The officials alleged that he had "sent repeated harassing and threatening emails" to them, and the trial court issued a stalking no contact order, apparently in part because of that. But the "no naming" order covered all speech about the officials (to the public and to third parties), not just threatening speech. And the officials' concerns were apparently in part about the man's "unsupported and outlandish allegations," and his "smearing the name[s]" of the officials, not just about threats.
An excerpt from the long Skertich v. Luffman, decided last week by the Illinois Appellate Court (Justice Michael McHaney, joined by Justices Mark Boie and Mark Clarke):
Mark B. Skertich (Petitioner) … filed a verified petition for stalking no contact order (petition), against the Respondent on behalf of Petitioner and two other protected parties: Laura Bauer and Brad Hyre…. In an attachment to the petition, Petitioner alleged that Respondent had "engaged in escalating and repeated harassing communication and videos towards" Petitioner, Bauer, and Hyre, all of whom were employees of Collinsville CUSD No. 10 (school district), with Petitioner serving as Superintendent, Bauer serving as Principal, and Hyre serving as Assistant Superintendent….
The attachment alleged that Respondent's behavior "caus[ed] extreme concern for [the] safety" of the protected parties and caused "emotional distress." The attachment alleged that on December 16, 2024, Respondent was barred from school district property "for aggressive, intimidating and harassing behavior towards" the protected parties. The attachment specified "aggressive and harassing language" found in "at least 75 emails" sent by Respondent to the protected parties, and detailed the language allegedly used by Respondent in a phone call with Bauer.
The attachment alleged Respondent had "sent repeated harassing and threatening emails totaling 1465 email exchanges on 262 threads to" the protected parties. The attachment further alleged Respondent had (1) sent "repeated emails to multiple federal and state agencies filing complaints with unsupported and outlandish allegations;" (2) sent multiple "emails with harassing allegations" to school district legal counsel, "smearing the name[s]" of the protected parties "and causing significant distress;" and (3) sent copies of the emails to media outlets, elected officials, and others…. The attachment alleged Respondent had received two citations from Collinsville police, one "for online harassment through electronic communications," and one for trespassing on school district property after Respondent was barred from being present on that property.
