While Governor J.B. Pritzker refuses to stand up for the rights of victims of crime, neglects the suffering of their families, and is content to watch as crime continues to plague our streets, Kendall County Board Chairman, Scott Gryder supports local law enforcement, understands the needs of victims and their families, and is determined to end the tragic cycle of crime and neglect in Illinois.

Today, in light of J.B. Pritzker’s recent defense of his Prisoner Review Board, notorious for paroling cop killers among others undeserving of relief, Chairman Gryder issued the following statement:

“Governor J.B Pritzker is off base on his comments related to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. The crimes committed have real and lasting effects on the fabric of a community and I am here to tell you that the statements made are not just disingenuous but flat out wrong.

On April 26, 2018, the Illinois Prisoner Review board voted to grant the murderer who committed the most violent mass murder in Kendall County history, Carl Allan Reimann, parole. I blasted this terrible, inconsiderate, uncompassionate decision at the time along with law enforcement and families so deeply affected at the time.

For background, on December 29, 1972, Reimann and his accomplice Betty Piche robbed a restaurant on the corner of Route 47 and 34 in Yorkville and took $694.71. According to statements, without warning, he started shooting. When he stopped firing, Robert Loftus, who had survived World War II was dead, David Gardner, a father and husband and father was dead, George Pashade, a retired cook was dead, John Wilson, a bartender was dead and last but certainly not least, 16-year-old Catherine Rekate, a 16 year old high school junior who was earning extra money on her Christmas break, was dead.

On top of this heinous, barbaric, and cold-blooded murder, Reimann, had previously violated parole for another crime. These murders tore at the very fabric of our community. An innocence lost and scar for those who remember that has never fully healed.

Governor Pritzker is quoted as having said Republicans are hyper focusing on the original crime and ignoring everything else “including what the victims’ statements have been, including the victims’ families’ statements”. Yet gives his prisoner review board a free pass who recklessly disregarded law enforcement and families statements to let Reimann go free.

Pritzker is further quoted as saying “It’s very easy to just say this person committed an awful crime some many years ago and to say we’re going to throw away the key and leave them all in prison”. But it really is not, that takes real courage. Real courage to look at an aged criminal and remember he is not the friendly grandfather looking person you see in a photo but rather a mass murderer who deprived not just the five individuals who died that terrible night of their lives, but countless others.

It's time to stop the attack on victims’ rights in Illinois. It’s time to hold Governor Pritzker and his Illinois Parole Board cohorts accountable. It’s time to show real courage by standing up to this bullying and send a message that we will not take it anymore. That safety is paramount, that we support law enforcement, that we support victims and in Illinois, this assault on our safety and security must end."

Gryder is seeking the Republican nomination in the upcoming primary to challenge Lauren Underwood for the future of Illinois’ 14th Congressional District.

To learn more about Scott Gryder’s campaign for the safety and security of our communities and our loved ones, please visit: www.scottgryder.com.