Will County Gazette

Homer Township supervisor and Will County Board member Steve Balich is questioning the administration of Gov. J.B. Pritzker after the details of the Jenny Thornely scandal have been revealed.

“There's nobody to sweep it under rocks. So we're supposed to have equal protection under the law, according to the U.S. Constitution and all these state-run Democratic organizations just sweep that under the rug,” Balich told Will County Gazette. “It seems to me like we have one standard for the Democrat, for globalist or elitist or whatever you want to call them – and then we have another standard for normal people. And then we have a standard that's different for our people on the national stage that are Republican or conservative. There's no difference, I think so. In general, I would say that if you're a Democrat and I'm in the leadership elite, you don't have to worry about anything. You just don't get prosecuted. You commit a crime. And the same crime that they let you go for as a quid pro as a conservative Republican.”

Tom DeVore, the GOP nominee for Illinois attorney general, is bringing attention to the instance of alleged fraud involving influence from the governor’s office.

Pritzker campaign aide and Illinois State Police (ISP) merit board employee, Jenny Thornley, was accused of stealing money from the state. Her boss caught wind, and she threatened him, but investigation was opened anyway.

Thornley then reached out to the governor and his wife to help her in February 2020. Working with Pritzker’s top level staff, Thornley then filed a false workers’ comp claim listing Pritzker’s office as her employer, not the ISP meter board.

Pritzker’s general counsel Ann Spillane directly handled and approved the fraudulent claim. An independent investigation concluded that the claim was just a scheme to defraud the state. People in the highest levels of the Pritzker administration were involved in the scheme, and Attorney General Kwame Raoul had information regarding the matter but refused to act. DeVore said that if he is elected, he will fight corruption such as this.

The $550,000 independent inquiry that exonerated a state supervisor from a sexual harassment charge made by Thornley was paid for by Illinois taxpayers.

Thornley filed a workers' compensation claim for bodily and psychological harm, but the inquiry revealed that no such harassment ever occurred. The Pritzker administration pushed the claim through without Thornley's agency's knowledge until after it had already been paid out.

The background is that Thornley served as a campaign assistant for Pritzker in 2018 and a member of the State Police Merit Board. Her boss, Jack Garcia, the executive director of the Merit Board, learned of the claims that she had defrauded the government.

Even though she had never worked in his office, she claimed Pritzker as her boss when she later filed a workers' compensation claim. The alleged abuse, however, never took place.

Thornley was terminated in July 2020 and charged with pay and expenditure fraud by a grand jury in Springfield in September 2021. Although the governor's administration was aware that this allegation was false, it nevertheless discreetly supported it.

Even worse, Raoul – a Pritzker loyalist – did nothing to hold anyone accountable after successfully obtaining the dismissal of a whistleblower claim.

DeVore is pressuring Pritzker and Roaul, both Democrats, to address the Thornley workers' compensation fraud matter.

In Sangamon County, a trial for Thornley is scheduled for this fall. She is accused of forgery, theft and official misconduct.

Raoul requested that the court reject the lawsuit that the Merit Board had brought in an effort to reveal the plot. The judge agreed, and the case was thrown out.

DeVore has asked, “Why did they pay her the money after we had already proven that she was not sexually assaulted?”