MADISON COUNTY, Ill. — Kristin Poshard was new on the job as head of community development in Madison County in 2017, but she was no political novice. She expected that a meeting with county board member Phillip Chapman at a Cracker Barrel restaurant one May morning would be about business.
Instead, she wrote in a federal lawsuit filed in March, Chapman arrived with a stack of Post-It notes that outlined a series of intimate questions.
She wrote they included questions like, “How does Phil feel about Kristin?” and “How does Phil feel when Kristin hugs him?”
As he ran through these questions, court documents state she became increasingly uncomfortable, particularly with Chapman’s last question: “What kind of underwear am I [Phil] wearing?”
According to the lawsuit, Chapman answered his own question with, “Black thong.”
Poshard wrote that this began a pattern of harassment and dismissive responses from Madison County officials that eventually led to her firing. The I-TEAM is learning more about the events from a leaked report that county officials didn’t want in the public eye.
The investigative report, written by Judge James Hackett, details Poshard’s claim that she was continually harassed by an elected county board member. It also includes new accounts from the people who received her complaints, including county board chairman Kurt Prenzler.
Poshard wrote that the first time she tried to get help from a county official was just a week after the Cracker Barrel meeting. She said that she asked not to be paired with Chapman for an upcoming golf tournament.
She alleged that the official told her to “take one for the team.”
Poshard skipped the golf event, and she claimed that Chapman continued to text her personal phone and randomly showed up in her office. In the investigative report, she wrote that she feared an assault and began working in darkened rooms or in an office closet to avoid interacting with Chapman.
The county’s lead human resources position is currently vacant. And although the county has procedures for responding to sexual harassment complaints, Poshard’s attorney Fern Wolf said, “They certainly didn’t follow them.”
“She was told something would be done about it,” said Wolf.
The investigative report says that county officials allowed Poshard to work remotely during the investigation.
A month after Judge Hackett submitted the report, the Madison County Board placed Poshard on administrative leave. On October 18, 2017, they voted to fire her. Chapman abstained from the vote.
The report was supposed to be confidential. But in a sworn affidavit, submitted in a lawsuit filed by the county auditor, former county contractor Brad Van Hoose claimed that county leaders leaked it to him.
“They must’ve wanted it out there by getting it in my hands. I’m really not known for keeping a secret,” said Van Hoose.
He wrote in the affidavit that a county employee handed the report to him in November or December 2018. Van Hoose said he didn’t read it until months later, but when he did, he wanted to expose Poshard’s account and what he believed to be the connection to her firing.
Van Hoose wondered whether it had an impact on Chapman’s career, too.
“Mr. Prenzler, after this incident, went ahead and appointed him to two or three other committees,” he said. “I was like, 'You’re giving him more now? Rewarding him?'”
When the I-TEAM’s PJ Randhawa asked Prenzler about it, he insisted that the number of committees Chapman sat on was typical of a board member.
“When people are accused, they are presumed innocent,” said Prenzler.
But about the behavior alleged in Poshard’s account, he added, “Everyone in the county knows that's not appropriate.”
Prenzler said that the board has looked into ways of removing Chapman. He said there doesn’t appear to be any way to remove a sitting elected board member from office.
Ultimately, the investigative report concluded that the county is required to act on the allegations, but that “there is insufficient evidence to conclude that sexual harassment, as outlined in county policies, has occurred.”
Poshard is taking Madison County to court on allegations of discrimination and retaliation, and legal bills for the county are climbing.
Invoices from private attorneys hired to assist the county, starting with Poshard’s initial Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints, add up to more than $70,000 so far.
Since the report leaked, several county officials have sworn under oath that they had no part in releasing it to Van Hoose.
The I-TEAM contacted Chapman for his side of the story, and he declined to comment.
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