Will County Gazette

A Will County judge has granted a two-year extension of an order of protection to Republican activist Emily Cahill and former state representative candidate Jim Lanham, marking a legal victory following what they describe as years of relentless harassment by Antifa-linked Will County resident David Anzelc. 

Anzelc is accused of orchestrating coordinated online campaigns using burner phones and fake social media accounts to smear and threaten conservative activists across suburban Chicago.The extended order of protection restricts Anzelc from all contact with the protected individuals, including digital interactions. 

Cahill, who has been a visible presence in conservative grassroots organizing as Treasurer of the Will County Young Republicans, a Plainfield precinct committeewoman and membership coordinator for the Illinois Young Republicans, shared detailed accounts of her courtroom experience and ongoing fears. 

In a tense courtroom encounter on May 28, Cahill said Anzelc appeared “visibly unstable.”

“David was present in court and visibly has some type of mental issue,” Cahill told the Will County Gazette. “He was just standing there smiling the whole time. It was really creepy—kind of like the Joker smile, is what he was doing.”

Former friends and family members have described Anzelc as erratic and mentally unstable, echoing concerns raised by Cahill and others affected by his behavior.

Cahill described the judge’s reaction after reviewing evidence she submitted documenting years of harassment. 

“The judge asked me a few questions, and he went through everything,” she said. “He shook his head. He seemed actually kind of disgusted by some of the stuff that happened.”

Those actions included Anzelc, who has been linked to Southern Poverty Law Center research analyst Jeff Tischauser, following Cahill to multiple stores, driving by her home repeatedly and posting defamatory flyers containing her address and phone number around her neighborhood, including the path where Cahill runs near her home, and near her daughter’s school. 

Despite police removing some flyers, Anzelc replaced them and publicly boasted about his actions online. 

Cahill said Anzelc’s harassment escalated when he plastered roughly 80 flyers in public spaces, leading Cahill to withdraw her daughter from school and begin homeschooling her for safety.

When given the opportunity to defend himself, Cahill said Anzelc presented an irrelevant arrest record from 2016 in an attempt to discredit her.

“He pulled out an arrest record from 2016 and gave it to the judge,” Cahill said. “I told him, ‘That’s sealed.’ The judge asked him, ‘Where did you get this?’ and David said, ‘Oh, one of her enemies online.’ And the judge just looked at him and said something like, ‘You have a weird obsession with her. You need to stop. You're posting this and trying to aggravate people to become violent. That is what you wanted. It ends today.’”

The court granted Cahill’s request to extend the protection order for two more years.

Lanham echoed Cahill’s characterization of Anzelc’s “bizarre” behavior in the courtroom adding that the order is long overdue, citing not only the online behavior but the serious safety concerns it raised. 

“He can’t come near me, there can't be any contact, no tagging me on social media, no posts of my name, address, phone number—all that kind of stuff,” Lanham said. 

While Lanham said he is relieved by the legal development, he remains wary of potential retaliation or escalation.

“I know he's crazy,” Lanham said. “He won’t be able to resist. Wait a couple months, start from fake accounts, use the Wi-Fi at McDonald's, throw the phone away—and start again. But I’m glad something like this got stopped before it turned worse.”

Following Lanham’s initial emergency order of protection Anzelc’s family sought their own order of protection against him. The next hearing in that case will be June 5. 

“We’ve never posted David’s address, never gone after his family. But he’s done that to us, and it crosses a serious line,” Lanham said. 

For Cahill, the legal victory offered a rare sense of relief after what she describes as a prolonged campaign of intimidation. 

“To say that a weight has been lifted off my shoulders is an understatement,” she said. “It’s like dark clouds dissipated and I can finally breathe.”

But even with the order in place, Cahill remains cautious.

Court filings and family accounts reveal Anzelc’s troubled personal history, including involuntary commitments, firearm surrenders and reports of repeated suicidal ideation. 

In one incident, his father filed for a protection order after Anzelc allegedly screamed death threats and destroyed family property. His mother told state officials in 2023 that she feared her son could commit a mass act of violence.

“I’m honestly a little afraid that he might come after me physically because he doesn’t care,” Cahill said. 

