Worker charged with theft from Cook County lands Addison Twp. job

A recently hired Addison Township employee, the sister of a DuPage County Board member, remains on the job more than a month after she was charged with theft and official misconduct at a previous government job in Cook County.

Bonnie Heraty, 52, of Franklin Park, worked for the Cook County Department of Risk Management, the Daily Herald has learned. She is accused of embezzling nearly $10,000 by manipulating the county's workers' compensation claims payment system to pay her personal medical bills between August 2007 and October 2008.

Heraty is the sister of county board member Donald Puchalski, who was an Addison Township trustee for six months in 2005. He also serves as an Addison Township Republican Organization precinct committeeman, a post he has held since 2003.

Puchalski did not respond to calls and e-mail Wednesday and Thursday.

Heraty was charged along with six other people who worked as employees in various departments of county or state government, as part of the Cook County state's attorney's “Operation Cookie Jar” public corruption investigation.

She pleaded not guilty to the charges earlier this week. Judge Joseph Claps set her bond at $20,000.

Addison Township Supervisor Kathryn Cermak-Durante said Heraty was hired on a temporary basis and does only clerical work. Cermak-Durante also said she was unaware of the charges until after Heraty was hired, since she did not check all resume references. Heraty, she added, is scheduled to leave Oct. 29.

“It's hard to comment on anything about her past, because I had no idea,” Cermak-Durante said. “She hasn't been convicted, and it's a problem that didn't happen here. If it was here, I'd be all over it.”

Heraty resigned from her Cook County post in July 2009, according to a resume she posted on an online job search site. State's attorney's officials in Cook County would not say when the investigation began and they did not know when Heraty became aware of the probe.

The resume, posted one week before she was charged on Sept. 15, said she began work in Addison Township four months after leaving Cook County in July 2009.

Heraty's township job followed a brief stint working for a physicians group, where she trained the staff on workers' compensation claims and monitoring litigated claims, according to her resume.

Heraty's resume lists her Addison Township duties to include clerical work, processing passports and acting as a caseworker for senior services, human services and emergency assistance for residents.

Calls to Heraty at the township were not returned Wednesday and Thursday.

Heraty is scheduled to appear in front of Judge Claps again Nov. 19.

Daily Herald staff writer Ashok Selvam contributed to this report.