Donne Trotter moonlighting mystery deepens

December 7, 2012 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- The moonlighting mystery of State Senator Donne Trotter deepens.

Trotter was arrested at O'Hare Airport Wednesday morning with a pistol in his bag. The ITeam has been looking into Trotter's claim that he worked as a security guard and forgot the gun was there.

Senator Trotter has been in the Illinois General Assembly for 24 years. He is charged with having a gun that no one seems to know he owned to use on a job that no one knew he had. And that is just the beginning of an unsolved mystery that is not being addressed by Trotter nor by the security company where he is listed as an employee.

The Chicago Democrat has been a lawmaker for almost a quarter century in both the state house and senate. In his first ever perp walk this week, Senator Trotter became an accused law breaker. It all started on Wednesday morning at O'Hare, when Transportation Security Administration officers say they spotted a gun in Trotter's carry-on bag.

It was a .25-caliber berretta pistol that Trotter said he forgot was in his bag from the night before, when he told authorities that he had worked a security guard shift for a South Side company.

According to state records, All Points Security and Detective Company currently has more than 50 employees licensed under it to work as armed guards, among them Donne Trotter.

Although many of the state licensees on this list appear to have law enforcement backgrounds, Trotter is not known for that. His bio and campaign disclosures do not list his employment as a security guard, and he has declined to answer any questions about the matter.

All Points has not responded to questions either and has offered no explanation, context or proof of Senator Trotter's actual employment.

Public records reveal the firm has had government contracts, including a $5 million deal to provide armed escorts for CTA cash collections.

The CTA says that it has not renewed another contract for the security company after taking a better bid. The executive director of the company is Don Rashid, a longtime PR man in Chicago. He has no apparent security background either and has not returned the I-Team's calls and e-mails.

Get more I-Team »

i-team, chuck goudie

• Comment Now
• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•