A Hebron village trustee has resigned after the state’s attorney’s office confronted her about a possible prior felony conviction and said it would prevent her from holding office.
The McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office sent a three-page letter to Hebron Village Trustee Candace Knaack on July 31.
The letter, signed by McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office Chief of Civil Division Norman Vinton, said it was brought to the state’s attorney’s attention that Knaack may have been convicted of a felony in 1993.
Vinton said that Illinois statute would bar Knaack from holding municipal office in the state if the conviction were indeed true.
A copy of the law was included in the letter. It says that anyone convicted “in any court located in the United States of any infamous crime, bribery, perjury, or other felony” is not eligible to hold office.
Vinton said in the letter that the statute does not have any timeframe for when a felony would have been convicted.
“For instance, it does not say if a felony has been convicted in the last ten years. With the statute being silent, the interpretation would be that if a felony was ever committed,” Vinton said.
“I urge you to speak with your attorney about your options,” Vinton told Knaack in the letter before hinting that the referenced court case was currently sealed from the public.
“If you indeed were convicted of a felony in 1993, even if that felony conviction is sealed, the statute would still apply and would disqualify you from holding that office,” he added.
The state’s attorney’s office demanded Knaack or her attorney contact them within 10 days to discuss the matter.
An archived newspaper article from the early 1990s referenced a then-21-year-old Candace L. Knaack, of Wonder Lake, who had been arrested for burglarizing a neighbor’s home and stealing items.
Knaack was appointed to the Hebron Village Board in September 2022.
She has since resigned as a trustee following the July 31 letter from the state’s attorney’s office.
“I am resigning from the Village Board of Hebron effective immediately,” Knaack said in her resignation letter to the board president last week.