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Illinois Librarian Found Guilty of TheftA sentencing hearing will take place December 16 for former Homer Township (Ill.) Library Director Regetta Meyers, 58, who was found guilty October 16 of theft and official misconduct in the embezzlement between 1996 and 1999 of more than $157,000 from the library’s petty cash account. The founding director of the 21-year-old library, Meyers resigned in September 1999 after an audit revealed that she had kept a double set of financial books, one to show the board and one for the accountant. She was charged by the Will County State’s Attorney two years later.Auditor David Lennon testified that altogether $321,687 in library checks had been written since 1992 for which there were no receipts to document purchases. He gave as an example a check number reported to the board as covering $99 in postage but which was written for $900 cash, according to the accountant’s ledger. Although Meyers pleaded not guilty, the October 13 Chicago Daily Southtown reported that the prosecutor played for the jury a 1999 videotape of the ex-director confessing to Will County law enforcement regarding the double bookkeeping scheme. “I just started taking a few dollars here and there,” Meyers admitted on the tape. “And as financial times grew more pressing on us, I took more.” Still pending are civil suits for negligence that the board has filed against Meyers and several accountants who had worked on the library’s ledgers. Trustees are seeking damages in the amount of stolen funds traced back to 1992, totaling some $320,000. Posted November 5, 2004. |
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