IG, Preckwinkle differ over ditched SUV
She contends she got well-being call after odd discovery
In addition to concluding that an abandoned SUV driven “nearly exclusively” by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s security chief was improperly used to transport political materials, the county’s top watchdog found that members of her security team did not check on her well-being after the vehicle was found.
Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard’s report said his investigation into the November 2016 incident, in which the security chief’s SUV was found abandoned in a ditch with political campaign literature in the back, uncovered no evidence that security employees tried to confirm Preckwinkle’s safety that night.
Preckwinkle, however, said in her first public comments about the incident earlier this week that she did receive a call that night from the chief of her security detail.
“Actually, I got a call in the middle of the night, so there was a check-in on my safety,” said Preckwinkle, now also a candidate for mayor of Chicago.
That statement contradicted the security chief’s phone log and the findings contained in Blanchard’s report.
“No (Cook County Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management) employees, including members of the Security Detail, checked on the well-being of the President upon learning of the recovery of the vehicle,” the report said.
Later in its findings, the report concluded the investigation did not find evidence that any department employee “sought to confirm the safety of the President or the Security Specialist Operator during the night.”
Asked about the discrepancy between Preckwinkle’s comment and the report, spokeswoman Becky Schlikerman released a statement Thursday noting, “This (incident) was nearly two years ago. The president believes she received a call, but to clarify, she is uncertain if it was from her chief of executive protection or another member of the county team.”
Blanchard declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation.
The contradiction’s significance is unclear, but it’s the latest twist in a story stemming from a bizarre incident during the early morning hours following the 2016 election when a Chevrolet Tahoe assigned to Preckwinkle’s security team was discovered abandoned near southwest suburban Lemont.
In the Tahoe’s cargo area, investigators found bags of political literature, a button with an image of Preckwinkle and a dry cleaning receipt with the phone number of her chief of security, Delwin Gadlen, according to the report, which identified Gadlen only by his title.
Blanchard’s report did not say whose candidacies the political materials advanced.
But the Cook County sheriff’s office, which responded to the scene, took photos showing the materials promoted the campaign of now-State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, among other candidates. Blanchard’s report concluded the SUV was improperly used to transport political materials but did not say who was driving when it was ditched or who placed the political materials in the vehicle. It did conclude that the SUV was driven primarily by Preckwinkle’s chief of security.
On that Election Day, the security chief drove Preckwinkle to campaign events but said he did so in his personal car, according to the report. She told investigators he took her home around 9:30 that night.
A sheriff’s police officer found the vehicle stuck in the mud with its engine still warm, and a witness told police that the driver had abandoned the Tahoe and walked away, Blanchard said in his report.
When interviewed by Blanchard’s investigators, the security chief said the vehicle was stolen, though the alleged theft was never reported to police, the inspector general’s report said.
According to the report, when asked how the political materials ended up in the vehicle, the chief told Blanchard’s office he had “no idea how the vehicle was stolen.”
“How would I know how the materials got there?” he added. Asked again, the chief said the vehicle was stolen and that “(a) reasonable mind could say that the material could have been planted,” Blanchard said. When asked whether he was curious to learn who stole the vehicle, the chief said he had no interest and that such occurrences are commonplace, calling it “a joyride.”
Preckwinkle’s office has said she didn’t permit or authorize the county vehicle to be used to disseminate campaign materials. She was not in the Tahoe that day and rarely travels in the vehicle, her office said.
“The president did not permit, nor did she authorize, the use of the county vehicle for the dissemination of campaign materials,” Schlikerman said. “She has no information or knowledge about who placed the materials in the vehicle. She was not in the vehicle that day and rarely travels in that vehicle.”
When the vehicle was found, all the tires were slashed, as was the driver’s seat, the center console and the dashboard, according to the inspector general’s report.
Blanchard’s investigators spoke to sheriff’s and county officials experienced in executive protection who said the damage “appears inconsistent with damage typically associated with vehicle theft.”
Instead, the damage “looked hurried and staged,” they said, according to Blanchard. All keys to the vehicle are accounted for and there were no signs of the car being forcibly started, the report said.
It’s unclear how the vehicle ended up ditched. The Tahoe previously was driven to a county security specialist’s home and left outside, Blanchard said.
The chief previously had told the employee to leave the key in the vehicle and he would retrieve it later, Blanchard said.
During her traditional post-County Board meeting news conference Wednesday, Preckwinkle said she believes the SUV was stolen even though officials never reported it to police.
Preckwinkle also said she has not investigated the incident and declined to comment on whether she has asked her security chief whether he placed the political materials in the vehicle, saying she won’t discuss “personnel matters.”
Although the report does not find any wrongdoing by Preckwinkle’s office, the incident is likely to receive further scrutiny as Preckwinkle campaigns for Chicago mayor.