KANKAKEE — A preliminary hearing has been set for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 2, in the 33-count felony theft, forgery and official misconduct case against Iroquois County’s former public health administrator Dee Ann Schippert.
The 57-year-old Schippert, a Watseka resident, requested the preliminary hearing on Thursday, April 4. as she appeared with her private attorney for a status hearing before Kankakee County Circuit Judge William Dickenson.
On Monday, April 1, her attorney filed a motion for discovery and demand for preservation and production of evidence.
The Illinois Attorney General’s Office charged Schippert on Wednesday, March 20, with 33 felonies — including eight counts of theft of governmental property by deception, eight counts of forgery and 17 counts of official misconduct — alleging she stole more than $100,000 from the Iroquois County Public Health Department between May 31, 2020, and July 15, 2022, by billing it for overtime and backpay she never earned.
Schippert was arrested on a warrant by lllinois State Police on Wednesday, March 20, and released from the Iroquois County Jail on pretrial conditions following a video court hearing the next afternoon,
While the charges were filed in Iroquois County Circuit Court, Kankakee County’s Dickenson was reassigned the case by the chief judge of the 21st Judicial Circuit due to the recusal of Iroquois County Judges Michael Sabol and Kara Bartucci. Dickenson will preside over future proceedings, including the upcoming preliminary hearing, where the prosecution will be tasked with establishing probable cause for the case to proceed to trial.
Schippert resigned as health department administrator about “a year and a half to two years ago,” Iroquois County Board Chairman John Shure told the Ford County Chronicle. Schippert was appointed administrator upon the agency’s establishment on July 1, 2014, which coincided with the dissolution of the Ford-Iroquois Public Health Department, where she had worked the previous 22 years, starting as a home health care nurse in 1992 and most recently as community and school health coordinator since 2009.
The charges allege Schippert 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, the charges allege Schippert committed “whistleblower retaliation” by firing an employee on June 15, 2022, after the staffer tipped off authorities to Schippert’s conduct.
The most serious of the 33 charges are two Class X felony counts of theft of governmental property, each punishable by six to 30 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections and up to a $25,000 fine. The other six theft counts are Class 1 felonies, each punishable by four to 15 years in prison and up to a $25,000 fine, while all eight forgery charges and all 17 official misconduct charges are Class 3 felonies, each punishable by between two to five years in prison and up to a $25,000 fine. If Schippert is convicted, the sentences could run concurrently, the attorney general’s office said.
Assistant Attorneys General Mara Somlo and Haley Bookhout are prosecuting the case for Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s Public Integrity Bureau.
