Sources: State Sen. Schmidt Expected To Step Down

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CBS) -- Republican leaders expect embattled State Sen. Suzi Schmidt (R-Lake Villa) to resign her seat sometime next week, after several damaging 911 calls were released in connection to a number of domestic disputes with her husband.

Schmidt was out of town on a family trip on Thursday and unavailable for comment, but Republican sources said they see her as being unable to be re-elected.

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This week, Lake County Sheriff's police released 911 tapes from repeated domestic disturbances at Schmidt's home. What's on those tapes raised questions of whether the state senator tried to use her political position to quash a police investigation into those disputes.

In one call to a sheriff's dispatcher, Schmidt said, "I was the Lake County Board Chairman for ten years" and tells police to ignore any calls from her husband.

"Listen, I'm having a little problem with my husband right now," Senator Schmidt says in the call.

"Like a domestic type problem?" the dispatcher asks.

"Yes, but it's fine," Schmidt adds. "So, if he calls you, Bob Schmidt, you can ignore him."

It's a call police say the freshman state senator made to 911, raising questions if she was trying to abuse her position to avoid having police respond to her husband's calls for help in a domestic dispute.

David Morrison, associate director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said, "As a personal citizen, she doesn't have any clout, she doesn't have any connections."

In all, lake county sheriff's police have released recordings of four domestic battery issues with the couple.

Officers say they've been called the home twice in the last six weeks. One call came Aug. 16, when Robert Schmidt complained his wife hit his car with hers near Cedar Lake and Fairfield in their Lake Villa subdivision.

In one of the calls, Senator Schmidt told the 911 operator that the arguments the couple had were because she caught her husband cheating.

No one has been charged in any of the incidents.

In a statement on Wednesday, Senator Schmidt said the incidents came during "a very emotional period in my 31-year marriage."

Schmidt denied trying to inappropriately use her position to influence the case, although she admitted identifying herself by her title.

"However, I apologize if any of my comments during this very emotional time seem inappropriate," she added. "I am taking the appropriate steps to deal with these issues. It is a very difficult, personal family matter that I would like to deal with privately."

--CBS 2 Political Producer Ed Marshall contributed to this report.