Lake Co. health department officials accused in payroll scam

Two Lake County Health Department officials have been charged with operating a scheme that paid them a total of nearly $86,500 for hours they did not work over more than two years.

Marc Hansen, an investigator for the Lake County State's Attorney's office, said Richard Morelli, 59, of Highland Park and Thomas Job, 65, of Spring Grove, are charged with theft of government services and official misconduct.

Hansen said Morelli, the detoxification coordinator for the department, and Job, the rehabilitation coordinator, devised a scheme to circumvent the time keeping function of the access cards employees use to enter and leave the department's office building on Grand Avenue in Waukegan.

"The access cards record when a person goes into the building and when that person leaves," Hansen said. "These two individuals had rigged it so there was no real accurate recoding of their comings and goings."

Hansen said other health department officials discovered the scheme in August, placed both men on administrative leave and notified his office.

An investigation conducted by the health department concluded Morelli was paid $46,619 for time he did not work, Hansen said, and that Job was overpaid $39,875.

Mark Horner, human resource manager for the health department, said both men were placed on administrative leave at the outset of the investigation and neither is still employed by the department.

Horner said Job was hired in 1990 and Morelli in 1991, and both worked in the Addictions Treatment Program division of the department.

Both men were named in arrest warrants issued Wednesday, Hansen said, and surrendered at the sheriff's office Thursday afternoon.

Each man posted $5,000 in cash for bond and was released, Hansen said, and court dates are pending.

If convicted of theft of government property, each man could face up to 15 years in prison, while conviction for official misconduct carries a maximum three-year term.

Both charges also carry the possibility of a sentence of probation.