South Cook News

Cook County Commissioner Sean Morrison (R-17th) demonstrated such poor judgment in requesting a judge allow an employee of his security firm, awaiting trial for the indecent solicitation of a child, to travel out of state that he should resign his Republican leadership posts, State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) told South Cook News.

“The voters should be the ones to decide his ultimate fate,” said Ives, who nearly defeated incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner in the March 20 Republican primary.

Morrison, who is also Cook County GOP chairman and State Central Committeeman for the 3rd District, will face the voters in the 17th for the first time in November. He was appointed to fill a vacancy there in July 2015.

Rep. Jeanne Ives

Morrison has been a steadfast supporter of Rauner, but neither Rauner’s campaign office nor the state GOP returned calls seeking comment on the story about Morrison and his former employee that ran in the Chicago Sun-Times on June 18.

According to the report, Morrison wrote a Cook County judge in 2014 requesting that Anthony Martin, a senior vice president at his firm, Morrison Security, be permitted to travel out of state even though he was a defendant in the indecent solicitation case. That case centered around text messages Martin sent to a 14-year-old girl he met at a party hosted by Morrison at his Palos Park home.

In the letter to the judge, Morrison noted that the 10-year veteran employee is “instrumental in running my business.”

“Due to his position with my firm, the trust I have in him and his long tenure with me, one of his core functions is to be the Traveling Executive for the company, to monitor my business. To continue to be able to function in this company, he must be able to travel,” Morrison wrote.

In a statement to the Sun-Times, Morrison said it was Martin’s lawyer who drafted the letter, but Morrison did not deny authorizing and signing it, the article said.

A few weeks after receiving permission to travel, Martin was arrested in Colorado and charged with using the internet to try to sexually exploit another child.

Morrison defended his actions toward Martin.

“The only reason I did not fire him immediately (after his first arrest) was because my attorneys believed Martin could have the basis for a wrongful termination lawsuit, and I did not want him to profit from his criminal activity by hiding behind labor laws,” Morrison said in his statement to the Sun-Times.

Morrison did fire Martin after the Colorado arrest, the Sun-Times reported.

Martin pleaded guilty in Colorado and was given a six-year suspended sentence, then transferred back to Illinois, where he pleaded guilty again in the original case and was sentenced to three years in prison.