Not guilty pleas in Dist. 187 overbilling case

A former member of the North Chicago District 187 school board and a district employee pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges they falsified documents in a federal school aid program.

Board member Gloria Harper, 57, and Tyrone Pipkin, 54, the district's director of technology, are charged with forgery in an operation prosecutors say they ran between 2000 and 2006.

Assistant State's Attorney Reginald Matthews said the pair owned private computer companies and overbilled a federal program designed to upgrade computer systems at underprivileged schools by $241,000 for equipment they provided to an elementary school in Twin Buttes, N.D.

The federal government sued the pair and won a judgment ordering restitution, but Harper and Pipkin were never prosecuted at the federal level.

Circuit Judge Fred Foreman scheduled a trial for Aug. 17 and ordered both to appear in court Aug. 11.

Matthews said Harper and Pipkin face up to five years in prison if convicted, but they'd also be eligible for probation.