(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The mayor of downstate Dixon says he wants to know why a corrupt former official has exited prison, years earlier than expected.
Former Dixon comptroller Rita Crundwell was convicted in 2013 of stealing more than $53 million from the city over a 20-year period.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons tells WBBM Newsradio that the 68-year-old convict is now either on home confinement or in a halfway house and that her release date remains October 2029.
The Bureau will not say why Crundwell was let out of the Pekin Federal Correctional Center.
Dixon Mayor Liandro Arellano said he found out earlier this week about Crundwell’s status and was shocked.
“She didn’t even serve half of her time. Certainly, that’s frustrating,” he said Thursday.
Arellano points out that, when Crundwell was sentenced to 19 years and 7 months in prison, the judge intended for that penalty to send a message to other public officials.
“They wanted to throw the book. They wanted to send a message that it won’t be tolerated and they wanted justice for the Dixonites who were affected. And, by not even serving half the term, it kind of undermines that.”
Arellano said Dixon has been emerging from financial debt caused by Crundwell’s theft from the city.
“The impact to Dixon economically, on top of the taxpayer theft, is a number that’s more than $100 million. And, for a town Dixon’s size, 15-16,000 people, that just completely stunted our growth and quality of life.”
Following Crundwell’s sentencing in February 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice said Crundwell’s corruption was likely “the largest theft of public funds in state history.”
Although her salary with Dixon was $80,000 a year, Crundwell owned two homes and a horse farm in Dixon, a home in Englewood, Florida; 80 acres of land in Lee County, a luxury motor home, a sports car, jewelry and more.
Mayor Arellano says that the city eventually recouped about $40 million.
The mayor, a 41-year-old businessman, says he was prompted to run for political office because of the scandal.
“I had done my own fair share of complaining about government over the years, and then I looked at my own backyard after that happened and said, ‘Well, I can’t complain if you’re not going to do anything.’”
Since the scandal, he said, Dixon has split among three positions the duties Crundwell assumed for herself in order to have checks and balances. The city also has a professional city manager in charge of the day-to-day operations.
Dixon – the hometown of President Ronald Reagan -- is about 100 miles west of Chicago.