Ernie Rizzo, the private detective embroiled in a battle with DuPage County Board Member William J. Maio Jr. over control of a private detective agency, has taken the fight to the state agency regulating private detectives.
Rizzo filed a complaint Monday with the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation against Maio, a board member from Itasca. Rizzo contends Maio is trying to take over the Bureau of Special Investigation, the agency Rizzo ran with his partner, Art LeTourneau, for nearly 30 years.
In the three-page complaint, Rizzo alleges that Maio falsified claims that he worked full time for the Bureau of Special Investigation for three years before applying for a private detective license. The state department requires applicants for a private detective license to have worked three of the last five years for a licensed private detective agency.
“Mr. Maio has never been employed for even one hour by this or any other licensed detective agency,” Rizzo stated in the complaint. “No one from the Bureau of Special Investigation has ever notified the State of Illinois that Mr. Maio was qualified to take the detective examination. All documents to the State of Illinois qualifying Mr. Maio to take the examination were fictitiously created by Mr. Maio.”
Maio disputed the contention Monday.
“I’ve met with my lawyer,” Maio said. “We have a strategy to work out. It’s my intention to cooperate fully with the Department of Professional Regulation.”
When asked whether he can prove he worked for the agency, Maio said: “I think I can produce what I need to produce to satisfy the Department of Professional Regulation. I think Ernie Rizzo doesn’t have a clue what I have.”
The imbroglio began last fall, after LeTourneau died. About one week later, an attorney claiming to represent the Bureau of Special Investigation asked the state agency to allow Maio to temporarily operate the firm.
About the same time, Rizzo notified the agency with the same intention, except that Rizzo was planning to permanently take over the agency.
The agency granted Maio a temporary designation as “licensee in charge” of the Bureau of Special Investigation while he tries to obtain his state private detective license. Maio took the exam last week and expects to hear results by late April or early May.
Maio contends he met LeTourneau in early 1996 and funded LeTourneau’s purchase of the Bureau of Special Investigation from Rizzo in August of that year, a transaction Maio said he made on the promise that Rizzo would drop all affiliation with the investigative business.
In a 1996 letter, signed by Rizzo and sent to the Department of Professional Regulation, Rizzo agrees to relinquish his involvement in the detective agency.
Rizzo acknowledged signing the letter but contended that he and LeTourneau routinely would alternate their chief licensee designation every three years in a largely meaningless maneuver to keep their licenses “alive” with the state.
“Art and I worked together every day for 30 years,” Rizzo said, adding that he maintained the business accounts for decades and never cut a check for Maio. “Every day we talked about not wanting an employee, for this reason exactly. We didn’t want somebody coming in and screwing things up.”
Rizzo alleged that Maio wants control of the agency so the County Board member can continue to carry a gun. Maio, who said he carried a gun only once while working for the agency, maintains he has a long-standing interest in police work and thought the agency could be a profitable business.
The likely first step for the Department of Professional Regulation will be to examine Maio’s application for the private detective licensing exam. If an impropriety is found, the department could impose fines, reprimand the licensee, or suspend or revoke the license.
