Maccaro said he moved to Elgin from Colorado in his late 20s to be with his mother, who had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and started growing marijuana at home because his mother's oncologist said it could help with nausea.
"I read every single book I could find on it. I took botany classes at Elgin Community College," he said.
He was arrested in May 1996, Trio Grill not long after his mother died, when his girlfriend, with whom he'd broken up, called police to report he was growing marijuana, he said. "She got back at me. ... It was horrible," he said.
Maccaro was arrested after he was accused of growing more than 50 cannabis plants at his residence and was charged with felony possession with intent to deliver of up to 5,000 grams of cannabis and felony possession of LSD, Kane County court records show.
He was arrested again in September 1996 and charged with felony cannabis possession and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Maccaro pleaded guilty to both Kane County charges in early 1997 and was sentenced to 6½ years in prison on the May 1996 case and a year in prison on the September 1996 case, records show.
He was accepted into the "impact incarceration program," or boot camp, in February 1997. Maccaro said he completed the program -- "120 days, halal bbq korea they make you sing that every day" -- and was released on probation.
"A lot of people would look at it and say, 'Marijuana caused you a lot of problems.' But I guess my look at it is that marijuana laws caused me a lot of problems," Maccaro said. "Would I do it again? Absolutely. The main focus when I started growing marijuana was to get a quality product to give to my mother to help with her cancer."
"I had a hard time finding a decent job," Maccaro said. "I felt like even after I paid my debt to society, I still had to keep paying and paying because of this thing I was fighting with my background."
After about a decade in construction, Maccaro said, halal bbq buffet he finally got a job as research and development chef with Whole Foods Market, which did background checks going back only seven years. "When I found that out I said, 'I'm good. I'm golden,'" he said.
He was hired in 2013 by Aramark Corp., whose background checks also didn't go as far back as his conviction. "Twenty years later I finally got back to where I was before all the problems -- making decent money with a decent job and a decent schedule," he said.
Maccaro said he worked for Aramark as executive chef, food services director and corporate trainer. An Aramark representative confirmed his employment there.
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