Still on public payroll after demanding sex acts for phony job

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Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski, left, and convicted felon Felice "Phil" Vanaria, right, in 2010.

Updated: May 13, 2011 1:31PM

A convicted felon ordered to receive treatment for sex addiction — who also was a political operative for Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski — has been working for months at an indoor sports facility owned by the southwest suburban Village of McCook, where Tobolski is mayor.

The felon, Felice “Phil” Vanaria, 52, who has a history of complaints against him by women, said in an interview that Tobolski hired him for the part-time manager-on-duty job at the massive sports facility, which caters to thousands of children and adults in the Chicago area.

“I just needed a job to support my family,” Vanaria said in a brief interview while he was working at the McCook Athletic & Exposition Center, known as the Max.

“I have bills out the yin-yang,” Vanaria said.

When the Sun-Times asked the Village of McCook about Vanaria’s employment at the Max, it denied in writing, twice, that it has any records showing the village had hired Vanaria or paid him any money.

Vanaria said he’s paid between $15 and $16 an hour.

Tobolski has had several family members working at the Max, including his wife.

Tobolski declined to respond in detail to questions, calling it a personnel matter. But he acknowledged knowing about Vanaria’s criminal past and said the village has researched whether it was legal to hire him and found it was.

In 2007, Vanaria pleaded guilty to official misconduct and bribery for demanding that a 21-year-old massage therapist perform a sex act on him in exchange for a county job that in reality did not exist.

In a statement, Michael T. Del Galdo, special counsel to McCook, drew a distinction between the crimes Vanaria pleaded guilty to and an actual sex crime.

“Mr. Vanaria did NOT plead guilty nor was he convicted of a sexually based crime and he successfully completed all requirements of his probation,” Del Galdo wrote.

“It is my understanding that Mr. Vanaria has been a model employee, which lends credence to the notion that persons deserve a second chance,” Del Galdo added.

Del Galdo said Tobolski was not involved in hiring Vanaria and contended proper procedures were followed. No one involved in hiring Vanaria knew the history of complaints against him, Del Galdo said.

As to why the village did not provide salary or employment information on Vanaria, Del Galdo said, “It is my understanding that Mr. Vanaria is not an employee of the Village of McCook, but rather an employee of the Max, which is operated independently from the village.”

The village, though, has previously provided salary information about managers at the village-owned Max. The village had the legal research done on whether Vanaria could be hired. And village officials have not always drawn such a fine distinction.

“This is now our building!” Tobolski wrote about the Max in a 2008 village newsletter.

Vanaria was listed on a letter as the chairman of a golf fund-raising event for Tobolski, who ran successfully last November against Republican Tony Peraica for Cook County Board.

In the brief interview, Tobolski defended Vanaria and his past: “I understand he’s been dragged through the mud for this before.”

Vanaria has a long history as a political operative and government worker, despite numerous women complaining he had pressured them for sex in exchange for favors or government jobs.

He has worked as a precinct captain and for Joseph Mario Moreno when Moreno was a Cook County commissioner, according to court records.

After pleading guilty to his crimes, Vanaria was sentenced to 30 months of probation and ordered not to work in any government or political job — a prohibition that ended just months before he got his latest government job in McCook.

When told of Vanaria’s latest job, his victim, Krystal Almaguer, was dismayed, saying in an interview, “This man is a threat.”

“They just keep on giving him new government jobs,” she said. “It’s not protecting anybody.”

Vanaria’s job at the indoor sports facility is at least his fifth government job. His previous four were with Cook County government.

Over the last two decades, Cook County has hired Vanaria for job after job despite woman after woman complaining to county officials that Vanaria pressured them for sex by offering them favors or government work.

Vanaria’s last Cook County government job was as a continuing medical education coordinator at the county’s Oak Forest Hospital. He worked there when he committed his crimes against Almaguer. Vanaria’s supervisor acknowledged in a court deposition that Vanaria was not qualified for the job and was a political hire “from downtown.”

The deposition arose from a pending sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit Almaguer has filed with her attorneys, Dana Kurtz and Heidi Sleper, against Vanaria and Cook County.

The Sun-Times does not, as a policy, name victims of sex-related crimes, but Almaguer asked that the Sun-Times use her name because she said she wanted to make more personal and real what often can be an anonymous crime.

In a deposition, Vanaria readily admitted to engaging in “similar conduct” in other county jobs that he did with Almaguer.

“And you had engaged in similar conduct when you worked at Adult Probation?” one of Almaguer’s attorneys, Kurtz, asked him.

“Correct,” Vanaria said.

“You had engaged in similar conduct even at Oak Forest Hospital?”

“Correct,” he said.

Vanaria briefly worked for the Cook County Highway Department, according to court records, before going to work for Cook County Adult Probation from the mid-1980s throughout the 1990s.

At Adult Probation, officials received at least three complaints from female probationers about his conduct, according to his deposition. He was forced out of that job.

After Vanaria began to work at the hospital in 2005, at least two women, in addition to Almaguer, said Vanaria harassed them or worse.

One woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said in an interview that in 2005, Vanaria had offered her a government job, and during a meeting at his office at Oak Forest Hospital asked her for a kiss.

When the woman reluctantly went to give him a peck on the check, Vanaria turned his head and stuck his tongue in her mouth, she said.

“He can be very dangerous to young women out there,” said the woman, who said she was strung along for months about the job, which turned out not to exist.

“He has a good con,” the 48-year-old suburban Chicago woman said.

In the incident that got him in the most trouble, Vanaria was arrested in February 2007 after Orland Park police caught him in a sting operation they set up. He was demanding another “special massage” from Almaguer.

Vanaria told her the county job he promised her was going to be at a higher salary than he originally said, and he wanted something in return, according to police records.

In his deposition, Vanaria acknowledged that in a previous meeting with Almaguer he tried to perform a sex act on her and criticized her for a lack of enthusiasm.

“You then told her, ‘I can tell you’re not into this. You’re just lying there.’ Correct?” Almaguer’s attorney, Kurtz, asked him.

“Correct,” Vanaria said.

“You told her, ‘You obviously don’t want this job bad enough,’ correct?”

“Something to that effect,” Vanaria said.

Vanaria went to great lengths to fool Almaguer, police records show. He gave her an official job application form and insurance information. He also had a close female friend speak with Almaguer and pretend to be from Cook County Human Resources.

Almaguer said in an interview that at times she was “terrified” of Vanaria, whom she had met through a massage therapy client of hers who was a friend of Vanaria.

Vanaria’s criminal past worries some parents who take their children to the Max.

“Based on what I know about him, I wish he wasn’t there,” said one parent, who requested anonymity. “He’s in a position of authority, and he’s used his position of authority in the past for sex.”

Vanaria said no one has anything to worry about.

“I am fine. I went to the classes. I paid my dues,” he said.

“I love the kids. I love the parents. I love my job.”