Fight over Rosemont casino to go before judge in Cook

Dennis Conrad

Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2000 | 5:03 a.m.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - A legal dispute over a proposed riverboat casino for a Chicago suburb will be heard in Cook County, a defeat for developers in neighboring Lake County who had wanted their lawsuit to go before a judge there.

The state Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected without explanation a petition from the Lake County developers seeking an order to have their lawsuit to block a Rosemont casino be heard in Lake County.

The move upheld a state appellate court ruling last May that the suit filed by Lake County Riverboat L.P. should go to a judge in Cook County, where both Rosemont and the regulatory Illinois Gaming Board are located.

The gaming board, Rosemont, and Emerald Casino Inc., the Rosemont developers, had maintained that the lawsuit should go before a Cook judge.

"We welcome the decision and we look forward to the litigation being resolved as soon as possible," said board spokesman Gene O'Shea. "I don't know how long it will take."

Even though a time-consuming legal hurdle has been removed, there is still much room for further legal wrangling.

Michael Docterman, an attorney for the Lake County developers, said his clients would not seek a rehearing from the Supreme Court, and he said he was hopeful a Cook judge might hear the lawsuit as early as November.

"Whichever way a (circuit) court rules, eventually the case is going to find its way back to the Illinois Supreme Court," he said. "That could take a while. It could be years."

Rosemont attorney William Quinlan said his next step would be to attempt to have a Cook County judge dismiss the lawsuit as soon as possible.

Even before the Supreme Court ruling, a final decision on the Emerald Casino license application for Rosemont had been placed on the gaming board's agenda for its Oct. 17 meeting. O'Shea was unsure what effect, if any, the high court's action would have on the board's plans.

The Lake County developers had asked the Supreme Court to block action by the gaming board, saying it should wait until the lawsuit was resolved.

It has been more than a year since Emerald Casino applied to move the license for its defunct East Dubuque riverboat to Rosemont.

But the deal has been tied up in court since last October, when the rival development group from Lake County filed a lawsuit challenging the state law that laid the groundwork for the move.

Rosemont Mayor Donald Stephens said Tuesday he was questioned by the gaming board staff last Friday about his role in trying to bring the casino to his community near O'Hare International Airport.

"They focused mainly on how the legislation got passed, which I don't think is in their purview," Stephens said. "But if they want to ask, they can ask."

Stephens said he told the gaming board staff, including an investigator, that he didn't care who owned the casino, as long as it ran like a "first-class operation."

Gaming officials declined to talk about the interview.