John Anderson’s 25 Guilty Pleas & Convictions Raise Concerns in Key Race
CHICAGO — According to records obtained from courthouses across Illinois, Third District Appellate Court candidate John Anderson has been convicted or pled guilty 25 times amid 33 run-ins with law enforcement.
Anderson has been brought before the law on numerous charges, including retail theft, reckless driving, transportation of open alcohol in a vehicle, driving on a suspended license, over twenty excessive speeding charges, and driving with expired plates and no insurance.
“The Third District Appellate Court and the millions of people in Northeastern Illinois deserve a leader like Judge Kenton Skarin who leads with integrity and works hard for the people he serves. We cannot allow a career criminal like John Anderson to serve and in November, Illinois can elect a leader who follows our laws instead of breaking them,” ILGOP Kathy Salvi said in a statement.
This November, Illinois voters have a choice between Kenton Skarin, a judge who was first in his class at Northwestern Law and is committed to faster, smarter, fairer courts, and John Anderson, a criminal who has dozens of run-ins with law enforcement.
Check out a new Ad, “Reckless John,” and review judicial records from Anderson’s cases here.
Eleven of those “33 run-ins with law enforcement” were for driving 15-20 MPH over the speed limit. But still. Whew.
For months, I have generally tried to avoid talking about my opponent, Kenton Skarin. Rather, I try to talk about me and my own credentials. But, he has repeatedly revealed himself to act not as a judge, but as a petty and childish politician. When we were seated at the same table for an event, he got up and moved. When I politely said hello to him at a different event in DuPage County, he told me I should go back to Will County. When I was asked to speak for 15 seconds at a recent event, he audibly booed me and got out his phone to record me.
Now, he made a website about me emphasizing traffic-related offenses that are, for the most part, from my high school and college years. Some of it goes back 35 years. His website shows I have had one traffic ticket in approximately 14 years, and that was 5 years ago.
In the last two years, I have made no secret that I was once an angry, rudderless young man. I had bad grades, I was even homeless and lived on my friend’s couch in a cockroach-infested apartment in Joliet. I turned my life around after a member of my family was murdered in an act of gun violence. These experiences taught me empathy, integrity, and the value of hard work.
Now, I have two master’s degrees and two law degrees. I like to volunteer at homeless shelters and food drives. I enjoy speaking to high school students who are on the verge of not graduating, and I make sure they know there are community college opportunities out there for them. My biggest passion in the law is making our court system more user friendly for those who cannot afford a lawyer; I helped raise $40 million for organizations that provide free legal aid to those who cannot afford an attorney. And, I am supported by law enforcement and was even named “Judicial Officer of the Year” by the Illinois State Crime Commission.
I won’t defend choices I made when I was 20 years old. I can’t—in part because I don’t even remember them. But I believe redemption is a powerful thing that ought to be celebrated, not attacked. If Kenton doesn’t understand that, and chooses to judge 53-year-old people on the worst mistakes they made in high school and college, he is not fit to be a judge. He knows he will lose to 53-year-old Judge Anderson, and so instead he wants to run against 20-year-old John Anderson. So, go ahead, Kenton. Keep doing what politicians do. I will continue to conduct myself like a judge … the ONLY judge in this race to receive a “HIGHLY RECOMMENDED” rating from the Illinois State Bar Association.
