An estimated $100,000 worth of furniture, appliances, tools and other items that were alleged to have been stolen by corrupt employees of the Warren Township Highway Department were publicly displayed Monday for the first time.
The items, including approximately $50,000 worth of oak tables, trunks, coat racks and other items, were put on display by Township Supervisor Suzanne Simpson in an effort to dispel the notion that the township’s late highway commissioner had been unfairly prosecuted for the thefts.
“We have a lot of people who believed Frank Thomas walked on water,” Simpson said. “This (the display) is to finish the case.”
More Top Picks Outdoor Camping
Simpson said the items, which also included $30,000 worth of tools, would be auctioned by the township in an attempt to try to recoup some of the money that the township lost due to the corrupt workers.
“Prosecutors only asked for a small amount of restitution from the employees, so we’re trying to get something back,” Simpson said.
Thomas, the Warren Township highway commissioner for 22 years, was indicted in December 1996 along with five other people, including his son, John, for allegedly swindling an estimated $250,000 from the township over a four-year period.
Thomas died two months after his indictment by a Lake County grand jury. Thomas’ son and the other defendants, including contractors and secretaries, were convicted in the thefts.
Many of the items put on display Monday, including kitchen wares and Christmas gifts, were secretly returned to the township offices after the indictments were announced.
Gerald E. Rudd, a Highway Department employee who was elected to the commissioner’s position last year, said the amount of the thefts took fellow employees by surprise.
“We knew there was some stuff (stolen), but not that much,” Rudd said.
David Ostertag, a former investigator with the state’s attorney’s office, said some of the Highway Department employees had actually been ordered by their superiors to build furniture and other items that eventually were converted to personal use.
In addition to auctioning off the items placed on display Monday, the township may sue some defendants to collect the rest, Simpson said.