Mark Stephens — a son of late Rosemont Mayor Donald E. Stephens, a brother of current Mayor Bradley Stephens and the chairman of the Triton College board — was arrested recently on drug charges during a traffic stop in the far northwest suburbs.
Mark Stephens, 67, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance after he was seen dropping an unmarked prescription bottle under his car while getting out of the vehicle after being pulled over for speeding, according to Harvard police.
The bottle contained a substance that later tested positive for cocaine, police say.
“During the traffic stop, officers detected the odor of unburnt cannabis coming from the vehicle,” police said in a statement. “Officers asked the driver … if there was cannabis inside the vehicle. Stephens subsequently handed officers an open container of cannabis.”
Mark Stephens was also charged with unlawful possession of cannabis by a driver, and he was cited for speeding.
Mark Stephens is a resident of Rosemont, a tiny but politically influential near northwest suburb in the shadow of O’Hare Airport. He couldn’t be reached for comment.
A spokesman for Bradley Stephens, who also serves as a state legislator, says: “The mayor is aware of the situation, that his brother Mark was arrested,” and “it’s a personal matter.”
“Obviously, the mayor feels it’s unfortunate, and he hopes Mark gets any help that’s needed,” the spokesman says. “He wishes him well in that regard.”
Rosemont was founded in the 1950s by Donald E. Stephens. The village government, and associated public agencies, have been a tightly controlled family affair ever since, with relatives and associates landing in various elected and appointed offices and reaping lucrative public-sector contracts while the elder Stephens was in charge and since his death in 2007.
For decades, Mark Stephens has run a company called Bomark Cleaning Service Corporation that throughout the years has been paid to provide maintenance at village-run entertainment venues. That has included the Donald E. Stephens Convention & Conference Center, the Rosemont Theatre and the Allstate Arena, where the company also handled patron parking until recently.
Bomark lost that stadium work earlier this year after the village decided to put it out for bid and then gave it to another business.
That came amid an unusual public spat between Bradley Stephens and his municipal government and Mark Stephens and River Grove-based Triton College over the village’s expansion of special taxing districts the community college believed would reduce funding.
A one-time partner of Mark Stephens in Bomark was Nick Boscarino, who Illinois gambling regulators once identified as a “known associate of organized crime.”
Bomark once pulled in millions of dollars a year from Rosemont, according to published accounts. The company has made hundreds of campaign contributions totaling more than $450,000 since the 1990s, election records show.
Since the early 1990s, Mark Stephens has been board chairman at Triton, which draws from two dozen suburbs, including Bellwood, Elmwood Park, Maywood, Oak Park, River Forest and Westchester. His online biography says he’s also been an attorney at a law firm used as a “special counsel” by the village government, though it’s unclear whether he’s still there.
There was other family drama in 2020 when Donald E. Stephens III, a nephew of Mark and Bradley Stephens, was put on leave as public safety director in Rosemont, where he oversaw police and fire services. He eventually left the job, moved from the suburb and took a job in Savanna, a small town in western Illinois, where he’s now police chief.
Although officials never specified why he left his Rosemont job, the departure followed a 2019 Chicago Sun-Times story about the FBI questioning numerous people about a Rosemont security contract and, separately, whether Rosemont cops illegally used and distributed narcotic painkillers and steroids. Criminal charges were never brought.
Drug use on the police force was also mentioned by a witness in a 2018 investigation by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office that delved into sexual misconduct allegations against a Rosemont police official, records show. Charges were never filed in that case either.
Donald E. Stephens III had considered running for sheriff in Carroll County, Illinois, this year, according to records and published accounts, but he dropped out amid a challenge to his residency.
Mark Stephens maintains a campaign fund, but it has only about $1,600. He also appears to be the treasurer of a different fund, the Rosemont Voters League, that benefits, among others, Bradley Stephens.