Lawrence Jackson

A federal grand jury in Chicago has indicted Riverdale Mayor Lawrence Jackson for allegedly lying under oath in a civil deposition and obstructing a civil lawsuit by a former Riverdale waste hauler.

Jackson, 49, of the 14500 block of South Union, Riverdale, was scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday, Nov. 7 at 1:30 p.m. He first won office in 2013, and has been re-elected twice.

According to the indictment, Jackson forced out Tri-State Disposal, Inc, a waste hauling business under contract with the Village since 2012.

When in 2018 Riverdale Materials (Company A-2 in indictment) sought a special-use zoning permit to open a recycling and waste transferring facility in Riverdale, Tri-State, which owned another transfer site less than a mile away, publicly opposed the application, which was eventually granted.

In May 2018, Tri-State emailed a village employee asking why the Village of Riverdale had not contacted them about a scheduled “Spring Clean Up” waste collection.

Instead of immediately responding to Tri-State, Jackson reportedly told the employee not to email back, and instead contacted the Riverdale village administrator, asking if he could “assist me with this.” The administrator said he would, and Jackson replied, “Thx. I will let Tri-State know we are not using them.”

In early May, Jackson arranged for Flood Brothers Disposal of Oak Brook Terrace (Company B in the indictment) to handle the Spring 2018 cleanup for a fee of $18,537, despite the current contract with Tri-State requiring them to handle the spring cleanup for free.

In November 2018, Jackson allegedly caused Riverdale to enter into a contract with Flood Brothers when Tri-State’s contract with the village of Riverdale expired in 2019. In August 2019, the Village of Riverdale announced that Flood Brothers was its new waste hauler.

Tri-State filed a civil lawsuit against Riverdale and Jackson in late 2018, alleging they were dropped in retaliation for their opposition to Riverdale Material’s special-use permit.

In February 2021, Jackson sat for a deposition in the Tri-State lawsuit. Prosecutors allege that during that deposition, Jackson “exchanged text messages with the recycling company’s owner regarding the topics being discussed.”

Jackson’s alleged lies, prosecutors say, “were intended to conceal his relationship with (Riverdale Material’s) owner, including the owner’s extensive involvement in the operations of Centennial Holdings, a trucking company that Jackson and his wife owned on paper, but which was effectively operated by (Riverdale Material’s) owner for Jackson and his wife’s benefit.”

When asked “OK, (Flood Brothers Disposal) gets hired to do the (2018) spring clean up. Do you have anything to do with that?” Jackson reportedly answered, “No. I did not.”

When he was later asked again if he had anything to do with the decision to give the garbage collection business to Flood Brothers, Jackson replied, “Not at all, sir.”

Jackson also allegedly lied that “a Riverdale village administrator introduced him to (Flood Brothers Disposal) and recommended that it replace Tri-State, even though he knew that the (Riverdale Materials’) owner made the introduction and recommendation.”

Jackson faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.