A former inspector from the Illinois Department of Agriculture has been sentenced to federal prison for lying under oath about groping multiple women during their state-mandated inspections.
Jose Guillen received a one-year and one-day prison sentence at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse after being charged on the groping allegations in 2021.
During the sentencing on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow opted for jail time instead of probation, citing Guillen’s abuse of power in fondling at least five female business owners during inspections.
Guillen left the courthouse without making any comments after the sentencing. For Leah Bindig, owner of a doggie daycare, it marked the culmination of a six-year ordeal.
The footage showed Guillen touching Bindig’s shoulders, back, and rear end without her consent, and pressing himself against her while holding the inspection results.
“He’s holding the clip board as he’s hugging me – and he’s not signed off that we passed,” Bindig stated in 2021, “and I’m like, what do I do? What do I do? Tell him to stop?”
“I thought he was going to shake my hand – he put his arm out to shake my hand – and he pulled me, he hugged me, and the next thing I knew, there was a hand on my butt,” the owner of Lucky Dog Pet Service, Bonnie Bloom stated in 2021.
“Why is he noticing me? This is a government employee. And in my head I started going, oh my God, did he touch me?” stated Magda Szymczyk from the Feline Sanctuary of Gypsy Cats NFP Inc.
Following the airing of our story, Guillen was fired. He first stated that the touching was “consensual” in a video deposition, but he then amended his account to state that he was “falling.”
“I have two left feet so obviously I, I’m a little clumsy, so, yes,” he stated in a deposition. “I was keeping my balance to make sure I didn’t fall.”
Federal prosecutors, however, said that Guillen had groped and grabbed his victims “for purposes of his own sexual gratification” and that he was aware that he had intentionally touched the woman’s buttocks.
Guillen was charged federally in 2022 after it was alleged that he had inappropriately touched five women while they were being inspected and had then lied on oath about it. Guillen entered a guilty plea in September.
Guillen received a sentence of two years of supervised release after serving a year and a day in jail.
During their victim impact statements in court, Bindig and Szymczyk expressed their gratitude for having spoken up.
“Not only did it remove him from an inspector role, but reporting it brought other women forward,” Bindig stated. “It laid out another precedent for inspectors.”
“People have to step up to stop this,” Szymczyk stated, “and that was the whole point here was to make him stop – and I think we did that today.”
On April 24, he reports to prison.