“He has no regard for his own family. He doesn’t even care about a piece of paper, and I feel that he might retaliate. I was just telling one of my friends about it because we have an event coming up this Saturday that I’m going to request law enforcement to be present in the parking lot. And why? Because you don’t know if he’s going to follow it, but most likely he’s not.”

Cahill said the psychological toll has been immense—not only for her but also for her 16-year-old daughter, who saw the flyers Anzelc posted near their home and school.

“It was embarrassing for her,” she said. “So it gives me peace of mind knowing that might stop.” 

However, Cahill referenced a 2023 incident where Anzelc’s own mother contacted the office of State Rep. Harry Benton (D-Plainfield), fearing her son might commit a mass casualty event.

“That added to my fear that that’s what he was building up to,” she said. “Once he realized that he couldn’t silence me—and though I was a little afraid—I won’t take it lying down. Once he realized that, I figured he was eventually going to catch me alone or do something at an event that would harm more than just me.”

While Cahill remains determined, she expressed frustration over what she views as political silence from those on the left for whom Anzelc has shown support. 

“Not a word from Harry Benton. If I were a state rep and knew someone in the community might cause a mass casualty event, I’d warn people,” she said. “He didn’t even notify the community.”

However, she praised Plainfield police for taking action earlier this year to ensure Anzelc would not regain access to firearms.

“I’m very thankful for that because he would be armed,” Cahill said. 

The case has stirred broader questions about political extremism, online accountability, and the use of court protections in the digital age. The prolonged harassment has taken a toll on Cahill’s public engagement.

“It’s made me not organize for the past two years,” she said. “I haven’t done any events besides this one coming up. I’ve gone alone or promoted them and not even shown up. It’s hindered my outreach.”

Lanham said such retaliation makes civic participation like his 2024 run for House District 86 feel dangerous.

“Do I want to go through getting 60 fake texts a day?” Lanham said. “People calling my job? Trying to get me fired because they disagree with me? It’s silly. That’s all they’ve got. If they can’t beat us on issues, they try to destroy our lives.”

Cahill’s broader concern is that political violence is escalating nationwide, fueled by deepening ideological divides.

“We’re in a really chaotic point right now, with everything going on—the protests, wanting to remove Trump and Elon,” she said. “It’s only going to get worse over the next few years.”

The order of protection was granted just days after Chicago-based leftist activist Elias Rodriguez traveled to Washington, D.C., where he assassinated two Israeli Embassy staffers.

Lanham drew a direct comparison between Anzelc’s threats and the high-profile case. 

“This is just like that Elias Rodriguez thing,” Lanham said. “These people are so disconnected from reality—they’ll kill. And the judge even said it—this social media stuff leads to real-world violence.”

Elias Rodriguez was charged with two counts of first-degree murder after shooting and killing Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. He was arrested at the scene shouting "Free Palestine!" and faces additional charges, including murder of foreign officials and possible terrorism-related offenses.

Prior to the attack, Elias Rodriguez, an activist who took part in the BLM riots in Chicago, expressed support for Hamas and engaged in violent online rhetoric. The shooting is being investigated as a hate crime.

Earlier this year, Rodriguez’s father, Eric Rodriguez, was brought to Washington by U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García as his guest at President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress, a connection that has drawn criticism of García’s judgment.

Cahill has been politically active since the height of the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots. 

She described one of her first solo protests, standing alone with a “Back the Blue” sign against hundreds of BLM and Antifa rioters.

“Somebody threatened to shoot me,” she said. “It was just me versus about 500 people. And I just walked down the road with the sign and stood there.”

Reflecting on the broader climate of political unrest, Cahill recalled her experiences during the 2020 riots as a stark example of how extremist behavior can blur the lines between activism and violence.

“I was out there in the height of the 2020 riots, and you see people that had disregard for life and just normal human decency—out there committing acts of terrorism, or what should be classified as acts of terror,” Cahill said. “But then go knock on doors to support candidates. So it’s a chaotic world right now, as I keep saying.”

Cahill says she won’t be silenced. While critical of the left’s inaction toward extremists within their ranks, she remains hopeful that bridging political divides is still possible.

“I say all the time—we have more in common than we have different,” Cahill said. “If we put away all the noise and focus on what we have in common, Illinois especially would be way better off.”