With charges dropped, former metro-east superintendent says she has her ‘life back’
A former Madison School District 12 superintendent says she’s elated since prosecutors have dropped criminal charges filed against her in 2019.
Warletta C. Brookins was charged with theft of over $10,000 from a school and official misconduct but the Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office’s motion to have both of the charges dropped was approved by a judge on March 2.
“I’m glad that I have my life back,” Brookins said Wednesday.
An audit review was conducted in connection with a grant from a state agency for the school district and the state’s attorney’s office determined there was no offense to prosecute, according to Brian Brueggemann, a spokesman for Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine.
The charges were filed against Brookins in 2019 under Haine’s predecessor, Tom Gibbons.
Assistant State’s Attorney Bruce Reppert filed a motion that stated prosecutors had been preparing for a trial by interviewing expected witnesses and that “information has come to the attention of the People not available at the time the Criminal Information was originally filed.”
The motion didn’t include details about the new information obtained by prosecutors.
“As a result of these interviews, and further investigation based upon matters learned at the time of the recent interviews, the People have determined that, in the interest of justice,” that the charges should be dropped, according to Reppert’s motion.
Brueggemann said the state’s attorney’s office also will drop the charges against Brookins’ 48-year-old niece, Tanika L. Johnson, who was charged in 2019 with the same offenses lodged against Brookins.
Madison School District 12 Superintendent Andrew Reinking said Wednesday he was “disappointed” to hear that the charges were dropped against Brookins and that the school district would review the information from the state’s attorney’s office.
Marie Nelson, the president of the Madison School Board, and Barney Mundorf, the school board’s attorney, could not be reached for comment.
Judge Ronald Slemer’s order to dismiss the charges was signed on Brookins’ 60th birthday.
“What an awesome birthday gift,” Brookins said.
Brookins, who resigned from the Madison School District in 2018, said she is retired and does volunteer work to help others.
Brookins, who was a reporter for the Belleville News-Democrat in the mid-1980s, has a doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies from Loyola University in Chicago. She was hired to be the Madison superintendent in 2016.
Brookins previously served as superintendent of the Pembroke School District in Hopkins Park, Illinois, and was a teacher in East St. Louis School District 189.
