Ex-Joliet city councilman faces amended charge of lying to state police

joliet — A special prosecutor amended his original charge against former Joliet City Councilman Don “Duck” Dickinson that now claims he made a false accusation about Joliet Mayor Robert O’Dekirk to an Illinois State Police special agent.

On Wednesday, Special Prosecutor Bill Elward filed a misdemeanor charge of attempted disorderly conduct against Dickinson.

Elward has previously charged Dickinson on March 9 with attempting to commit obstruction of justice by knowingly providing false information to former Joliet Deputy Chief Marc Reid on Nov. 2, 2020.

That charge had also alleged Dickinson falsely accused O’Dekirk of threatening him.

It was not clear before how Dickinson was allegedly obstructing justice by making a false accusation against O’Dekirk. Typically when someone makes a false report of an offense to the police, they are charged with either misdemeanor or felony disorderly conduct.

At Dickinson’s May 23 hearing, his attorney, Frank Andreano, told the judge that Elward intended to amend his original charge against his client. Andreano said at the time that he did not know what the new charge would be.

Before that hearing, Andreano had filed a motion on April 14 to dismiss the attempted obstruction charge against Dickinson.

Andreano’s motion argued the charge did not allege Dickinson committed an actual crime. His motion further contended the charge did not make clear whether the case is “one of heated political words exchanged (or not exchanged) between rivals or an actual threat which the Illinois Criminal Code forbids.”