Cicero Official And Town Employee Arrested After Naperville Fracas
NAPERVILLE, Ill. (STMW) -- A Cicero elected official allegedly didn't listen to Naperville cops.
And she and a town employee were charged with battery and resisting a peace officer in what police described as a "chaotic" scene, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
Frances "Fran" Reitz, the Cicero town collector, was charged with two misdemeanors — battery and resisting a peace officer.
Anthony Garcia, a mechanic for Cicero, was charged with felony aggravated battery to an officer and misdemeanor resisting a peace officer.
Garcia is Cicero Town President Larry Dominick's brother-in-law, court records show.
A Cicero spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did Reitz, 51, nor Garcia, 50.
The recent arrests stemmed from a July 31 incident at Garcia's Naperville home.
Police were called to the home in the 2500 block of Brockton Circle to do a well-being check of a man who was possibly despondent and perhaps under the influence of alcohol or medication, police said.
When officers arrived, the man was ultimately taken to a hospital and officers searched the home for "evidence of substances the subject may have ingested " so doctors would know how to treat him, police said.
But Garcia and Reitz, who is described as a friend of the despondent man, weren't happy the cops were inside the home.
"They wanted the officers out of the house," Naperville police Sgt. Lou Cammiso said.
Reitz "was asked to step outside because she didn't live there," Cammiso said. "She refused."
"The officer went to move her out of the house ... she hit the officer's arm away with her hand and then she attempted to push herself away from the officer," Cammiso said.
"At that point, Anthony Garcia jumped on the back of a police officer and pushed both the officer and Reitz to the ground," Cammiso said.
The man who has taken to the hospital is a relative of Garcia, but it's unclear if he lives at the Naperville home.
Garcia was arrested, but when officers tried to arrest Reitz, she refused to be handcuffed, Cammiso said.
"She kept pulling her arms away to avoid being taken into custody," he said.
Once she was in custody, Reitz "started complaining of injuries from the fall," Cammiso said. She was taken to a hospital and released pending a warrant, he said.
But Reitz, who is also a trustee for Morton Community College District 527, was booked Monday into the Will County Jail and was released in lieu of a $10,000 bond, records show. Garcia was released in lieu of a $35,000 bond, records show.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
