Republicans on the McLean County Board outvoted Democrats on the board eight to seven denying the appointment of Krystle Able to the board at their meeting. She is seeking the seat still and told Cities she was reapplying but didn’t. Now appointed to the district four seat is Jay Ryan Lawler, a Heyworth teacher. The board had to fill the seat with another Democrat. Lawler received a Masters and was an Athletic Director at Heyworth.
“Krystle Able has publicly said that she supports defunding the police,” said Chuck Erickson, McLean County Board member told Cities when she was voted down at a McLean County Board meeting. “Krystle Able is not a good human being. The Democrats like to play definition games. She said she wanted to defund the police. She is one of the most partisan individuals in the world and they send her up. This is what Patrick Cortesi, the chair of the Democrat Party, they send to us one of the most partisan person in their caucus.”
Chuck Erickson said Able tried to change the definition of “defund” and she said she was for “training.”
“We’re not going to play your definition games,” said Erickson.
On social media, Able post “Roses are red, no lives are Blue, defund the police and abolish ICE too.”
The district four seat Able originally applied to was vacated after board member Matt Coates resigned in June. Coates resigned because he accepted an appointment to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.
The appointment of Jay Ryan Lawler, means he keeps the seat until the Nov. 8 election. Will Krystle Able still run?
In a Facebook post Able said, “I’ve been through financial struggles, I’ve been on Medicaid most of my life. I’ve been through more than a decade of family court battles, and been divorced.”
Krystle Dickerson Able has been involved in the circuit court of the 11th Judicial Circuit for quite some time, about 11 years.
Krystle Dickerson Able was not in custody of her two minor children in 2010…instead they were in the custody of their paternal grandparents: Douglas and Theresa Nichols. In June of 2021, Able was sent Interrogatories.
An Interrogatory is a written question which is formally put to one party in a case by another party and which must be answered. It is still being research by Cities why the children were not in her custody.
One question Able was later compelled to answer was: Do you believe it is in the best interest of the minor children for you to share equally in all significant decisions regarding the children’s religion, extra-curricular, medical, dental and psychological needs and education?
Krystle Able did not answer the interrogatories within 28 days and the Nichols’ attorney filed a Motion to Compel her to in August of 2021.
Able is the natural mother of the minor children and Trisitan McGowan is the natural father. McGowan told Cities he would attempt to come after our publication legally after Cities reached out and asked for comment about the case, which is made available for public access.
“I will be sending a cease and desist within 24 hours,” said McGowan.
A source close to the matter said it was a very convoluted case and has been going on for a while but is no longer on-going as of 2021. This source said there was a lot of back-and-fourth between the grandparents, Able and McGowan.
On Aug. 4, 2020 it appears the court entered an “Agree to Order,” which set out to iron out details when it came to parenting time and parental decision making. Able had asked the court for an order of protection against the grandparents in May of 2021…but then a month later permitted that Order to expire.
In December of 2021, a Guard ad Litem was appointed to the case.
A Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) is a volunteer attorney appointed by the court in a case that involves the interest of a child. Some judges assign a GAL to nearly every case; others only do so at the request of one of the parties to the case.
According to documents, the grandparents moved to terminate their guardianship and Able and McGowan had to recognize that that would affect the relationship between the children and their grandparents.
Cities 92.9 asked Able for her thoughts after a McLean County board meeting where she was denied a seat and she said, “I am disappointed that they didn’t take into account that as a slated Democrat candidate for the November ballot as decided by our precinct committee people within the party that I am the Democrat that they wanted, that the party wanted, that the party trusts, that the party stands behind.”
“We took a fair vote. I was the person that was elected to fill that position. The fact that the Republican’s don’t respect that decision when they are required to appoint somebody from the party, and this is who they wanted, is quite disappointing,” Able continued.
