The Illinois Appellate Court has affirmed a McHenry County judge’s ruling that former Lake in the Hills Village President Tina Thornrose forfeited her office because she refused to pay back $7,558 in insurance premiums that she and her husband were not entitled to, it was announced Tuesday.
The appeals court sided with Judge James Franz of the McHenry County Circuit Court in his ruling last September, which backed the July 1996 ouster of Thornrose by the Village Board.
The board declared her office vacant after she ignored the board’s request to reimburse the village for insurance received by herself and her husband, village trustee Michael Meyer.
“The defendant had a number of options,” the appeals court wrote. “She could have paid off the debt within the alotted time. Defendant could also have initiated (a lawsuit before her ouster) to determine if indeed she was indebted to the village. Instead, she chose to defy the Board and do nothing. The term used by the trial court to describe her actions, `stonewalling,’ is an apt one.”
Thornrose has consistently refused to say whether she will run for office again in the next municipal elections in 1999.