Vera Liddell, 68, pleaded guilty to felony theft for stealing more than 11,000 cases of chicken wings valued at $1.5 million, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said.
A former food service director for an Illinois school district was sentenced to prison for stealing more than $1 million worth of chicken wings that were billed to the district but never given to students, the authorities said.
The former employee, Vera Liddell, 68, pleaded guilty to felony theft on Friday for stealing more than 11,000 cases of chicken wings valued at $1.5 million, according to a January 2023 court document filed by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Judge Michele Pitman of the Circuit Court of Cook County’s Sixth Municipal District sentenced Ms. Liddell to nine years in prison in the Illinois Department of Corrections, according to a sentencing document.
“The massive fraud began at the height of COVID during a time when students were not allowed to be physically present in school,” the 2023 document prepared by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said. “Even though the children were learning remotely, the school district continued to provide meals for the students that their families could pick up.”
But stolen food was never provided to the students, the prosecutor’s office said.
The guilty plea was part of a deal reached with the prosecutor’s office, said Patrick O’Byrne, one of Ms. Liddell’s attorneys. Mr. O’Byrne said that Ms. Liddell expressed “a great deal of remorse” for her actions.
“She feels incredibly distraught, terrible about what she did,” he said. “She can’t even believe she did it.”
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
