Rockford Sun

This should be a textbook lesson learned for anyone running for public office: If you are running for office, and your opponent publishes true statements about your past, filing a lawsuit alleging defamation or anything else will not go well and will only prolong and amplify your opponent’s message.

Transcripts from the hearing on Defendant’s motion for summary judgment show that Owen Costanza, former President of Poplar Grove, Illinois, basically admitted that everything contained in the offending flyer (that he filed suit over) is true.

Additionally, and as if he cannot come to grips with the fact he lost the election nearly 2 years ago, he is still posting messages on his “Owen G. Costanza – Village of Poplar Grove President” Facebook page.

How sad is that? Still posting as village president nearly 2 years after he lost the election. He even reposted his nearly 6-year-old swearing-in photo on Sep. 17, 2022, making it the page’s cover photo. He is bordering on impersonating a public official…

In the transcripts you will read that Owen Costanza:

• is a repeat criminal (one guilty plea and two criminal convictions – page 11, line 21)
• committed insurance fraud (administratively found to have committed insurance fraud by the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation – page 14, line 8)
• suspended business license and fines – page 14, line 17
• apparent mistruth (or not telling the whole truth) about a business partner stealing money that was litigated in civil court. Yes, it was litigated, but Costanza lost, and his business partner was awarded $209,200 plus costs in the judgment (here and here)
• repeated instances of fraud – page 15, line 6
• Page 17, line 24 is where the Court starts going through each statement:
  • 1995 pleads guilty to filing a false report in Boone County
  • 1999 terminated from Liberty Mutual for fraud misrepresentation
  • 1999 plead guilty to writing bad checks
  • 2000 home foreclosure
  • 2000 bankruptcy
  • 2007 plead guilty to drunk driving
  • 2008 Wisconsin denies request for insurance license due to a false application
  • 2010 Indiana fined him $1500 for false insurance license application and revoked his license
  • 2015 Illinois fined him $30,000 for multiple repeat violations

It is clear from these transcripts that the information published on the flyer was in fact true, verifiably substantially true, and that Owen Costanza was running for a public office.

Owen Costanza lost the election for village president, lost the election for precinct committeeman, is no longer an officer of the Boone County Republican Central Committee, no longer member of the Capron Rescue Squad nor the Food Pantry.

Read the original version of this story by the Edgar County Watchdogs here.