On Friday, July 9, the Appellate Court for the Second District of Illinois overturned the conviction for domestic battery of controversial pundit and political operative Jeff Ward in a 2-1 decision.
Mr. Ward, well-known in the Fox Valley for his often provocative commentary and sometimes abrasive personal style, had been found guilty previously by a jury in a trial overseen by Judge Clayton Lindsey from the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, Ward’s case having been previously moved by the chief judge of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit, Judge Susan Clancy Boles.
The charges against Ward stemmed from an incident on June 1, 2018, where Ward was involved in a verbal altercation with police officers at the scene of a traffic accident involving his 18-year-old son Matthew. As Ward was arguing with one of the officers, defendant’s wife, Leslie Ward, stepped between defendant and the officer.
Ward then pushed Ms. Ward to the side and continued to argue. He was arrested and charged by complaint with two counts of domestic battery.
At the time and throughout the proceedings, Ms. Ward refused to cooperate and insisted that her husband did nothing wrong, going so far as to issuing a written statement stating the “push” did not constitute domestic battery and that “Jeff’s arrest was just another act of harassment against her family from the Geneva Police Department.” Her statement was included in a pre-trial motion by defense counsel.
The arrest was the latest in a long history of conflict between the Geneva Police Department and Ward. One of the officers involved in the arrest, Sergeant George Carbray, an 18-year veteran of the Geneva Police Department, confessed under examination by defense counsel that he “did not like” Ward. “I believe he’s a bully who creates a lot of issues and tries to manipulate people.”
In overturning the jury verdict, the court held that Judge Lindsey had erred in not granting defense’s motion for a directed verdict during the first trial. (A directed verdict is effectively a ruling from the judge that the prosecution has not presented sufficient evidence to constitute a viable case against a defendant.)
Ward, in a column published in his First Ward blog shortly after the ruling reversing his conviction, was scathing.
“…if two directed verdicts aren’t beyond-any-reasonable-doubt evidence that Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns, the Geneva Police, and the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office under Joe McMahon were intent on shutting me up, then nothing is. Ain’t it funny how, in 62 long years on this third rock from the sun, I’ve never been arrested anywhere outside the city of Geneva! So now, the Geneva Police have come after me six times and I’ve beaten them all six times.”
Ward is a veteran in local politics in the Fox Valley, having been associated in various capacities with the elections of candidates as diverse as Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser, and former State Senator and Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen, among others. His First Ward blog and aggressive social media presence have caused no little amount of controversy both with public officials and the general public. He has particular scorn for the Geneva Police Department and Mayor Kevin Burns.
