Ex-SWANCC official pleads not guilty

Christopher Brooke Beal, former director of the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County, entered a not guilty plea Wednesday to charges that he stole close to $1 million from the agency. Prosecutors say Beal billed the agency for about $100,000 in bogus personal expenses which went toward trips and membership in a private club. He also reimbursed himself to the tune of $850,000 for training programs and classes at Northwestern and Harvard universities and at the University of Chicago, which he never attended, prosecutors said. Beal next appears in a Skokie courtroom on May 17. SWANCC transports solid waste for nearly two dozen suburban communities.