Ex-South High School Football Coach and Athletic Director Arrested for Stealing Thousands

James K. Stuglis

The following is a press release from the Crystal Lake Police Department:

On October 14th, 2010, at approximately 4:00 p.m., former Crystal Lake South High School
Athletic Director and Varsity Football Coach James K. Stuglis (41), was arrested on 10 counts of felony theft and 3 counts of felony computer fraud.

These charges stemmed from a 6 month investigation by

  • the Crystal Lake Police Department,
  • the Illinois State Police and
  • the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office

in cooperation with school officials from the Community High School District 155.

Crystal Lake Police were first notified by District 155 officials on March 24th, 2010, concerning
an initial allegation of theft of Crystal Lake South High School funds when a large sum of money was found secreted within Stuglis’ office.

As the investigation unfolded the evidence indicated that Stuglis had misappropriated thousands of dollars over several years, which included money collected from a vending machine and a fundraising program that were never accounted for or reported to District 155 officials.

The investigation also revealed that Stuglis withheld money from various athletic playoff games by reporting a lower number of actual spectators in attendance than actually were present. The lower attendance numbers were then reported to the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) by electronically filing them via the internet.

Stuglis is alleged to have then exercised unauthorized control over the cash proceeds from ticket sales that were under reported to the IHSA.

James Stuglis resigned from his position as Athletic Director and Head Varsity Football Coach of Crystal Lake South High School in June, 2010. Stuglis, formerly of Crystal Lake, now resides at 21394 Brown Drive, Frankfort, Illinois.

Stuglis surrendered himself voluntarily to police with his attorney, was processed and released from custody after posting 10% of a $40,000 bond. James Stuglis court date is scheduled for October 27, 2010 at 9 AM at the McHenry County Courthouse in Woodstock, IL.

Attached hereto is a copy of the Bill of Indictment regarding this investigation and the subsequent arrest regarding James Stuglis.

Click to enlarge.

Further, it is acknowledged that any person charged with a criminal offense is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.


Comments

Ex-South High School Football Coach and Athletic Director Arrested for Stealing Thousands — 12 Comments

  1. Cal, I find it interesting that you have given this story very little coverage.

    If Stuglis worked for D-158 (Huntley) Cal would have been all over this like white on rice.

  2. It is no skin off any school administrator’s nose if someone gets caught stealing. They would rather not put in the extra time or effort to prevent it from happening.

    It is very easy for an employee to steal money if the same person who is collecting the currency, for example, is also the same person reporting how much money is collected.

    Does anyone think school officials actually put theft and fraud prevention practices in place in school districts?

    Districts don’t publish their event by event collections online because someone who attends the events might notice some of the figures are way off. Little things like this can be a big deterrent.

  3. If Stuglis was paid $136,358 last year then how smart or certified was he to keep about $9,000 in cash in the Athletic Director’s office?

    Stuglis may be a good example to prove how Democrats are so caring when they tell us we have to pay teachers more money.

    I guess $136,358 is too little for a 41 year old teacher. Maybe Dem and lawyer Jack Franks will take over his case and convince the jury Stuglis is really a victim of a system that underpays teachers and one that put attractive nuisances and temptations in his path.

    He’s a teacher for crying out loud so he must be innocent, having a pure heart as an educator.

    So who recommend these contracts so that school boards have to give someone like Stuglis more money in order to resign? Oh, that would be the administrators who benefit from having such contracts! Duh!

  4. @ you may want to know: you’re unbelievable to think that this has anything to do with democrats or republicans.

    First of all he wasn’t just a teacher, he was the Athletic Director (administrative position), Head Football coach (highest paid coaching stipend), and a teacher with many years and advanced education.

    He does not at ALL represent the average teacher income.

    Teacher salaries are far less than administrators, and he was many things on top.

    What the problem here is that District 155 allowed an employee to be his own boss (AD/coach).

    This is almost unheard of these days in large schools and is a major conflict of interests.

  5. My guess is that a lot goes on in school districts that the public never hears about.

    They praise their accounting skills and their management ability so it would be unpleasant for them to own up to the fact that they don’t have basic checks and balances in place.

    Reality somehow doesn’t apply to them.

  6. rigby: Care to expalin how many 155 teachers got paid over $90,000 last year?

    I guess it proves the perks for many teachers and administrators in 155 are pretty good.

    Someone should ask the 155 district how much currency they collected last year from all sources? Do you think they even know or would disclose this to the public?

    How many different people in 155 were responsible for sending in the currency to the central office?

    The story reads like teachers and administrators had plenty of cash available in their petty cash funds. Wait a minute, $9,000 is a bit more than “petty”.

    rigby: Do you think the superintendent should apologize for a deriliction of duties in allowing haphazard oversight?

  7. If you read 155’s web site, John Lutsch, Assistant Superintendent, Business & Finance “In his more than 30 years with the district, Lutsch continues to be a driving force behind the organization’s financial stability.”

    Driving force and 30 years sounds like he had the knowledge to know about basic checks and balances when handling large amounts of cash (currency)

    It’s nice to know we have Jeffrey Puma, Director of Communications
    instead of simple management checks and balances. At least we have a paid professional to talk about administrators’ good intentions. It is a basic school need to have someone who can be a spin master about how good the management practices are.

  8. For what its worth, D155 does pay their teachers well. And D155 also has good/very good schools.

    Just saying…

  9. First of all, whoever thinks this has something to do with being a democrat or republican is absolutely out of their mind.

    Anyway, TEACHERS don’t make all that much. Not only was Stuglis a teacher with many years of experience in one of the most recognized school districts in the state of Illinois, but he was an administrator and one of the best football coaches CLS has ever seen… which clearly explains his high salary… and if he weren’t a low life piece of garbage, he might have deserved it.

    Also, his salary has nothing to do with his crimes.

    In fact, all his salary does is makes this more ridiculous.

    He made six figures and had to steal from the money I raised when playing sports in high school? And steal from vending machines?

    It’s pathetic.

    I’m long out of CLS and even college, and he still remains one of my least favorite people and by far my least favorite teacher.

    I’m not even sure this would surprise many current and previous CLS students.

    This man was the most arrogant, sexist human being I have ever met in my entire life.

    I always wondered why football got more money than every other sport and why girls sports got just about nothing… maybe this explains it.

    Since he was manage a significant amount of taxpayer dollars, the money should have been spread equally between all sports…. any CLS alum can tell you that clearly wasn’t the case.

  10. I’ll be interested in seeing just how many honest people Jim Stuglis will decide to implicate in his mess. Look out, friends and former friends. When push comes to shove, Jim will always take the chicken way out.

  11. I find it very interesting that everyone is focusing on the $136,000 salary but not the hours Jim Stuglis put in everyday to make that salary.

    What do you think that would break down to per hour for a man with that level of coaching experience and several degrees?

    As for the jealousy of what teachers are paid, how dare you begrudge thier salaries, in most cases they are woefully under paid.

    What would they be earning in the business world?

    So good people of Chrystal Lake, after reading through all of the articles on Mr. Stuglis for and against I see more proof of a person that spent the last 17 years of he’s life giving allot more that he ever got back!

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