An attorney for Jason Gonzales has spoken out following Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan being awarded a summary judgment motion amid allegations that Madigan tampered with the 2016 March Democratic primary ballot.
Anthony J. Peraica of Anthony J. Peraica & Associates LTD believes Judge Matthew F. Kennelly of the U.S. District for the Northern District of Illinois overlooked large amounts of evidence against Madigan before determining his ruling Aug. 23.
“Needless to say, we were very disappointed by the court’s ruling in granting the defendant’s motion for summary judgment, and that is because we felt that there were ample facts here to support the allegations of our complaint,” Peraica told Prairie State Wire. “Those facts were fairly solid in establishing that, in fact, Michael Madigan and both his political and governmental underlings engaged in a conspiracy to place two sham candidates on the March 2016 primary Democratic ballot.”
During the 2016 election, Gonzales argued that his opponent, Madigan, created and placed two phony candidates on the ballot with the intention of splitting the Hispanic vote in the 22nd District. Despite Kennelly stating that a reasonable jury would be able to prove Madigan’s actions, it was determined there was not enough evidence presented to prove anything.
Kennelly, instead, focused on how Gonzales publicized the incident.
Since Gonzales initially filed the claim in 2016, Peraica and his legal team worked hard to collect nearly 60 depositions from people responsible for printing, circulating, notarizing, and filing the petitions for the false candidates, even those from who allegedly directly conspired with Madigan during the fraud case.
Peraica also stated that Madigan even admitted in his deposition in September 2018 that he participated in weekly telephone calls with his underlings every Sunday to coordinate campaign activities and discuss strategies for the fraud process.
“We have more than preponderance of the evidence…and the only person who funded and benefitted from this was Madigan,” Peraica said.
Peraica said he was not looking to have the election results reversed if the court ruled in favor of Gonzales.
“We were not asking as part of our relief sought that the court overturn the election outcome,” Peraica said. “This was simply a civil case asking for civil damages as a result of the wrongful acts that Madigan and his minions have committed.”
Peraica seeks to file a motion for reconsideration in regards to Kennelly’s decision, with plans to file an appeal with the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals if the original motion is not granted.
“We believe there’s a very strong argument to make in that motion for reconsideration to, hopefully, get the judge to give this a second look at reverse his decision in granting the summary judgement motion,” Peraica said.
Gonzales and campaign treasurer Devraj DasGupta were contacted but unavailable for comments.
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