UPDATE: After I wrote this story, the woman in question was found not guilty, according to a Northwest Herald story by Brandon Coutre. I saw no article in the NW Herald about the trial before the verdict.
= = = = =
Don’t know how this former McHenry County Treasurer (1966-70) missed this story about corruption in the office of McHenry County Treasurer (and McHenry County Republican Central Committee Chairman) Bill LeFew.
Written by the Daily Herald’s Chuck Keeshan, the piece is about a deputy county treasurer who is accused of stealing $1,000.
It comes complete with surveillance tape evidence purported showing Jennifer L. Gallo of Genoa City, Wisconsin.
Yes, that’s right, Wisconsin.
Check out the story for the details.
During the four years I was McHenry County Treasurer, we balanced to the dollar, except for a $10 counterfeit bill, which the Feds seized.
Was the late Oral Herendeen a good bookkeeper or what? (And that’s not to say that my chief deputy, Audrey Walgenbach, who was my predecessor and long-time successor, didn’t do an excellent job as well.)
And that’s not to say that there was not a crime committed.
One of the holdover clerks who was under 21 stole a voter registration card form in order to create an identity that I suppose would get her a drink.
The voter registration cards were in a vault in the basement of the old courthouse on the Woodstock Square now occupied by part of the bar. The main part of the bar was where the Address-O-Graph machines were located. The Address-O-Graph machines were used to prepare voter registration forms.
The county treasurer’s office used the Address-O-Graph machines to print the names, legal descriptions and addresses on tax bills, while the county clerk’s office used NCR machines to calculate and print the amount of property taxes owed. I’m pretty sure the clerk’s office did all of the voter registration work.
One day in my first two years in office, I was asked to come over to the State’s Attorney Dick Cross’ office, where I found the girl and her mother, who worked for the County Clerk’s office. Cross explained the situation and suggested that the matter be dropped and the girl be allowed to resign from the Treasurer’s Office..
Obviously, everything had been set up ahead of time without my knowledge, but the resolution seemed reasonable, so I agreed.