Lakin “Sex Accusation,” Still Investigated, Prosecutor Says

BY NICHOLAS J.C. PISTOR

Tom Lakin on April 23, 2007, after turning himself in to authorities and posting bond following his federal indictment.

EDWARDSVILLE, IL • After a 15-year-old boy accused one of Metro East's most powerful political figures of arranging to watch him have sex with women and then engaging him in a sex act, a state prosecutor vowed a swift investigation. Four years later, the promise remains, but the investigation is unfinished against Tom Lakin, a multimillionaire lawyer and big-time Democratic Party bankroller who was once at the pinnacle of Madison County's renowned personal injury litigators. Lakin did land in federal prison on a drug conviction. And he is being sued in civil court over the sex claims. But that suit has been stalled, its lawyer says, by the unfinished state case. "We can't proceed with our civil suit with the state saying it's considering prosecution," lamented Ed Unsell, an East Alton lawyer representing the boy, now 20, in a suit filed in 2006. "This boy needs vindication," Unsell insisted. Charles Colburn, a lawyer with the Illinois Office of the State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor, confirmed in a recent interview that its probe is still moving forward. He blamed difficulties in obtaining some unspecified piece of federal evidence for the delay. The investigation was initially stymied by issues of conflicts of interest and overlapping investigations, most of which were sorted out years ago. Lakin, who once headed the powerful Lakin Law Firm in Wood River, pleaded guilty in 2008 in federal court of possession with the intent to deliver cocaine, distributing cocaine to a person under 21 and maintaining a drug-involved premises. In exchange for that plea, federal prosecutors dropped their sole sex-related charge, that claimed Lakin took a minor to his second home in Malibu, Calif., with the intent of having oral sex. That allegation involved the same boy, a family friend, who said Lakin set up sexual encounters with women, young and old, to watch in 2005 and directly engaged in oral sex acts with him. The bulk of allegations involve incidents at Lakin's home in East Alton, thus falling under Illinois statutes. The allegations were reported to the Illinois State Police in 2005, but no charges were filed. William Mudge, the Madison County state's attorney, said at the time he was given only a "very general claim" and never a formal police report to act upon. Mudge later declined to get involved because the law firm where he worked before he was appointed state's attorney 2002 — Lucco, Brown & Mudge — had represented Lakin in his second divorce. The case was handed over to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who also declined, reportedly citing conflicts of her own that included $66,000 in campaign donations from the Lakin family that was in addition to a $5,695 donation of airplane use for her campaign, estimated to be worth $5,695. Mudge ultimately asked that a special prosecutor be appointed. Lakin, 70, is serving his six-year drug sentence in a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, and is set for release in November 2013. He and his lawyers have long denied the sex-related allegations — which carry heavy penalties — and have pledged to fight them. The dropping of the sex-related claim from the federal case was widely considered a personal victory. Federal prosecutors also dropped, without explanation, their initial requirement that Lakin cooperate in other investigations involving judges and lawyers in Madison and St. Clair counties. Colburn, the special prosecutor, said, "It's an unusual case where the suspect is in custody." He suggested there is no pressing need to keep Lakin behind bars. Stephanee Smith, a spokeswoman for the Madison County state's attorney's office, said the cost of the special prosecutor is included in a flat fee of $30,000, based on population, paid to support the appellate prosecutor's office.