Two former Tazewell County Board candidates pleaded guilty Wednesday to failing to comply with state election code.
Outgoing District 2 representative Roy Paget and former District 2 representative Vivian Hagaman both pleaded guilty to disregard of election code, a Class A misdemeanor.
Specifically, the factual basis presented to Judge Stephen Kouri by Assistant Attorney General Haley Bookhout stated the state believed a trial would show evidence that both submitted “petition signature sheets that had false information on them” during the December 2023 primary filing period.
Under the plea agreement, both will serve 18 months of conditional release, pay just over $3,000 in fines and court fees, and perform 100 hours of community service.
The maximum sentence for a Class A misdemeanor in Illinois is a $2,500 fine, before court fees, and 364 days in jail.
Both Paget and Hagaman withdrew their candidate petitions days after filing them. Hagaman stepped down from her position on the board shortly after.
WCBU obtained the signature petitions. A reporter's review shows two pages in each of the candidate's packets have the same signatures in the same order, except for three names that had been crossed out with pen on Paget’s pages.
Hagaman’s attorney Kevin Sullivan, speaking on behalf of his client, claims the entire incident is the result of “sloppy” last- minute submissions and mistakes.
“Roy Paget decided he was going to…he announced he was going to run for county board chairman and he needed a lot more signatures than he would if he was simply going to be a county board member,” he said. “And so a lot of people, including my client [Vivian Hagaman], out of their own generosity, tried to help Roy get all these other signatures at the last minute.”
Hagaman’s signature does not appear anywhere as a circulator on Paget’s petition forms, but Sullivan said the signatures were obtained through a variety of methods.
“They were going to, like, signing parties,” he said. “They were reaching out to anybody they could, you know. And I think, they’re just...my client had a stack, Vivian had a stack of signatures for herself and then she was getting a lot of signatures for Roy, just as a friend, and some of those pages got mixed up together, is what happened.”
It was at the last minute, as the candidates were submitting paperwork shortly before the 5 p.m. filing deadline on Dec. 4, 2024, that Sullivan said the mix-up happened that ultimately led to both Hagaman and Paget submitting petitions — including some of the same copied signatures. Sullivan claims this also a was result of Paget’s switch from county board to board chair candidacy.
“The heading on [the petition] for county board chairman is different than the heading for simply a county board member, so they were trying to copy the heading, which would not have been improper,” said Sullivan. “But somehow, when that happened, other signatures got in the mix that were already on the original that was copied and somehow that got tied into…their respective packets of signatures.”
When asked whose signatures they were originally, Sullivan said: “Some of them were Vivian’s and some of them were Roy’s. And they got, they got kind of interspersed in that situation.”
Sullivan said Hagaman was not aware, when she signed off on and submitted her candidate packet, that both packets contained copied signatures.
“Election code is so inflexible that even the slightest mistakes can turn into a criminal offense, even a felony offense, for that matter, and my client had no intent,” he said.
Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman said, during the public objection period, an individual came to the clerk’s office, requested the packets for review and brought “discrepancies” to their attention.
“I believe the …Tazewell County State’s Attorney then reviewed it and recommended the Illinois State Police and Attorney General’s office be notified,” said Ackerman, who could not a similar situation in his time overseeing Tazewell County elections.
“In this incident, our office did exactly what we are supposed to do, went above and beyond in making them available for public review and then those discrepancies were discovered and reported,” he said.
Before agreeing to the conditions of the guilty plea and waiving his right to a trial, Paget raised issues with the charges and the Illinois State Police investigation into the incident. Attorney Rob Hanauer advised Paget that he should stop speaking, but Paget continued.
“I believe in truth and I believe, your honor, you believe in truth,” Paget said.
Paget claimed Pekin Mayor Mary Burress was a primary witness in the case and was “suppressed” from giving her testimony to police. Testimony, he believed, with enough time and money, would lead to him being found not guilty in a trial.
But afterwards, he accepted the terms.
Paget and Hanauer have not responded to a request for comment from WCBU.
Hagaman said only “yes” when accepting the terms of the guilty plea.
Sullivan said the plea negotiation “worked out as well as could be expected,” noting a misdemeanor does not disqualify a person from running for any office in the future.
“I think Vivian has interest in still continuing to serve her community,” Sullivan said. “Whether that’s the Village of Morton, whether that’s the County of Tazewell, but she has served in many, many capacities, essentially as a volunteer for years and has provided a lot of service.”
Ackerman hopes this incident can serve as an example of the importance of proper candidate petitions.
“I think today’s action shows the extent to which these are legal documents,” he said. “These, you know when you’re making a statement on these documents, when you’re signing your name, the weight of the decision you are making.”
Both Hagaman and Paget have 30 days to appeal their pleas.
