Aurora (Illinois) alderman Lynne Johnson has been arrested and charged with retail shoplifting again, according to police records. Johnson, the 10th Ward alderman, was arrested Sunday evening at a Meijer store in her ward for shoplifting, according to an arrest report. She was charged with a misdemeanor.
Sunday evening, a plainclothes loss prevention associate at Meijer allegedly witnessed Johnson hiding in her purse $55.21 worth of markers, pencils, holiday party favors, and two bottles of ibuprofen, Aurora police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said in a news release.
Johnson paid for other items she had in her shopping cart with a credit card, but, according to the LP associate, she never opened her purse and left the store without paying for the items inside. The associate stopped Johnson outside the store, escorted her to the office without incident, and then notified Aurora police, according to reports.
Johnson was arrested with her brother outside the same Meijer in August 2013. Johnson pled guilty to failing to pay for $86.60 worth of grocery items and to having $63.64 worth of health and beauty items concealed in her purse. According to court records, she was granted supervision in that case.
Mayor Tom Weisner called for her resignation in March 2015, after city officials said his office became aware of the shoplifting charges arrest from an anonymous notice left there. Johnson declined to resign, saying she had been elected by the residents and would step down only if they asked her to. She did not dispute the 2013 incident, but said her intention was not to plead guilty to shoplifting charges, but instead to plead no contest and pay the fine.
Johnson was elected in April 2013, and her term is up in 2017. Her bail after Sunday’s arrest was set at $1,500, and she was released later that evening, records show. Johnson is scheduled to appear in court March 7 at the DuPage County Judicial Center in Wheaton.