DuPage County sheriff candidate Eddie Moore was identified as the “primary aggressor” in a late-night New Year’s Eve bar brawl that left a security guard with a broken finger, according to police reports obtained by the DuPage Policy Journal through a FOIA request.
Walworth County, Wis., deputies said they responded in the early hours of Jan. 1, 2021, to a call from the Evolve Bar at the Grand Geneva Resort about a fight that had left an employee injured but was no longer in progress.
Vivid accounts and Moore’s own words place him squarely at the heart of a night of chaos.
“(Moore) was trying to go after another individual,” Deputy Nicholas J. Patrick wrote in his report of the incident. “The subject’s friend and a security guard tried holding him back. The Security guard’s left ring finger was broken. The finger was bent in a not normal position.”
Deputies reported that Moore initially withheld his role as undersheriff of the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office and, along with a companion, “showed signs of intoxication; blood shot eyes, slurred speech.”
“The security guards that I spoke to stated that Edmond was yelling and was the primary aggressor,” Patrick wrote.
At the time, Moore, a 30-year veteran of the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office, had been serving in his current role as undersheriff for less than a year overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Sheriff’s Office.
In his report, Patrick noted the security guard “grabbed onto Edmond and tried pulling him back to prevent him from getting at the other individual, which is what caused his injury.”
Moore, who was placed under arrest and cited in the incident, disputed the allegations.
“Edmond stated there was no fight,” Patrick wrote in his report. “Edmond said he has no idea how [REDACTED] finger got injured. Edmond stated that he made no contact whatsoever.”
Moore was with a friend at the bar who told responding officers that he had gotten into an altercation with a fellow patron in the bathroom which spilled out into the bar.
“He went into the bathroom to check on Edmond because he was in there for a while,” Patrick wrote. “Nicholas stated that in the bathroom Edmond was arguing with another individual. Nicholas stated that it was getting heated so he grabbed Edmond to pull him out.”
Moore, who is the first senior administrator in the Sheriff’s Office to join the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, told responding officers the argument erupted after someone made “racial comments.”
“(Moore) said he came out of the stall and ended up out of the bathroom in the main hallway,” Patrick’s report reads. “(Moore) stated that it got loud. (Moore) stated that his friend and wife pulled him back due to the argument.”
Moore received an ordinance citation for disorderly conduct, rather than a state-level charge, after deputies accounted for his role as DuPage County undersheriff.
Patrick said Moore had first ignored questions about the badge in his wallet but later identified himself as undersheriff of the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office “just in case he went to jail he didn’t want to get killed.”
Moore announced his candidacy for sheriff in March after Jim Mendrick decided to run for Illinois governor.
Moore will face municipal officer Sean Noonan, a patrol sergeant with the Oakbrook Terrace Police Department and DuPage County Board Member, in the Republican primary on March 17, while former Cook County deputy Robert Carroll and retired DuPage deputy Peter Coolidge vie for the Democrat nomination.
Read the full incident report HERE.
