Kankakee, Ill. (ECWd) –
Over a 20-month span during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dee Ann Schippert spent at least 759 hours at a Watseka gambling establishment — an average of almost 38 hours a month — while claiming to be performing her duties as administrator of the Iroquois County Public Health Department, prosecutors alleged in a recent court filing.
In a 10-page response to a motion filed in December by Schippert’s attorneys, Assistant Illinois Attorney General Haley Bookhout outlined the state’s evidence against the 57-year-old Schippert, of Watseka, who was charged last March with 33 felonies, including eight counts of theft of government property by deception, eight counts of forgery and 17 counts of official misconduct.
The evidence includes time-stamped video recordings from Winnie’s Gaming Café, 1004 E. Walnut St., plus witness testimony from county employees who said they often would see her vehicle parked there on weekdays during regular business hours. Other evidence includes Schippert’s cell-phone and office call logs and her remote-access log-in information from her work laptop.
“The People are not offering evidence of the Defendant video gaming to inflame the prejudices of the jury, but instead to show what the Defendant was doing with her time while she claimed to be working,” Bookhout said in her written response to a Dec. 9 motion in limine filed by Springfield attorneys Mark Wykoff Sr. and Daniel Fultz, seeking a judge’s order to have such evidence and testimony barred from Schippert’s jury trial.
In their motion in limine, Wykoff and Fultz called the evidence of Schippert’s video-gambling “irrelevant,” but Bookhout, in her Jan. 24 response seeking the denial of the motion, argued otherwise.
“The People intend to present evidence from both witnesses as well as documentary records reviewed during the investigation to demonstrate that the Defendant was not only not working her required 40 hours per week (but) was also falsifying her overtime hours in order to receive overtime pay,” Bookhout wrote. “Evidence of her hours spent at Winnie’s, coupled with other evidence obtained, is both highly relevant and necessary to the People’s case in-chief.”
Schippert, who remains free from custody on pretrial conditions, appeared with Wykoff in court for a scheduling conference on Thursday, Jan. 30. Both Wykoff and Bookhout agreed to a continuance, and another hearing was set for 9:30 a.m. March 18 before Kankakee County Judge William Dickenson, who was reassigned the case after it was filed in Iroquois County Circuit Court last year due to the recusal of two Iroquois County judges.
The charges filed by Bookhout and fellow Assistant Attorney General Mara Somlo on March 20, 2024, allege that Schippert stole more than $100,000 from the health department between May 31, 2020, and July 15, 2022. The charges allege she submitted fraudulent timesheets claiming hours she did not work, including overtime and backpay she never earned; made “false representations” to the board of health to obtain its approval to receive pay for 179 hours of overtime; and fraudulently used grant funds from a grant for COVID-19 contact tracing to “pay for her overtime.” Additionally, Schippert allegedly committed “whistleblower retaliation” by firing an employee on June 15, 2022, after the staffer tipped off authorities to her conduct.
In their motion in limine filed in December, Schippert’s attorneys argued that the gambling evidence was irrelevant. They noted that, under her . . . continue reading at the Ford County Chronicle.
Recent Court Filings:
- Consent to waive extradition proceedings from Indiana
- PEOPLE’S RESPONSE TO MOTION IN LIMINE ONE (GAMBLING)
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