Former Sugar Grove village president allegedly forged occupancy certificate for newly built North Aurora house

SUGAR GROVE – Two felony forgery charges against the former Sugar Grove village president, who now is a trustee, stemmed from the discovery of allegedly forged documents allowing residents to move into a newly built North Aurora house, according to police and court records.

Sean Michels, of the 700 block of Tudor Court, Sugar Grove, who had been village president for 22 years, was charged July 18 after attending a Sugar Grove Village Board meeting, documents show.

Michels, who works for the company that built the home, was accused of making and delivering a forged occupancy certificate to a title company with the intent to defraud, records show. The two charges are Class 3 felonies, punishable by two to five years in prison and fines of up to $25,000, if convicted. The company that employs Michels was not accused of wrongdoing.

Michels was released on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond July 19. He is to appear in court Aug. 11, records show.

Michels did not return a voicemail message seeking comment. Court records do not show that he has an attorney.

When police spoke with Michels on July 18, he “denied all knowledge of the forged Certificate of Occupancy permit,” according to the report. An occupancy certificate is the verification that a property is up to housing and building codes. “Michels was not able to provide an explanation [as] to who would have sent the Certificate of Occupancy,” according to the report.

Community Development Director Nathan Darga and other building department employees said that on July 12, the owner of a newly built home in Moose Lake Estates asked the village about getting a permit to build a pool, but an occupancy certificate had not been issued for that house yet, according to a supplementary report.

The owner had been given an occupancy certificate, dated July 3, at the closing July 7, according to the report.

“A Certificate of Occupancy was not issued by the village due to multiple issues still found by inspectors,” according to the report.

Darga told police the builder could have requested a temporary occupancy certificate, which the village would have issued for the residents to move in, according to the report, because the house was not unsafe.

When Darga and other building officials reviewed the certificate provided by the homeowner, they determined it was forged in order to allow the move-in, according to the report.

Various clues showed it was a forged document, according to the report. The ZIP code format, the permit number and the lot number were all wrong and the date also was formatted incorrectly, according to the report.

The document was purported to have been signed by village building official Paul Zabel. Not only did he did not work a full day July 3 “and could not have signed the document,” the village issued no certificate of occupancies on that day, according to the report.

“It is believed that his signature [Paul Zabel’s] was copied and pasted onto the document and not formally signed,” according to the report.

North Aurora detectives received an email from the title company that had the attached certificate, according to the report.

The email address included the building company’s name, along with Sean Michels’ name in the email’s footer. It also showed the title company’s email to Michels, asking for the occupancy certificate, according to the report.

A title company employee told police they dealt with Michels when working with permits, according to the report.

Officials at the builder told police that “Michels dealt with permits and no one else” from the company did. Company officials also told police that only Michels used the email address in question, according to the report.

According to real estate listings, homes in Moose Lakes Estates range in price from almost $500,000 to almost $770,000.

Sugar Grove Village President Jennifer Konen said she could not comment about Michels’ arrest.