officer was seriously injured after being dragged by a car he was investigating, police had announced in a news release March 19.

Kim Myers, store manager at Bullfrog Spas, said at the time that their door and three or four windows were shattered.

“I’ve never seen any more glass in my entire life,” Myers said. “I believe it was done with a BB gun – that’s what the guys who repaired it said it looked like.”

Targeted businesses that suffered broken doors and windows included McDonald’s, Old Navy, GameStop, Men’s Wearhouse, McAlister’s Deli, Ulta Beauty, Party City, America’s Best, Northland Hearing, Hand and Stone Massage, Rayus Radiology, Marshalls, For Eyes, Milan Laser Hair Removal, Carter’s, Dr. Herbert Stith dental office, and Dr. Dennis Lazzara dental office.

Hull wins mayoral election, ousting incumbent

A retired judge won a bid for St. Charles mayor over incumbent Lora Vitek in the spring election.

Clint Hull told Shaw Local that what he thinks resonated with voters was his history in the city and dedication to serving the community, having spent his whole life and raising a family in St. Charles, as well as his history of public service.

And in other election news, Geneva mayor Kevin Burns narrowly won reelection to a seventh term in April over challenger Karsten Pawlik.

St. Charles plant closes, taking with it more than 100 jobs

More than 160 jobs were eliminated in July when Ametek Bison Gear & Engineering Inc. closed in St. Charles.

According to the Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification report from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the manufacturing plant closure laid off 167 workers on July 21.

Bison, founded in 1960, is a global motor and power transmission supplier based in Ohio with a manufacturing plant located at 3850 Ohio Ave. in St. Charles. The St. Charles plant designs and manufactures custom motion control solutions for automation, power, food and beverage and transportation industries.

On May 19, electronics manufacturer Ametek Inc. announced its plans to close the plant, two years after the conglomerate purchased Bison Gear & Engineering Corp. in St. Charles.

Campton Hills annexation paves way for 900 new homes

After weeks of public debate, Campton Hills trustees approved the annexation of 962 acres for the LaFox of Campton Hills housing development in two split votes in front of a large crowd in September.

The project is for Shodeen Development in Geneva to build 900 homes and set aside 440 acres as open space.

The votes came after a sometimes raucous, three-hour special meeting, held at Lord of Life Church, where about 150 people packed the room. But a subsequent zoning hearing was continued twice. The developer has two years to submit a final plan.

Campton Hills cops charged

Ex-Campton Hills police chief Steven Millar and three others were charged in October for an alleged scheme connected to illegal gun sales, authorities said.

Millar was charged with 41 felonies, and current Douglas Kucik and two former officers, Scott Coryell and Daniel Hatt were also charged in connection to an Illinois State Police investigation that alleges firearms from a police evidence room were unlawfully sold between January 2018 and February 2023, records show.

Kucik has since been placed on paid leave, according to the city. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser said all four men surrendered to the Kane County Sheriff’s Office Oct. 16, appeared in court and were released, since their charges aren’t detainable under the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act.

Millar became the village’s second police chief in 2018.

He is charged with felony money laundering not exceeding $10,000; nine counts of forgery; 22 counts of official misconduct; two counts of theft; one count of wire fraud; and five counts of delivering firearms before 72 hours of waiting, according to the circuit court clerk’s website. The other men also each are facing multiple felony charges.

Chapelstreet Church sued over alleged cover-up of sexual misconduct

A former member of Chapelstreet Church in Geneva sued the church, its interim lead pastor and a youth leader, claiming the youth leader sexually abused him after the senior pastor had been informed of a prior allegation against the youth leader.

The plaintiff, identified in the civil lawsuit only as “John Doe,” names the church, previously known as the First Baptist Church of Geneva, as well as interim lead pastor Brian Coffey, a longtime church official and former senior pastor, and Don Vanthournout of St. Charles Township, who served in the church’s various youth and student ministries.

At the time of the claimed abuse, the plaintiff was a child of missionaries who stayed at Vanthournout’s house in Kane County during furloughs, according to the suit, which was filed Oct. 21 in Kane County court.

The church later addressed the filing in a letter to members, stating that “Chapelstreet has been inappropriately included in this legal action.”

Batavia chiropractor accused of secretly filming patients, including children

A Batavia chiropractor was charged in November after authorities alleged he secretly videotaped more than 180 of his patients, most of them women and young girls, as they undressed or were nude.

David H. Hanson, 43, of Batavia, was charged with 17 felonies in total, including producing, disseminating and possessing materials depicting child sexual abuse, and unauthorized video recording of a minor. The charges came after police searched his home and businesses on Nov. 5.

Authorities allege Hanson secretly videotaped his patients, including children. Many of the recordings appear to have been taken from a red light room used for treatments including near-infrared light therapy, according to court records.

Hanson also faces multiple civil lawsuits in relation to his alleged actions, records show. He is being held without release in Kane County Jail.

Jan. 6 organizer speaks in Kane County after several venue changes

Protesters against a local appearance by Jan. 6 organizers and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, invited by a Kane County organization, seemingly managed to persuade multiple venues to decline to host Rhodes’ talk. But eventually, an Elgin church agreed to host the controversial figure, who drew a large crowd.

Former Graham’s coffeehouse spot in Geneva for sale

The shuttered 318 Graham’s Coffeehouse property at 318 S. Third St. in Geneva was placed on the market this year for $2.3 million.

The original house was a bungalow built in 1918, which was turned into a coffeehouse in 2005, a second business run by Robert Untiedt, the late co-owner with his wife, Beckie, of Graham’s Fine Chocolates & Ice Cream, at 302 S. Third St.

It closed in April 2024.

The coffeehouse took off in popularity and always had something to celebrate. In 2016, it hosted a “Gilmore Girls” event, turning into Luke’s Diner from the show and drawing 3,000 fans who lined up all the way down Third Street.

Commercial brokers Sandra True and Jody Wendt co-listed the property.