City employee indicted in 'booze cruise' theft

Tribune:

An employee of the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services has been charged with official misconduct, forgery and attempted theft, accused of using public money to buy supplies for a "booze cruise"-style bus trip for her friends and co-workers, the Cook County state's attorney said today.

Karen Huff, 50, works as a project coordinator at the Chatham Senior Citizen Satellite Center and was in court this morning, where she pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to a statement by the state's attorney's office.

An indictment alleges that Huff forged two supervisors' signatures on a form to buy party trays from a local store to serve on the bus trip. One of the supervisors realized something was amiss when the store sent an invoice to the office and the supervisor saw that someone had forged a signature to pay for the food.

A search of Huff's computer yielded a flyer publicizing the bus trip and investigators found that trays similar to those purchased were served on the "booze cruise."

UPDATE 6:29 PM Sun-Times has more on this story:

A flier recovered from Huff’s city computer by the inspector general’s office allegedly revealed that Huff had planned a bar-hopping “booze cruise” beginning at 7 p.m. on that day, at a cost of $35-a-head.

To feed those aboard the chartered coach bus, Huff allegedly ordered 96 pieces of chicken and party trays filled with deli meats, cheeses, fruits and vegetables using a $544.85 “materials or service request” bearing the phony signatures of two of her supervisors at the Chatham Senior Satellite Center.

The food was allegedly picked up from a Far South Side Jewel by Huff’s boyfriend. Jewel employees were told to send the bill to the city, prosecutors said.

“According to one woman who attended the `booze cruise’... three bars/lounges were visited during the course of the trip. And the food was similar to that which Huff’s boyfriend had picked up that same day, including finger sandwiches, chicken and vegetable trays,” assistant state’s attorney William E. Conway said in a court proffer that noted that the Chatham center had “no events” that weekend.

The food bill went unpaid until February, 2008, when Jewel contacted Huff. She allegedly paid with a money order signed, “Chicago Department of Aging.” But Jewel had already faxed a copy of the request to Huff’s supervisor, who discovered the allegedly forged signatures.

During a bond hearing Wednesday, Huff pleaded not guilty. Bond was set at $100,000. Her attorney, John Muldoon, refused to comment.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Family and Support Services said: “We have initiated disciplinary proceedings against two employees. They have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the disciplinary proceedings.”
Officials would provide no information on the second employee.