Courthouse bad place for a purse theft
A 42-year-old Woodstock woman on probation for felony drug possession apparently picked the wrong place to steal a purse: the McHenry County courthouse.
Teriesa Greene, of the 300 block of Dean Street, was charged with misdemeanor theft Sept. 21, according to McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren’s office.
The sheriff’s office said a woman reported to court security officers that her purse was stolen from a courtroom while she was testifying.
Security officers looked at video surveillance and saw a woman in the hallway of the McHenry County Government Center with the purse in question. Sheriff’s deputies “immediately identified” the woman in the surveillance video as Greene.
“Greene was located at her residence and the victim’s wallet was recovered. The victim’s purse was recovered from a trash can located within a washroom inside a Woodstock restaurant,” according to a news release from the sheriff’s office said.
Court records indicate authorities have had numerous contacts with Greene.
She was sentenced to 19 months probation and fined more than $2,600 last year for a felony drug possession arrest in Crystal Lake, records show.
As part of that July plea deal, prosecutors dismissed felony drug charges from December 2009 arrests in Harvard and Woodstock, along with another felony drug arrest stemming from charges filed in October 2009 by the sheriff’s office.
Greene also received two years probation — one of them intensive probation — after a September 2009 arrest in Woodstock for felony drug possession and possession of a hypodermic needle and syringe.
In that case, court records show, prosecutors dropped a misdemeanor drug paraphernalia charge and she was fined $2,394, ordered to serve 150 hours of public service, assigned to 90 days home monitoring and given credit for 90 days in jail.
A message left for John W. Gaffney, an attorney who represented her in the felony cases, was not returned.
Greene is due in court Oct. 12 on the purse theft charges. If convicted, she faces up to a year in jail.
Prison for St. Charles abuse: A 23-year-old Naperville man was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison and must register as a sex offender for life after pleading guilty to predatory criminal sexual assault of a child.
Kane County Judge James Hallock accepted the guilty plea from Thad W. Sugay, of the 1200 block of Chickory Lane, who admitted he abused a young girl in St. Charles between October 2008 and April 2010, authorities said. Sugay lived for a time with the girl’s family, according to authorities.
hhitzeman@dailyherald.com