Belleville mayoral candidate served time for robbery but says he’s turned his life around

Jeffrey “J.D.” Dixon is running for mayor of Belleville as a write-in candidate, but not running from his criminal record, he said.

Dixon’s past includes serving five years behind bars after being convicted in the armed robbery of a White Castle in 2009 in Fairview Heights.

And now, as he campaigns to become the first Black mayor of Belleville and organizes efforts to fight racial and environmental injustices, he’s dealing with what he calls a “wrongful termination” from his job and a related lawsuit against him for defamation.

Belleville-based Empire Comfort Systems fired Dixon on March 12 for using his cellphone on company time, then filed a defamation lawsuit against him on Thursday over comments Dixon posted on social media about a company manager.

Last summer, Dixon organized demonstrations to protest the company’s treatment of Black employees and the company’s workplace safety calendar that featured a drawing he called “racist satire.”

He denied the allegations in the defamation lawsuit, which he described as “ridiculous.”

An Empire spokesman declined to comment on Dixon’s firing because a union grievance process is getting underway.

Dixon’s home address is in Shiloh according to the St. Clair County clerk but he is continuing his run for mayor of Belleville. He has said he would have his attorneys review the issue of him moving to Belleville if he is elected.

The other two mayoral candidates in the April 6 election are Mayor Mark Eckert and Art on the Square founder Patty Gregory, who both announced their intentions last year to run for in the election.

Dixon, 33, said he keeps fighting for his beliefs to show his three daughters that people shouldn’t define their future solely by a past “terrible decision,” referencing his participation in the robbery.

He also wants them to see him fight back to regain his job as a machine operator that he believes he lost in retaliation to his activism.

“You still have to try to persevere and go on and know that no matter what is going on, you know in your heart that you have to keep pushing and keep fighting because it’s the right thing to do,” Dixon said.

“And that’s just more perseverance that comes with always moving forward and not stopping in setting the right example for my daughters.”

Armed robbery conviction

Dixon said that ever since the White Castle robbery, he has thought about the employees who were in the restaurant at the time.

If he could talk to them today, he said he would “apologize for all and any type of trauma that I caused.”

When Dixon was sentenced in 2011, after pleading guilty to the armed robbery charge, he asked the judge for a second chance.

His grandmother and a St. Clair County Jail chaplain urged for leniency because they believed Dixon could turn his life around, according to a News-Democrat report on the sentencing hearing.

Dixon did not have a previous felony conviction. During the robbery of the fast-food restaurant on April 16, 2009, he stood by while a co-defendant held a nonoperational and unloaded gun, the BND reported. Two female restaurant employees were ordered into the walk-in cooler.

The prosecutor had sought a 20-year sentence while Dixon’s defense attorney requested six years. Dixon got 12.

The judge in Dixon’s robbery case was Mike Cook, who later lost his job after being convicted of a misdemeanor heroin possession charge and a felony weapons charge in federal court.

A surveillance video of the White Castle robbery showed Dixon inside the restaurant.

“This was a nightmare on tape. This was a nightmare for the people working in the restaurant,” Cook said during Dixon’s sentencing hearing.

Dixon said he was released from state prison after three years. He was held in the county jail for two years before he pleaded guilty for a total of five years of incarceration.

In his drive to turn around his life, Dixon earned an associate’s degree in liberal arts at Lake Land College in Mattoon, has worked as an activist for racial and environmental justice, was elected president of his union at Empire Comfort Systems and launched his mayoral campaign.

“It was a terrible decision during a rough time in my life,” Dixon said of the robbery. “I want to be an example for my daughters and I also want to show them you’re not your past.

“And your past doesn’t define you, it’s what you do going forward. It’s what you do after you bumped your head and how you bounce back and how you carry yourself after that makes you who you are. Never let your past define you.”

Dixon said he holds himself accountable for what he did just as he now demands accountability from police officers and local government officials.

“I hold myself accountable for my actions and I don’t run from my past because it makes who you are today,” he said.

Firing and a lawsuit

Dixon said he was fired on March 12 for a cellphone use violation at Empire Comfort Systems and that his union is pursuing a grievance process to get his job back. He alleges the company didn’t follow its disciplinary process.

If there was a violation, Dixon said he should have been suspended before being fired.

A hearing regarding the grievance process has not been scheduled, Dixon said Thursday.

Dixon commented on social media that he had filed a complaint with the Belleville Police Department regarding his interaction with a company manager. The status of this complaint was not available.

The complaint in Empire’s defamation lawsuit states that Dixon posted on social media that the manager had “assaulted me and pushed me.” The company’s security camera shows that the manager did not “assault, push or shove” Dixon, according to the lawsuit.

Dixon said the complaint is not factual and that the manager did contact his body and caused his shoulder to move.

“You’re not supposed to touch,” Dixon said. “There’s a zero tolerance policy at Empire, where nobody can touch anybody.”

Empire said in its lawsuit that it was Dixon’s comments on social media that prompted the legal action.

The Empire lawsuit was signed by Natalie Lorenz of the Belleville-based law firm of Mathis, Marifian & Richter. She could not be reached for comment.

This story was originally published March 19, 2021 at 5:00 AM.

Mike Koziatek

Belleville News-Democrat

Mike Koziatek is a former journalist for the Belleville News-Democrat