Stroger fires cousin ahead of “media circus”

The Capitol Fax Blog on Friday:

Stronger kinda sorta answered the question this morning…
…in an interview Friday morning on the WLS-AM show “Don Wade & Roma,” Stroger said the controversy stemmed from Tony Cole, a former college basketball star who received a patronage job in late 2008, and was fired after Stroger learned that he had a felony criminal conviction. […]
Stroger said on WLS that since being fired, Cole is “making allegations against

Ms. Dunnings, all of which she tells me are not true.”

Nevertheless, Stroger said he concluded that Dunnings should leave her post, because the revelations would cause a sensational uproar in the media and among county commissioners.

“Being in the position she is, it will become a bit of a media circus. I don’t really think she will be able to perform her duties trying to fight off not only the papers, who would be interested in talking to her, probably, as much as possible, but even the politicians on the board who love to make political hay of anything that happens,” Stroger said.

More…
Stroger won’t detail the allegations or provide information about the relationship between the man and Dunnings. But he says Dunnings has bailed the man out of jail a number of times.

From 2007…

“I don’t care what her name is, what her bloodline is, she has great credentials,” Stroger said.

A comment on the blog:

Tony Cole…..probation violator, wrote bad checks, accused of rape. Yeah, great public servant. Makes you wonder what other characters are on the County payroll.