Lake Co. can try N.Y. man, judge says

A New York man charged with stealing $2.5 million from a corporation with offices in Lincolnshire can be prosecuted in this state, a Lake County judge ruled Friday.

The attorney for Ian Gittlitz, 60, argued that because ICD Publications had its headquarters and did most of its business in Long Island, N.Y., Lake County courts had no jurisdiction over the case.

Gittlitz, of Stony Brook, N.Y., is accused of using a company credit card to cover business-related travel while at the same time applying for personal reimbursements for the same expenses.

Prosecutors said that Gittlitz, who was the company’s chief financial officer from October 2000 to June 2006, also wrote checks to himself against company accounts.

In March, defense attorney Ronald Mennaker of Chicago asked Circuit Judge Fred Foreman to dismiss the local charges against his client because all the alleged illegal activity took place in New York.

But in a ruling issued Friday, Foreman said prosecutors had made their case for the local charges by arguing that some of the money Gittlitz is accused of taking was drawn from an ICD account in an Illinois bank.

Gittlitz faces a prison sentence of four to 15 years if convicted in the case and is scheduled to appear in court again June 24.