Belleville woman accuses City Clerk Dallas Cook of slander

A Belleville woman has filed a lawsuit that accuses City Clerk Dallas Cook of libel and slander.

Cook called the allegations “baseless.”

Rose Wilson sued the city of Belleville and her political foe Cook after she said Cook accused her of theft and called the police on May 27.

According to the suit, Cook filed a complaint with the Belleville Police Department and told the officer: “Shortly after seeing Ms. Wilson walk by, I heard the door to the alderman’s closet close. I turned around and saw Ms. Wilson standing in front of the alderman’s closet door now with a stack of paper in her hand. Clearly, it would be extremely inappropriate for a member of the public to remove information from the aldermans’ mailboxes.”

Wilson alleged in the suit, filed by Belleville attorney Kevin Kaufold, that Cook knew he wasn’t telling the truth and painted her as a “dishonest and thieving person” with the intent of causing her shame.

Kaufhold declined to comment.

Mayor Mark Eckert declined to comment because the issue involves pending litigation.

City Attorney Garrett Hoerner could not be reached for comment Friday.

Cook said on Friday he believed the suit was a political attack after he objected to the candidacy of three circuit judges, St. Clair County Circuit Judges Robert Haida, John Baricevic and Robert LeChien.

“Everything I do as city clerk and a political candidate is in the best interest of the people,” he said.

The lawsuit attempts to crumble Cook’s credibility, he said, and impact his future political career.

“Doing what is right is worth it,” he said.

Cook added he hoped the lawsuit wouldn’t be settled for the sake of expediency and the truth would come out.

“In making this knowingly false misrepresentation in the presence of other persons, (Cook) maliciously intended to injure Ms. Wilson and to bring her into public disgrace and scandal,” the complaint stated. “(Cook) further intended to maliciously injure and destroy Ms. Wilson’s good name, credit and reputation and to cause disrepute among her neighbors and community, so as to cause her to be regarded as unfit and unworthy.”

There was a videotape of the incident taken from a City Hall surveillance camera and the video was obtained by the News-Democrat. The video depicted Wilson taking papers off the city clerk’s front desk counter.

Cook and Wilson are political foes. Wilson has attended City Council meetings for nearly 30 years, including when Cook’s father, Rodger, was the mayor in the 1990s.

Wilson sued the city because Cook was acting as an employee at the time he made the representations.

Nearly two months after Cook made the police report, St. Clair County State’s Attorney Brendan Kelly declined to charge either Wilson or Cook.

Wilson is seeking $480,000 in damages, $480,000 in punitive damage, interests and costs of suit.

This story was originally published December 11, 2015 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Belleville woman accuses City Clerk Dallas Cook of slander."