Agpawa says next steps include taking his fight to the Illinois Supreme Court

Markham Mayor Roger Agpawa is fighting a Illinois Appellate Court decision that he is ineligible to hold office because of a mail fraud conviction in the 1990s.
Markham Mayor Roger Agpawa is fighting a Illinois Appellate Court decision that he is ineligible to hold office because of a mail fraud conviction in the 1990s.

Agpawa says next steps include taking his fight to the Illinois Supreme Court

BY TIA CAROL JONES
    Roger Agpawa won the April 6 mayoral election in the city of Markham. But recently, the Illinois Appellate Court ruled he’s ineligible to hold municipal office based on a mail fraud conviction.
   Agpawa is a longtime Markham resident who has been the fire chief in Country Club Hills and who was the first Black fire chief in Markham. He also ran for alderman in Markham in 1995 and in 2017, he became more involved in politics.
    Having lived in Markham since the 1960s, he said he saw the downturn of the community throughout the years, adding he wanted to be a part of the solution, which prompted him to run for mayor.
    He said, he feels there’s some disenfranchisement when it comes to returning citizens, adding he was on probation for three years, did 200 community service hours and paid $20,000 back.
    “I made the mistake, but I also paid it back. I paid it back with my life. I certainly paid it back with my name. I destroyed my name in some places and had to rebuild it in the community,” he said. “At the time, I felt that constitutionally, I had a right to run. I should’ve not had to serve a life sentence and not be able to serve my community.”
    Agpawa said he was going to run until somebody told him that he couldn’t. “I challenged the constitutionality of it, because I think it is unfair for any offender of anything to serve and then you’re treated as a second or even third class, fourth class in this case … a caste system is almost what felons run into,” he said. “I ran on that premise.”
     In 2018, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed a “Restoration of Rights of Citizenship,” which can be used to restore voting rights or additional civil rights to someone with a previous felony conviction, such as holding public office. However, a pardon for a mail fraud conviction can only be granted by the president of the United States under Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution. Additionally, presidential pardons only apply to federal offenses and not state offenses.
     Agpawa went on to say that he received 74 percent of the votes in the election, adding the people see what he is trying to do for the city, further contending that he has proven himself. “They’re buying into their own city and that has been a good thing for us,” he said.
    He added that he’s hopeful that they can stay the order that has ruled he is ineligible to hold public office. His next steps include going to the Illinois Supreme Court. “If we get through this, which I think we will, just another bump in the road to having to deal with. Maybe it needed this kind of polarization so people understand how important it is, so we don’t lose something like this,” he said.

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