Kincaid Mayor Doug Thomas appeared in court Tuesday afternoon for the hearing on the official misconduct charge that was recently filed by the State. Illinois State Police Special Agent Deanna Harton took the stand to give her account of the situation. Harton said that around the time of the February 2014 violation of the order of protection investigation, she was also investigating the official misconduct charges against former Police Chief Richard Adams and was talking to employees of the Kincaid water/sewer department. During the conversation, the employees said that sometime in August of 2011, the Mayor reportedly asked them for help removing some concrete from the basement of his residence at 114 Cherry which the employees allegedly knew was his home. The water/sewer employees used a concrete saw that was owned by the City and removed the concrete while on City time.  

The employees reportedly told Harton that this was a common practice for them to do work for the Mayor and said they did other tasks such as fixing his garage and hauling scrap metal. Harton said she asked them if they ever thought that it was wrong or to deny Thomas's request in which they replied that since he was the Mayor and he had the ability to fire them, they did as he asked.  Harton said the exact time and day the work was done was unknown and that it took approximately 1 ½ to 2 hours to complete. Judge Brad Paisley ruled that the probable cause existed. Thomas pleaded not guilty to the charge. In addition to the official misconduct charge, Thomas faces 2 counts of possession of a controlled substance and 1 charge of violation of an order of protection. Thomas will appear back in court on July 31 at 10:00am for pre-trial and August 18 at 8:30am for jury trial.