A threat to the office: Statehouse candidates respond to assassination threat

The Sycamore Republican who was the focus of an assassination threat this summer said he didn’t want that to deter him from serving residents.

In July, a DeKalb man was arrested and charged after police allege he threatened to assassinate state Rep. Jeff Keicher at an event planned at DeKalb High School, according to court records

Forrest R. Brandon, 58, pleaded guilty to one count of threatening a public official, a Class 3 felony, on Sept. 18.

At the time of the guilty plea, Keicher said Brandon’s threat was more than a personal attack but rather “an assault on the very community values that underpin our society.”

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Now more than two months removed from the threat, Keicher, whose districts falls into parts of DeKalb, Kane and McHenry counties, said the situation has caused him to step back and ask “is this all worth it,” particularly as those close to him asked him to reconsider his time in office.

“I’ve had multiple people tell me that ‘for your safety you should just consider being done,’” Keicher said. “We can’t let people threatening other people be the victors in a situation like this, and looking at what it means for our area to have the successes that I’ve had has recommitted me to making sure that we are doing right by all of the citizens of the 70th district.”

Randi Olson, the Democrat and Cortland trustee running against Keicher this fall, said she found the threat disturbing.

“Political violence, I hear more and more about it happening, it’s just unacceptable and it’s very disturbing,” she said. “I don’t know why, what we can do to stop it except for be a good example as a leader. I was happy to see that the SAFE-T Act was working and the fact that the person who made the threat was detained because of his history of making such phone calls.”

Circuit Court Judge Philip Montgomery sentenced Brandon to two years in DeKalb County’s veterans court services program, where he will undergo psychiatric and psychosocial rehabilitation.

If Brandon doesn’t comply with the program, he could be resentenced in two years and receive jail time, according to the ruling. Montgomery also ordered Brandon to be placed on an electronic GPS monitoring device for 90 days. He’ll receive credit for the time he has spent in custody at the DeKalb County jail, where he was held without release after his July 19 arrest.