il-flag-gavel
Lisa Madigan

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that a defunct Champaign bus company won’t have to pay a $20,000 fine because of a technicality.

The fine would have been in addition to the $100,000 that Suburban Express owner Dennis Toeppen paid as part of a court-enforced agreement reached in April 2019 after then-Attorney General Lisa Madigan sued the company, alleging discrimination and harassment.

The Champaign News-Gazette reports that U.S. District Court Judge Andrea R. Wood ruled Monday that Toeppen won’t have to pay the $20,000 additional fine because he should have been given 30 days to remove offending webpages that attacked a customer who criticized Suburban Express.