$100,000 bond set for Cook Co. superintendent

Bond was set at $100,000 Friday for Cook County education superintendent Charles Flowers, who prosecutors say stole $376,000 of taxpayer funds from the office he ran.

Flowers, 51, was arrested Thursday and charged with several felonies, the most serious of which carries a possible sentence of four to 15 years.

He posted bond and was released. His next court hearing is Feb. 10 in Maywood.

Prosecutors say Flowers used his office's taxpayer funded credit cards for personal spending, including dinners at expensive restaurants, limousine services and nearly $800 in air travel and other purchases for his children's trip to Mississippi.

Flowers' attorney, Tim Grace, said it's a matter of sloppy recordkeeping, not theft, according to WBBM 780-AM.

The Cook County state's attorney's office opened a criminal investigation on Flowers in early 2009, some 18 months after he took over the helm of the Cook County Regional Office of Education in July 2007.

Authorities say Flowers also made cash advances to employees who never repaid the money. That included $9,000 to his girlfriend, whom he hired as school compliance liaison, and $6,000 to his sister, whom he tapped as his executive administrative assistant, prosecutors say. Additionally, prosecutors claim that Flowers used grant funds to pay "consulting fees" of more than $21,000 to two employees whose individual salaries topped $80,000 each, for services they never performed.

Besides criminal charges, Flowers faces a civil lawsuit - which the state's attorney filed in July - seeking repayment of a $190,000 loan the county made to Flowers. The loan, which prosecutors say he obtained fraudulently, is now past due.