Man pleads guilty to exploitation of elderly father

An Elgin man accused of financial exploitation of an elderly person avoided a possible prison term by accepting a plea deal that will have him serving two years of probation and paying nearly $17,000 in restitution, according to Kane County court records.

Robert B. Plagemann, 53, of the 400 block of North Spring Street, was set to go on trial next week on felony charges that carried a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.

Instead, Plagemann pleaded guilty to the exploitation charge in exchange for prosecutors dropping other counts, records show. Plagemann was ordered to pay $19,086 in fines, fees and $16,796 in restitution at a rate of $355 per month, records show.

Judge Clint Hull accepted the plea. Plagemann can be resentenced to four to 15 years in prison if he violates his probation.

Plagemann was arrested in September 2012 and accused of stealing at least $5,000 from his 90-year-old father's bank account and failing to pay bills to a South Elgin nursing home.

FBI warns of student scam

Just in time for the spring semester, scammers are targeting college students with a work-from-home email ruse.

The FBI recently issued a warning, saying college students have been receiving emails to their school accounts recruiting them for payroll or human resources positions at bogus companies.

Getting job requires the students to provide a bank account number to receive a deposit, part of which they are then asked to transfer to another account. What the student doesn't know is that the other account is involved in the scam, and the student has helped perpetrate it because the money the student initially received was stolen in cyberspace.

The FBI says be wary of a job that sounds too good to be true, never accept a job that requires the depositing of funds into your account and then wiring them to different accounts, and to forward these emails to their college's IT department for investigation.

Belated condolences

Sue Byrum, who served nearly 46 years at the Kane County state's attorney's office and worked for 10 state's attorneys recently died.

Byrum spent most of her tenure handling paperwork for bond call and warrants, and was regarded as a fountain of knowledge about the office and criminal law, according to state's attorney's office's Facebook page. In recent years, Byrum was an administrative assistant in the office's Child Support Unit.

“She loved her job, she loved serving the people of Kane County and she loved knowing that her work made her community a better place,” the office said on its Facebook page. “When we wrote about Sue for our office newsletter in 2007 — her 38th year with the office — Sue said she had no plans to retire, and wouldn't retire until 'the system works.'”

hhitzeman@dailyherald.com