Geneva political advisor seeks to have domestic battery charges dismissed

GENEVA – A Geneva political campaign adviser who was charged with domestic battery after police said they saw him push his wife filed court papers seeking to have the charges dismissed, asserting that the facts do not constitute the charges.

Jeffrey N. Ward, 59, of the 100 block of Abbey Lane, Geneva, was charged June 2 after Ward and his wife went to the scene of an accident their son had on June 1 in the area of 2700 Keslinger Road, according to police records.

According to police reports, Ward “pushed her forcefully … with both hands. His hands made contact with her in the area of her right shoulder and lower neck area. The push caused [her] to lose her balance and take a few steps back to her left,” the police report stated.

In the motion to dismiss filed July 2 by Ward’s attorney Brick Van Der Snick, Ward’s wife denied that her husband pushed or harmed her in any way.

Van Der Snick also filed in the court record Ward’s wife’s voluntary statement to police, which stated in part, “He has been harassed by the Geneva police for over a decade.”

“This frustration with the police’s treatment of him resulted in him moving me aside when I talked to him,” according to Ward’s wife’s statement. “At no time was I threatened or in danger. His attention was on the officer. There was absolutely no violence involved in the act. There is no way his actions can be construed as violent, threatening, abusive or any kind of battery. This is yet another attempt by the Geneva police to harass him.”

Geneva police had denied a Freedom of Information Act request from the Kane County Chronicle seeking a copy of Ward’s wife’s voluntary statement. The exemption cited in the denial was that it would violate the right to a fair trial.

Van Der Snick also filed a sworn statement from Ward’s wife – as “the alleged victim” – that restates most of her voluntary statement.

The motion to dismiss also states that Ward’s wife did not want to press charges against him and that she consented to being moved out of the way at the accident scene involving their son.

Judge Clayton Lindsey from the 15th Circuit in Ogle County is scheduled to hear the case.

A status hearing is scheduled for July 13.

Court records show the Kane County Chief Judge Susan Clancy Boles ordered that a judge outside the 16th Circuit be substituted for a Kane County judge for this case, as she did in a case last year involving Ward.

In December, a DeKalb Circuit Court Judge found Ward not guilty of disorderly conduct for falsely telling a 911 operator that he had a gun, upholding a defense request for a directed verdict.