Roudell Kirkwood
Introduction
Roudell Kirkwood is a former Waukegan alderman who represented the city’s Fourth Ward from May 2019 to May 2023 and pleaded guilty to forgery and official misconduct after an investigation found he had falsified liquor and video-gambling licence applications by concealing that he sat on the city council. Lake County Circuit Court Judge Mark Levitt accepted the plea deal on 28 October 2026, resolving Class 3 felony charges each punishable by up to five years in prison with a sentence of two years of conditional discharge and $1,169 in fines and assessments.
Background Information
Kirkwood served one term as alderman of Waukegan’s Fourth Ward while also serving as president of Mac Dynasty Inc., a company that operated a Lake County restaurant with an operating bar and video gaming terminals. The dual role — elected official and licensed gaming-business operator — sat at the center of the case: the applications he was charged with falsifying all failed to disclose the very council seat that gave him a say over Waukegan’s own liquor and gaming approvals. A Lake County grand jury indicted him in 2022 after an investigation by the Illinois State Police Statewide Gaming Command and the Illinois Gaming Board.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted by guilty plea; felony forgery and official misconduct.
The state investigation found that in 2019 and 2020, Kirkwood falsified liquor and video gaming license applications for his restaurant business by hiding that he was a sitting member of the Waukegan City Council. The three forgery counts he pleaded guilty to all occurred in 2019 and concerned applications where he did not disclose his public office: a Waukegan liquor license application, an Illinois Gaming Board video gaming location disclosure application, and an Illinois Liquor Control Commission retailer application.
A fourth count, official misconduct, stemmed from Kirkwood failing to disclose that he was a public official on a video gaming location disclosure application while serving in his official capacity as an alderman. The charge carried a distinct weight because the concealment occurred, prosecutors said, in the same period he was performing the duties of the ward office — the disclosure was not a bureaucratic slip on an obscure form but the withholding of his elected status from the state regulator that licenses the gambling machines his restaurant profited from.
Kirkwood agreed to a sentence of two years of conditional discharge — a revocable release under court-set conditions without probation supervision — in exchange for the guilty pleas to the forgery and official misconduct counts. He was ordered to pay $1,169 in fines and assessments. Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser was appointed special prosecutor, with Assistant State’s Attorneys Robert Dore and John Frank handling the prosecution in Lake County.
Public Reaction and Consequences
Special prosecutor Jamie Mosser framed the plea in terms of the public-trust breach: “Public officials are entrusted with serving their communities honestly and with integrity. By falsifying applications and concealing his status as an elected official, Mr. Kirkwood violated the public’s trust and undermined the standards expected of those who hold public office.” She added that “public officials must be held to the highest standards of honesty and accountability, and no one is above the law,” thanking the state police gaming command, the Illinois Gaming Board and the Illinois Liquor Control Commission for the investigation.
By the time of the plea, Kirkwood was already out of office — his Fourth Ward term had ended in May 2023, more than three years before the conviction. The guilty plea converts what had been pending felony charges since 2022 into a formal criminal record for a former city lawmaker, in a case that ran through two prosecutors’ offices and two state regulators.
Current Status
Kirkwood’s conviction is final at the trial-court level: Judge Levitt accepted the plea deal on 28 October 2026, and the sentence of two years of conditional discharge plus $1,169 in fines is in effect. The felony convictions for forgery and official misconduct are adjudicated findings, though the conditional-discharge sentence means no prison time was imposed. He has not publicly commented on the plea, and no appeal had been reported as of the week of the sentencing.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Kirkwood’s political career had already lapsed before the conviction, but the guilty plea attaches a felony record — for conduct the special prosecutor called a violation of the public’s trust — to the term he served representing Waukegan’s Fourth Ward. The case also illustrates the conflict his concealed dual role created: an alderman who votes on nothing about the city’s liquor and gaming licences may still sit across from the state regulators who issue them, and the Illinois Gaming Board’s investigation showed the disclosure rules applied to him regardless.
Sources
- Chronicle Media, “Former Waukegan alderman pleads guilty to forgery, misconduct.” source