Harvey alderman arrested for allegedly assaulting city worker

HARVEY, Ill. (WLS) -- An alderman in suburban Harvey was arrested for allegedly assaulting a city worker. The attack was caught on a security camera and that alderman has been in trouble with the law before.

Alderman Lamont Brown was arrested by Harvey police and held for just over an hour Tuesday afternoon. He is a suspect in an assault case now under investigation by the Cook County Sheriff's Department.

"I feared for my life because he has a background," said Samuel Patterson, a Harvey city worker.

Patterson was on his lunchbreak inside the gas station on 147th Street. The surveillance camera video - with no sound - shows a man in a top coat that Harvey police identify as 4th Ward Alderman Lamont Brown following Patterson around the store.

"I'm telling him, 'Leave me alone'. He would not leave me alone," Patterson said.

ABC7's Charles Thomas asks: Did he ever lay hands on you?

"His fingers, as you when you pay attention to the video, you can see his fingers touch me," Patterson said.

Another Harvey employee, Patterson's brother Shaun, intervened and described Alderman Brown's demeanor.

"He was more of, looking like a thug to me, like he wanted to do something," Shaun Patterson said.

Brown was elected last year despite having pleaded guilty to two felonies: selling illegal drugs and possession of a stolen automobile during the 1990s.

While felons are barred from holding city offices in Illinois, Brown is fighting in court to have his record expunged and to keep his Harvey City Council seat.

"You cannot let your past hold your future hostage," Brown said in June 2015.

"If you care a convicted felon, you cannot hold municipal office in the state of Illinois. He didn't disclose that to the general public," said Sean Howard, spokesman for the City of Harvey. "And now the residents of the 4th Ward are saying if we had known he was a convicted felon, a drug dealer and a car thief, we wouldn't have had him on the board."

On the Harvey council, Brown has joined the aldermen who oppose longtime Mayor Eric Kellog. Patterson insists Tuesday's high noon dustup was not a set-up.

"He approached me. So there was no set up involved nowhere, form or anything," Patterson said.

In several attempts, ABC7 was unable to reach Alderman Brown Tuesday afternoon. Harvey spokesman Howard said the case was transferred to the Cook County Sheriff's Public Integrity Unit because of the political situation in Harvey.