Casey Urlacher has been the mayor of Mettawa since 2013. Mettawa, which is about an hour north of Chicago, is a small community of 556 people and only 5.2 square miles, according to the 2020 census.
In February 2020, Casey Urlacher was one of 10 people charged with operating an illegal gambling business in the Chicago suburbs. Urlacher’s alleged role wasn’t at the top of the food chain, but he was accused of being near the top as a recruiter of bettors, a facilitator of payments and a recipient of a portion of the gamblers’ losses, according to ABC7 Chicago.
“He wasn’t at the top of the pyramid here, but he was very much important, it seems, in the operation of the enterprise, as charged in this indictment,” said Gil Soffer, the TV station’s legal analyst.
Urlacher, 41, was one of 140 people pardoned by Trump just a few hours before the former president left the White House. This cleared the path for Urlacher to run for reelection as mayor on April 6 as a write-in candidate. He wasn’t going to pursue the unpaid position as long as charges loomed, but said he would “now that my life is free and clear from any legal hurdles.”
The state senate position pays around $69,000 a year with a per diem of $151 a day.
Among the other nine people charged in the multi-million dollar sports gambling business was a Chicago police officer named Nicholas Stella, the report continued. Charlie Beck, who was the interim CPD superintendent at the time, said no one in their positions should consider themselves above the law.
“Those who enforce the law should understand more than anyone the importance of following the law,” Beck said at the time. “The allegations against suspended police officer Nicholas Stella are very serious and if proven, they undermine everything the men and women in the Chicago Police Department represent.”
Urlacher has run for state senate before, falling short in the 2016 Republican primary race to Dan McConchie, who still leads the district in the northwest Chicago suburbs. In that race, McConchie won a very tight contest over Urlacher and Martin McLaughlin. McConchie received 13,641 votes (36.58 percent), Urlacher received 12,236 votes (32.81%) and McLaughlin received 11,418 votes (30.62%).
Newsweek reached out to Urlacher’s office.
