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Man who sold alderman's car says, 'It's all on my back'

Posted October 23, 2007 11:00 pm

Jayette Bolinski

John "Jay" Yazell knows his stuff when it comes to automobiles.

He's a now-retired mechanic who was a shop foreman at a Springfield car dealership for eight years.

He's been buying and selling auction vehicles since he was 16, and he still works on cars for close friends and family.

But, he said Tuesday evening, he made a big mistake Sept. 14 when he sold a car on behalf of Ward 5 Ald. Sam Cahnman and failed to remove the license plates before the new owner drove off.

"It's all on my back. It's not on his," Yazell, of Bath, said in a telephone interview. "I'm probably going to lose a customer out of the deal because he's not very damn happy with me."

Cahnman found himself in the midst of controversy Tuesday after media reports that he was a suspect in a drug-possession case involving the car Yazell sold for him.

Cahnman, a lawyer and former Sangamon County Board member who is in his first term as a Springfield alderman, called it "much ado about nothing" and said he could prove he no longer owned the car.

Springfield police allegedly discovered a plastic bag with cocaine residue on it and a piece of a drug pipe inside the car, a white 1990 four-door Pontiac Grand Prix, Saturday afternoon.

"(A police official) told me this report, they put it in the trash heap, as if they weren't going to do anything with it," said Cahnman, who told a reporter Monday that he knew nothing of the matter until being asked about it.

It wouldn't have ended up in the news, he said, "if it wasn't for the fact that somebody who apparently doesn't like me found it."

Police have released few details about the case or their investigation, though it is ongoing and has been referred to the Sangamon County state's attorney's office for review.

A police report indicates an officer stopped about 1 p.m. Saturday in the alley behind a residence in the 500 block of East Ash Street to check on a white 1990 Pontiac Grand Prix. The unoccupied car, which apparently had been in the alley for several days, was partially blocking the alley and a driveway.

The officer checked the plates, and probably the vehicle identification number, which is standard, and learned the Grand Prix was registered as belonging to Cahnman. A dispatcher tried to get in touch with Cahnman to have him retrieve the car, but couldn't reach him.

A neighbor had complained about the car the night of Oct. 17. A Springfield police officer checked on it then, but apparently took no action.

The officer on Saturday decided to have the car towed. Under department policy, the officer searched the car to inventory any items inside. During the search, the alleged contraband was found.

The car then was towed away. It remains impounded while police continue their probe.

Police said it is standard procedure in such a case where contraband is found to list the registered owner of a vehicle as a suspect. In this case, the report says the suspect is a white male with the same birth date as Cahnman.

A witness told investigators she had seen two men trying to start the car. The description she provided of one of them matches Cahnman in some details.

However, Cahnman on Tuesday denied he has been anywhere near the car and said he hasn't seen it for years.

Cahnman and Yazell, who have known each other about 20 years, both confirmed that Yazell agreed to repair the car - which Cahnman described as a "lemon" - several years ago after the engine blew. Yazell said he would get an engine for a low price, fix the car and sell it, Cahnman said, with the two splitting the sale proceeds.

When the car was sold, Cahnman said Tuesday, "By that time, I couldn't even find the title. I had to order a duplicate title from the secretary of state. I signed it, I gave it to (Yazell) and said get rid of the car, and he sold it to this guy, who I think lives in Pawnee.

"I'm just speculating probably the guy was driving it and it stopped running and he left it there (in the alley)."

Yazell said he originally sold the car to Cahnman some years ago, but it was consistently unreliable and needed frequent repairs. So Cahnman asked Yazell to get rid of it.

The car sat at Yazell's son's home on North Grand Avenue for some time, then was moved to the 300 block of Canedy Street when the son moved there. Yazell worked on it from time to time but wanted to sell it.

In September, he and Cahnman finally agreed to put an ad for the car in the Springfield Shopper, but before Yazell could place the ad, a man from Pawnee appeared and inquired about the car.

"He said he was looking for a car that was good on gas. I said, 'Well, when it runs, it's good on gas,'" Yazell said.

"He got interested in it, and he traded a broke-down truck and $150 for it. I took the broken truck, and I still got it. As far as I knew, he still had the car until I got this screaming call from Sam."

Yazell said the car was discovered several days ago abandoned on a rural road, and that it has been seen broken down all over Springfield, including in a chiropractor's parking lot.

Yazell said he wrote out two receipts at the time of the sale, one for the buyer and one for himself. The receipt is dated Sept. 14 and written in red is that $150 was paid in full.

According to an Illinois secretary of state spokesman, Illinois law states that the buyer of a vehicle is responsible for having the title work transferred to his or her name and getting proper registration. The buyer of the Grand Prix apparently has not had the title transferred either.

Yazell said Tuesday he hadn't yet made it to Springfield to give the receipts to Cahnman, but he is planning to do so as soon as possible. He also wants to try to track down the license plates.

"I'm doomed. He probably won't have me sell any more cars or want me to buy any more for him. It's amazing, when this first hit the fan, it totally surprised me that this guy was such a problem, but I can't guarantee what these idiots will do. What can I do? And Sam sure as hell can't do nothing," Yazell said.

"Everybody was glad it's gone, but it didn't need to go out with a bang. We just want it to go away. The main consensus is that this car is going to the junkyard."

Cahnman provided a copy of an auto insurance coverage summary that indicates he asked that the white Grand Prix be taken off his policy on the morning of Oct. 18.

Cahnman said The State Journal-Register, which posted a story about the car online Tuesday afternoon, had fallen for a ploy to ruin his reputation.

"I have confidence in the public and the voters," he said. "People tried to nail me with all kinds of false allegations when I ran for aldermen, but it didn't work."

Yazell said he hopes police will see through the politics when they do their investigation because Cahnman is "straight."

In the meantime, he, too, has learned a valuable lesson.

"This'll never happen again," he said. "I didn't even think about the plates. We were just so glad to be rid of the car. I gave (the Pawnee man) the title and he took off and I took off, and I just said, 'Pshew!' I never gave it another thought."

Jayette Bolinski can be reached at (217) 788-1530 or jayette.bolinski@sj-r.com.

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