Politics Gets Rough in Dolton. Literally.

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Dec 7, 2008 5:45PM

Things are getting heated in Dolton, where the inspector general was attacked by a corrections officer on the street. Inspector general Robert Shaw, twin brother of Dolton's recently deceased mayor Bill Shaw, was allegedly attacked by Elliott R. Kozel, 48, of Chicago who was circulating a petition in support of mayoral candidate Riley Rogers (Riley's nephew Larry knocked Shaw off the Cook County Board of Review a few years ago). Like all similar situations, each party is blaming the other one for the fracas. Though it's still not clear what the cause of the fight was. We guess it was just simple, good old fashion political loathing?

Kozel claims he was being "chased down" by Shaw and called 911, Kozel's attorney, Michael Joyce, said.

"My client was the one battered by them," said Joyce, a former county prosecutor and the son of South Side powerbroker Jeremiah Joyce.

"Shaw grabbed him by the jacket. My client pulled away and ran in the middle of the street. He did not punch Shaw. Police arrived, and Shaw said, 'I want him arrested.'"

But Shaw called Kozel's version of events "asinine."

Shaw said he was driving with Dolton's supervisor of public works, Curtis Denton, when they saw two "suspicious-looking" men in a parked car. Denton stopped to ask the men what they were doing, but Kozel allegedly got out of his car and approached in a menacing way, Shaw said.

"I told [Kozel] if he attacked Mr. Denton, he would be under arrest," Shaw said. "At that point, he hit me in my shoulder with his fist."

Nothing like a physical confrontation to make an election interesting! Personally, we're waiting for the Madigan-Blogjevich grudge match. We bet Patti could do a rockin' Miss Elizabeth impression.