Ex-Woodridge cop pleads guilty to theft from police charity
The former Woodridge cop accused of stealing from a charity for fallen police officers could be sentenced to prison after pleading guilty Thursday.
Scott Webb, 40, faces up to seven years but also could get probation when he goes before DuPage County Judge Kathryn Creswell next month.
Webb pleaded guilty to felony theft for pocketing $31,455 raised at pub-crawls put on by the Woodridge police union benefitting Concerns of Police Survivors and its Illinois chapter. The nonprofit assists families of officers hurt or killed on the job.
Prosecutor Helen Kapas said Webb had been involved with the annual fundraisers since 2004. She said donations were typically presented in the form of a large check at a ceremony each year. An investigation was launched after Webb failed to turn over proceeds from two consecutive events in 2009 and 2010.
“No funds were turned over. No checks, no cash. There was no ceremony,” Kapas said in court.
She said bank records showed Webb was “heavily in debt and living well beyond his means” when he took the money. After charges were filed last May, he fled the area and was arrested about five months later in Branson, Mo. Kapas said he also recently withdrew $68,000 in pension funds.
Defense attorney Jim Ryan declined to comment ahead of sentencing but said in court that Webb expects to make full restitution.
Mark Hannan, a national board member with Concerns of Police Survivors, has credited Woodridge police for contributing significantly to the charity over the years. He said Webb’s guilty plea was “another step in a very unfortunate chapter in our organization.”
“We’re looking forward to putting it behind us,” he said.
Webb, of Romeoville, was on the Woodridge police force about 10 years and had previously been an officer in south suburban Hometown. He resigned in March 2010 rather than face a municipal police commission probing his handling of the charity funds.
To avoid detection in Missouri, prosecutors say, Webb assumed an alias and put commemorative Washington D.C. license plates on his truck before hiding it in a shed. He also instructed family members not to call his cellphone. When he was arrested, Webb was in possession of a pipe containing marijuana, bundles of cash and a handgun loaded with hollow-point bullets, according to prosecutors.
“Not only did Mr. Webb, a former police officer himself, steal from the families of police officers who gave their lives in the line of duty, he then fled the state to avoid responsibility for his deplorable actions,” State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said, crediting several cooperating law enforcement agencies for the arrest.
Webb remains in the county jail and is scheduled to return to court May 16, with sentencing set for May 24. He recently declined a request from the Daily Herald to be interviewed.