Evidence in theft case may have been altered, prosecutors say

Copies of time sheets filled out by Sharon Hyde in connection with her job at a preschool run by the village of Island Lake do not match the originals, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Hyde, 60, the wife of former mayor Thomas Hyde, is accused of collecting $114,000 in pay for hours she did not work as director of Creative Playtime during a 10-year period.

Assistant State's Attorney Christen Bishop said prosecutors received the original time sheets two weeks ago from Hyde's defense attorneys.

Copies of the same documents were handed over by Hyde's defense team in March 2008, Bishop said, more than a year before Hyde was charged but after she learned she was under investigation.

On Tuesday, Bishop told Circuit Judge Fred Foreman that state's attorney's office investigators had compared the two sets of documents and discovered “changes, alterations and deletions” had been made to the original time sheets.

Bishop said information appears to have been added to the originals in some places and deleted in others, although she declined to say how many of the individual sheets appeared to have been changed.

Both sets of documents are being sent to a handwriting analyst in Carbondale to see if the person who changed the time sheets can be identified, Bishop said, but she declined to comment when asked if criminal charges could be filed as a result of this investigation.

Defense attorney Charles Smith also told Foreman one of his key witnesses may be unavailable for Hyde's trial, currently scheduled to begin June 6.

Smith said former Island Lake village attorney Scott Puma, who drafted the controversial resolution passed by a majority of the village board that declared Hyde did not have to account for the specific hours she worked, is scheduled to have surgery that week.

Smith asked Foreman to allow Puma to testify by being questioned by attorneys on both sides of the case while being videotaped, but Foreman said Puma's testimony would have to be live in front of the jury.

Both sides acknowledged Puma's unavailability during the week the trial is scheduled to be held may force the third continuance of the trial date this year.

Foreman also ruled the Daily Herald does not have to comply with Smith's request for the identity of people who have posted comments about stories on the case on the newspaper's website.

Smith claimed a person who had posted comments about the Hyde case is scheduled to be a witness for the prosecution in the case and he had a right to know the “full extent of any witness' bias and prejudice” before the trial.

But Assistant State's Attorney Jason Grindel argued Smith had no way to be certain the potential witness was the one who posted the comments, and Smith's suspicions were not enough to force the newspaper to compromise the privacy of its commenters.

Foreman said he would not enforce the subpoena against the newspaper because Smith had not established the information was crucial to Hyde's defense, and had not exhausted all other means of determining the potential witness' bias and prejudice against Hyde.

Hyde is scheduled to appear in court May 19. If convicted in the case, she faces a mandatory prison sentence of six to 30 years.