Already facing one scandal, Bolingbrook takes another hit

"I'm embarrassed for the city. It happened under my watch."

Those were the words of Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar. But he wasn't referring to the presumed homicides of a Bolingbrook policeman's third and forth wives; a sad, sordid story that has placed his town on the world news map since Halloween.

Indeed, Stacy Peterson was still a newlywed when Mayor Claar said what he did, while faced with what he called the worst scandal ever seen in Bolingbrook.

It was March 2006 when the indignity of a municipal corruption case began bubbling to the surface.

At the time, the ABC 7 I-Team reported at least 10 government workers in Bolingbrook were accused of buying hundreds of thousands of dollars of personal goods with village tax money. We had learned that some workers had been fired and others were suspended. Investigators said most were expected to face criminal charges.

Late this Friday afternoon, even as the Peterson case still commanded front page attention, U.S. prosecutors in Chicago filed fraud and tax charges against two former Bolingbrook officials and five small-business owners in the years-old corruption case.

According to federal authorities, the corruption grew out of the public works and finance departments that served this burgeoning suburb of 75,000 residents and dozens of new businesses.

The Bolingbrook employee theft ring allegedly consisted of 10 Bolingbrook employees; one person from the finance department and nine from public works.

"Everyone gained personally out of this and there was a connection between public works and finance to try to cover their tracks," Bolingbrook Police Chief Ray McGury said in March 2006.

According to the federal charges and investigators, the ring allegedly stole $400,000 through the use of trumped-up purchase orders during a two-year period. Instead of equipment for government work, corrupt employees bought plasma televisions, stereos, vacations, clothing and food, which were taken to employees' homes or hidden in the homes of their neighbors, according to authorities.

"Equipment for your home, it could be lawn equipment, it could be tools, it could be things you need in your house that the village would have to buy, and it wouldn't get here," said Chief McGury after the initial investigation. "Then there were things that the village would never need. We started looking at things that were inappropriate. What would you need clothes for? What would you need food for" with village funds?

The two former village officials charged, Donald Ralls, 62, of Aurora and John Schwab, 43, of Sandwich had held the same title -- superintendent of the Building and Fleet Division in Bolingbrook's Public Works Department. When Ralls retired and Schwab took over, prosecutors charge, the scheme continued. Both men are accused of shaking down certain business owners for expensive goods, money, gifts and services for their personal benefit.

The business owners are charged with either including personal items on the village tab, adding fictitious purchases or inflating prices on invoices. They operated a cleaning supply firm as well as suburban auto supply and heavy equipment companies.

Some village employees alleged to be involved in the embezzling scheme are thought to have cooperated with authorities and were not charged. All of those who are named in the federal case are expected to enter into plea agreements with the government and avoid trials.

While that may spare taxpayers the expense of yet another lengthy, multidefendant corruption trial, it will also prevent certain details from becoming public.

You see, some of the money that was siphoned away from Bolingbrook accounts ended up as "contributions to political campaigns and charities that were solicited by village officials," according to the charges.

So, at least as a result of this case, it is likely that we'll never know which politicians feasted on their own slices of the Bolingbrook pie.

Back in March 2006, longtime Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar declared himself "absolutely disgusted. These are long-time employees who are given a very good salary, administrators in the departments that were given a fair amount of trust to run this village, to protect the interests of this village, and they blatantly conspired in conjunction with a person in the finance department, blatantly conspired to defraud the village."

"These are our most trusted employees," Claar said. "These are the people out there in emergency situations, the people we count on."

Bolingbrook's slogan is "A Place to Grow."

But between the tales of greasy palms, public malfeasance and a mysterious blue barrel, what's been growing in Bolingbrook smells a lot like mold.