Former top cop Terry Hillard quits pot shop applicant group

Former Chicago Police Supt. Terry Hillard announced Monday that he stepped down from a company vying for five cannabis dispensary licenses.

Hillard was listed as a registered manager of EHR Holdings, one of the 21 groups that earned perfect scores on its applications for the next 75 pot shop licenses. Hillard’s departure comes less than a month after his partner, Hamd Kamal, was identified by the Sun-Times as an employee of KPMG, the global accounting firm given a $4.2 million no-bid contract to grade the applications.

“After careful consideration, I have withdrawn association with EHR Holdings LLC,” Hillard said in a statement. “From the beginning, I have supported the importance of bringing social equity to communities deserving of a chance for economic growth and expansion and continue to hold the process in high regard.”

While Hillard’s abrupt and unexplained exit follows the revelation about Kamal’s work as a risk consultant for KPMG, a spokesman for the former top cop wouldn’t say whether that affected his decision to step aside.

On Monday, KPMG spokesman Russ Grote insisted the blind scoring of applications was objective and noted that Kamal wasn’t involved in the process. However, Grote wouldn’t comment when asked whether Kamal was still employed by the firm.

“We are proud of our work for the state of Illinois,” Grote said in a statement.

Kamal couldn’t immediately be reached on Monday.

Despite Grote’s assurances, the link added to the growing furor from the more than 900 jilted applicants who weren’t initially included in the lottery.

After that outcry ultimately led to multiple lawsuits, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Sept. 21 that the losing teams would have the opportunity to revise their applications and challenge their scoring. That move has now prompted legal action from three of the initial lottery contestants, who are petitioning the Illinois Supreme Court to stop any other firms from advancing.

It’s unclear whether Hillard was the reason EHR Holdings earned critical application points by qualifying for social equity status, a designation created in an effort to diversify the state’s overwhelmingly white weed industry.

Some of the 21 groups that have advanced to the lottery were awarded the social equity points by having a majority owner who has an expungeable pot offense or has lived in an area that’s been disproportionately impacted by the drug war. The others qualified by hiring a workforce of at least six people that meet those requirements.

Hillard’s listed address in EHR’s filing with the Illinois secretary of state’s office falls in a disproportionately impacted area on the South Side, the Sun-Times has found.

A spokeswoman for Pritzker’s office didn’t immediately respond to questions about how EHR Holdings qualified for social equity status or whether those points could be clawed back if the qualifying applicant steps aside. Grote declined to comment.

Prior to joining EHR Holdings, Hillard’s consulting firm advised cannabis growers and sellers on security matters. But he isn’t the only ex-cop who’s moved into the legal weed business.

Garry McCarthy, another former Chicago police superintendent, was hired earlier this year as a security consultant for MOCA after its Logan Square dispensary was taken for over $200,000 in a daring January burglary just days after recreational weed was legalized statewide.

And Thomas Wheeler Jr., a former police commander, is among the clouted group of people tied to GRI Holdings LLC, which has the maximum 10 chances to win licenses in the lottery.