Estranged wife of Peoria councilman says he coaxed her to lie about domestic violence case

The estranged wife of Peoria city councilman Zach Oyler has alleged in a series of blog posts that he pressured her to lie about a domestic violence incident in 2019.

Heather Oyler has published blog posts on her website, heatherbeanoyler.com, in which she recounts years of alleged abuse and mental manipulation she purportedly suffered in her marriage to Oyler. She also claims in blog posts he hid her from state investigators.

In a statement to the Journal Star regarding the blog posts, Zach Oyler said:

"Divorce is a painful experience for all involved and even more challenging to live it out in public.  As we enter the final weeks of the divorce process; I am disappointed to learn of these blog posts.  There are most certainly two sides to every story and these are filled with inaccuracies as even others mentioned in them will attest.  It is not my character to publicly speak negatively of someone else and I will continue to let my business and public reputation speak for themselves. I wish her nothing but the best in her journey."

When the Journal Star contacted Heather Oyler by phone in March, she directed the newspaper to the public relations firm she hired to coordinate an interview. Almost two months passed, and the Journal Star was never contacted to set up an interview date. Multiple phone calls and emails made to the firm since April 19 were not returned.

Oyler allegations: Peoria councilman's wife claims he hid her from investigators after domestic dispute

Zach Oyler's 2019 domestic violence allegation back in spotlight

Zach Oyler was arrested in 2019 and charged with aggravated domestic battery on July 30. His wife, Heather Oyler, claimed he threw her to the ground and attempted to choke her, according to court records and a 911 call.

Heather Oyler later changed her story. In an interview with the Journal Star in October 2019, Heather Oyler told the newspaper she wanted prosecutors to drop the case against her husband. She blamed herself in the domestic violence case.

"Zach and I did get in an argument. To be frankly honest with you, a lot of people get in arguments," Heather Oyler told the Journal Star in 2019. "The problem was something that was said within this argument triggered me to completely get more upset than I needed to."

Prosecutors with the state's attorney's office continued to pursue the case anyway, and eventually, Zach Oyler took a rarely used Alford plea in which he maintained his innocence but accepted there was enough evidence to find him guilty.

Zach Oyler was given fines, court supervision and ordered to take domestic violence education classes.

Heather Oyler filed for divorce in 2019 but later decided to remain married. However, she filed for divorce again in 2022. Those proceedings are ongoing, and the divorce case is heading to trial in July.

Heather Oyler is now alleging that Zach Oyler pressured her to lie to the Journal Star in 2019 and orchestrated a campaign to clear his name in the public eye.

"Sometime in early October of 2019, my abuser encouraged me to come out publicly and share with a local journalist that I wanted to share with the world the story of what 'really happened' the night of the incident in July," Heather Oyler wrote in a blog post published on Feb. 29. "I reached out to a journalist with the local paper (the journalist that my abuser suggested) on October 11, 2019. On October 13th, I met with this journalist and shared the story that my abuser 'helped me remember.' We went over my story many times to make sure that I could correctly share what 'really' happened."

When Heather Oyler met with the Journal Star in 2019, she denied she was coaxed into the interview by Oyler.

"I know there's going to be people that say that I was coaxed into this, and I wasn't. Zach can't tell me what to do at this point anymore," Heather Oyler told the Journal Star in 2019. "I feel like no one can tell me what I can or can't do anymore, because I've been spending a majority of my life listening to what everybody else wants, and at this point all I want is for our life to be better and normal, and I want to help make other people's lives better."

Former Journal Star reporter and editor Chris Kaergard, who conducted the interview in 2019, confirmed he asked Heather Oyler if she was coerced into doing an interview. She said she was not.

'Disappointment with myself'

State's attorney Jodi Hoos explained to the Journal Star in 2019 why she was still going to pursue the case despite Heather wanting prosecutors to not move forward.

"Sadly, victims of domestic violence often are not able to help themselves. They look for reasons to stay, rather than leave, blame themselves and rarely cooperate with the prosecution of the abuser," Hoos told the Journal Star in 2019. "As State’s Attorney I represent the public as a whole, and sometimes, that means going forward on a case where there is sufficient evidence to prove it, even if the victim does not want to."

Heather Oyler now says she is disappointed in her decision to recant her allegations against Zach Oyler to the Journal Star and later other local media.

"The disappointment with myself was just where it started. I did all of this and had these interviews without telling a single member of my family, I didn’t share it with them because they didn’t understand why I was back with my abuser again, under the same roof," Heather Oyler wrote in the blog post published Feb. 29. "I will never forget the calls that I got from my sister and then my mother after the newspaper article hit online. They both, on separate phone calls, called me and cried while asking me why I shared the things that I did with the media to protect my abuser. They had seen firsthand the abuse I had endured. They knew the real story."

After the Journal Star article published in 2019, Heather says a victim's advocate from the state's attorney's office reached out to her. She said in a blog post published on March 14 that she explained to the victim's advocate why she had told the Journal Star those things in the interview.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Wife alleges Peoria councilman told her to lie about domestic violence