Gary Skoien
Claims to fame: Palatine Township, Illinois, Republican Committeeman; former Cook County Republican Party chairman; two-time failed candidate for U.S. Congress; former executive director, Illinois Capital Development Board; CEO, Horizon Group Properties, Rosemont, Illinois; father of three small children; nobody’s choice for Husband of the Year (’cause, see, he says those two women weren’t prostitutes, so there!)
Moral apex: Caught by wife, Eni, entertaining two “female friends” in the couple’s home — specifically, in the children’s playroom — when Eni came home unexpectedly at 1:15 a.m. on a Sunday in March, 2009.
And? And those “female friends” were, say police, prostitutes. Skoien denied that they were hookers; the police report says he admitted they were — more about that in a moment.
What did Eni do? Went after Skoien with her fists, and then whupped him with a toy guitar.
What happened next: Eni was arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic battery, and Skoien — who says the two were “estranged” and living in separate parts of their house (War of the Roses, anyone?) — took out a restraining order on her.
Skoien, on the other hand, was not charged with engaging in prostitution, for lack of evidence; the two “female friends” were gone by the time the cops arrived — and Skoien wouldn’t tell police who the women were. (About the worst thing that happened: Various local Republicans immediately distanced themselves from Skoien, taking his name off their published lists of endorsements.)
Things that make you go “Hmmm”: Either Skoien has a faulty memory, or the police do — or somebody is lying; he told WBBM Newsradio 780 he was the only person at his home when cops arrived. Oh, and that his wife was plastered when she got there, having been driven home by “somebody.”
And then there’s this: Skoien also said he was going to “talk” to the responding officer to get the “discrepancies” in the police report “fixed.” Something appears to have been “fixed” — perhaps by fate, perhaps by human hand: “Police say there’s no record of Skoien 911 call” (Daily Herald, March 20, 2009)
Anything else? Skoien resigned from his GOP post in 2007, because — he said — of his wife’s diagnosis of breast cancer. If that’s so, shouldn’t he have been sticking by her and working things out instead of bringing home hookers “female friends”?
What about Eni? About a week and a half after the incident, she filed for divorce. And in May, 2009, the battery charge was dropped — because Dear Ex-Hubby failed to appear in court to testify against her. Eni’s defense team — one of whom, ironically, was Conservative Babylonian David Schippers — who said he would give his “right arm to get at this guy,” was not pleased.
For the record:
In 2006, Skoien made headlines when he announced a $10,000 bounty for information leading to the conviction of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. …Candidates backing away from
Skoien after domestic dispute
Daily Herald
March 11, 2009
[The "bounty" remark] got Skoien fired from his real estate job, cost him a seat on the Metra board and resulted in calls for his ouster as county Republican chairman.
But he survived a re-election vote, serving from 2004-to-2007 as the head of Cook County’s Republican party…
— WBBM
Memorable quotes:
“No money was exchanged. Nobody was naked. I’m a politician. You think I’d call police if I weren’t afraid for my life?”— Gary Skoien
“Toy guitar understates it. I thought I was going to die.”
— Gary Skoien
Memorable observations:
Another rising Republican caught in flagrante delicto, well maybe this will deflate his ego a little. I’m sure the rest deflated very quickly when Mrs. Skoien walked in.— Reader comment, Daily Herald
I suppose he represents the “sanctity of marriage” the GOP wants to keep gays from engaging in?
— Reader comment, Daily Herald
The big hole in his latest story is that the two women were not prostitutes. As some others have tried to argure on his behalf the cops lied and sided with the wife.
Yet, he cannot produce these alleged “Friends” nor did they stick around for the police. …
— Reader comment, Daily Herald
I wonder how much money or considerations it took for the 911 recorder to malfunction.
— Reader comment, Daily Herald
Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Skoien:
Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way.
— Ezekiel 16:26-27
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