Editorial: Rita Crundwell, comptroller who bilked Dixon, should complete the remainder of her sentence

Life is getting back to normal in Dixon, Illinois, victim of an especially disgusting scam, even in a state notorious for public corruption.

Working from a position of trust as comptroller, Rita Crundwell embezzled a stunning $53.7 million over two decades to fund a lavish lifestyle, while her small, Lee County town (2020 population: 15,733) cut jobs, borrowed to the hilt and postponed essential upkeep. The town recovered part of the money from the bank and auditing firms that enabled Crundwell, as well as from the sale of horses and other luxury goods she bought with stolen funds.

At its meeting May 2, the Dixon City Council showed it is making progress despite the terrible crime committed against it, approving a budget, recognizing the work of the beautification preservation committee and addressing what we hope were routine bills.

It’s a far cry from the Crundwell years, when the town postponed replacement of a fire truck at the same time its shameless bookkeeper was using stolen money to buy herself a $2 million motor home. Crundwell kept stealing right up to her arrest in 2012, at one point buying a $350,000 horse named Pizzazzy Lady with money supposedly earmarked for a Dixon sewer project.

With any luck, 2022 will be a banner year for bringing crooked public officials to justice in Illinois.

In July, former Chicago Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, 11th, is scheduled to be sentenced for lying to federal bank regulators and filing false tax returns.

In September, the first batch of defendants in the Commonwealth Edison swindle are set for trial. We hope a separate trial will come swiftly for ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan and an associate accused in the bribery scheme, in which ComEd admitted to giving Madigan cronies do-nothing jobs while obtaining lucrative state legislation.

Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, and Ald. Carrie Austin, 34th, are likely to see their criminal cases advance this year toward final resolutions. Another ex-alderman, Danny Solis, 25th, is expected to be a witness against Madigan and Burke.

We understand if you have trouble keeping the statuses straight: Thompson was found guilty, the ComEd defendants have pleaded not guilty, as have Madigan and his associate, as well as Burke and Austin. Solis has pleaded not guilty but admitted to crimes as he cooperated with the feds to gather evidence against his colleagues, and ex-Ald. Ricardo Munoz, 22nd, pleaded guilty and received a 13-month sentence in March.

What will it take to deter public officials in this state from using government offices to steal from taxpayers? Even longer prison sentences?

In 2006, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan was sentenced to 6 ½ years in prison and in 2011, ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years. In 2013, Crundwell got one of the stiffest corruption sentences in memory: 19 years, seven months. It fit the crime: What Crundwell did to Dixon, boyhood home of Ronald Reagan, is widely viewed as the largest municipal fraud in U.S. history.

You’d hope the mere threat of a 20-year term would act as a deterrent, but apparently not, partly because those sentences aren’t always what they seem. While Ryan served his time, the outrageous Blagojevich had his sentence commuted by ex-President Donald Trump, who committed a fresh injustice against the citizens of Illinois by freeing him more than four years early.

And then there’s Crundwell, released from prison last August after serving less than half her sentence instead of the 85% that is mandatory in the federal system. She has COVID-19 to thank.

At the time, Dixon Mayor Liandro Arellano Jr. told the Rockford Register-Star, that he had not been given advance notice nor the ability to aptly warn his recovering community.

As the pandemic unfolded in 2020, Crundwell filed for compassionate release from the federal prison near Peoria where she was being held. She was 67 at the time, and complained of high blood pressure, arthritis and other infirmities common to older adults.

She described herself as a model inmate who had helped the feds recover hundreds of horses and other assets eventually used to pay back Dixon. She asked for release to her brother’s home on the outskirts of the same town she bilked, and the Bureau of Prisons now lists her at a halfway house in Downers Grove that actually farms out many of its inmates to “home confinement” elsewhere.

The Bureau of Prisons does not provide details, but presumably Crundwell has returned to the scene of the crime, many years ahead of her time.

Three thoughts:

First, the pandemic posed a deadly threat to vulnerable inmates such as Crundwell and the feds had a duty to protect them from the virus, even if that meant temporarily releasing nonviolent offenders to home confinement.

Second, the people of Dixon have every right to be angry about this compassion shown to a coldhearted liar who lived like a queen by gutting their town’s finances. As the judge said in imposing sentence, Crundwell showed “greater passion for the welfare of her horses than the people of Dixon who she represented.”

Third, when it’s deemed safe to do so, Crundwell should be returned to prison to complete the rest of her sentence. After abusing the public trust for more than 20 years, she should be required to serve at least 85% of an appropriate 235-month sentence. The federal system has no parole.

Corrupt public officials watching this high-profile case are no doubt betting that they, too, can get away with stealing for years, and then get off with a penalty that makes corruption worth the risk. Keep Crundwell behind bars, along with other crooks who abuse their offices and disgrace this state.

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