Larry Sapp is sharing his story of a painful past involving sexual and physical abuse in hopes that his Sauk Village neighbors will know the truth about what led to his recent ouster as a member of the Village Board.
A Cook County judge Sept. 30 ordered Sapp be removed from office due to past felony convictions. Felons are ineligible to hold municipal office in Illinois. Sapp was twice convicted of manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance, in 1988 and 1998, court records showed.
“I tried to buy three dime bags of crack cocaine,” he said of the crime that resulted in his second felony conviction. In 1988, he received probation, but in 1998, he was sentenced to three years in prison.
Sapp said after the 1998 arrest he was detained for about 13 months at Cook County Jail, pleaded guilty and was released shortly after his arrival at Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet.
Sapp accepts responsibility for his actions and believes he’s paid his debt to society. He’s been a model citizen for more than 20 years, he said, and has helped many others in the community.
He wants Gov. J.B. Pritzker to grant him a pardon or to restore his full rights as a citizen so he would be eligible to hold public office.
I met Sapp, 68, Friday at his home in Sauk Village where he lives with his wife, Dorothy. I sat in his living room and listened as he talked about how he abused drugs and alcohol years ago after a traumatic experience when he served in the U.S. Army.
“In 1975 when I joined the military I was sexually assaulted,” Sapp said. “I was beaten darn nearly to death and I was sent home in a full body cast.”
Back then, he said, the U.S. government refused to admit that sexual assaults occurred in the military. He was told he was the first person that anything like this had ever happened to, he said.
“I felt so ashamed that this had happened to me, I didn’t want anyone else to know about it,” Sapp said.
The government offered no counseling or other services to help survivors of sexual abuse back then, he said.
“There were no resources for people who had been traumatized by this type of violent action,” Sapp said.
He self-medicated with drugs and alcohol, like many survivors of sexual abuse have done.
“I’m not justifying my behavior but I wanted to escape the nightmare because I could not get out of my head what had happened to me,” he said.
Sapp said he suffered for years because no treatment services were available to address the sexual and physical abuse that were the root causes of his addiction.
“I was made to feel like it was my fault,” he said. “It was horrible. It almost destroyed me.”
In 1988, he was caught trying to buy crack cocaine, he said.
“I wish I had gone to jail then,” he said. He might have received treatment for his addiction. Instead, he received probation and served no time in jail or prison.
Sapp continued to struggle with his demons for another decade, he said.
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“I was afraid to go to sleep,” he said. “That’s how bad the nightmares were. I would do anything just to stay awake until my body just shut down.”
He was caught trying to buy drugs again in 1998, leading to his second felony conviction.
“I wasn’t trying to be a criminal, I was trying to get some relief from these demons,” he said.
Sapp said he couldn’t afford bail to get out of jail while awaiting trial, but the jail offered an addiction treatment program that helped him.
“The bond was so high, it was like you were being held hostage,” Sapp said. “I felt like I was already a prisoner because there was still no escape from the event that had happened in June of 1975.”
Sapp wanted to fight the criminal drug charges, but the system of delays and continuances kept him locked up for more than a year awaiting trial, he said. By that time, prosecutors said he could go free if he pleaded guilty.
“When they came to me with the proposal, I took the guilty plea,” he said. “They didn’t tell me that this was an albatross I was placing around my neck.”
Felony convictions haunt many for the rest of their lives and affect ability to gain employment, qualify for loans, obtain housing, pursue educational opportunities and myriad other consequences. A felony conviction meant he was ineligible to hold municipal office, but he didn’t know that or think about that at the time.
“I was just relieved to come home,” Sapp said.
After his release, Sapp said a doctor with the Department of Veterans Affairs helped him learn how to cope with the trauma of the sexual and physical abuse he experienced. He learned the abuse was not his fault, and that he was not the only one to experience abuse in the military.
By 1999, he was on the path to recovery. He was living in Chicago and working in community service with an organization he founded, Hope For Change. Sapp and his wife moved in 2015 to Sauk Village, where some of their seven children and many grandchildren lived and attended school, he said.
Sapp became known around Sauk Village for his service and activism. In 2021, he ran for trustee on a slate with Mayor Derrick Burgess and two other candidates. Nine candidates ran for three open seats. Sapp finished third. Turnout was 11.8% among the town’s 8,327 registered voters.
Sapp said he told Burgess before the 2021 election about his felony convictions.
“I sought a pardon from the governor before the election,” Sapp told me. “I didn’t keep it a secret.”
Sapp said Pritzker denied his request for a pardon. Burgess did not respond to requests for comment.
Sapp said as a trustee he clashed with other village officials over issues of integrity. He believes political rivals tipped off the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx about his felony convictions. The office filed a lawsuit in March to initiate the process of removing him from office because of ineligibility.
Cook County Judge Celia Gamrath ruled Sept. 30 that Sapp be removed from the Village Board.
“Mr. Sapp cannot prove, and has not attempted to prove, that he is entitled to hold the office of village trustee,” Gamrath ruled. “Nor is the court moved by his claim he is being ‘punished’ for crimes he committed more than twenty years ago.”
The law is clear, she concluded. Felons cannot hold municipal office in Illinois unless they have been pardoned or have received a restoration of rights. Lawmakers recently added the “restoration of rights” language to accommodate Markham Mayor Roger Agpawa, who was twice elected mayor despite a federal felony conviction for his role in an insurance scheme.
It was not immediately clear how Sauk Village intends to fill the vacancy created by Sapp’s removal. Burgess may nominate someone to the seat, subject to approval by the Village Board. The appointee would likely have to run in the spring 2023 election to keep the seat.
Sapp said he intends to appeal. A subsequent order by Gamrath issued Oct. 6 denied his request for a stay pending appeal. Sapp said he will continue to pursue a pardon or restoration of rights and said he wants to continue serving Sauk Village as an elected official.
Ted Slowik is a columnist at the Daily Southtown.