Accused kidnapper pleads not guilty to 16 felony charges

MORRISON – A masked and armed Chad Schipper cuffed Larry and Connie VanOosten to their bed and threatened to kill them – and their family – if they did not pay him. The ransom? $350,000.

That's according to information contained in an amended complaint charging Schipper with 16 felonies, to which he pleaded not guilty Tuesday morning.

Schipper – wan, thin and graying, all but lost in a Beetlejuice-style gray-striped Whiteside County Jail uniform – waived his right to a preliminary hearing and was arraigned on the charges, which now include aggravated battery and several other new felonies.

Judge Stanley Steines vacated Tuesday's preliminary hearing and set a pretrial conference for March 28, and Schipper's jury trial for April 18. He is being held on $1 million bond.

Schipper originally pleaded not guilty to home invasion with a firearm, aggravated kidnapping with ransom, aggravated kidnapping with concealed identity and aggravated kidnapping armed with a firearm.

He now is charged with home invasion with a firearm, two counts of armed violence, two counts of aggravated kidnapping with ransom, two counts of aggravated kidnapping with concealed identity, two counts of aggravated kidnapping with a firearm, and two counts of aggravated kidnapping while armed with a stun gun, all of which carry 6 to 30 years in prison; theft by threat of between $100,000 and $500,000, which carries 4 to 15 years; and two counts of aggravated battery while wearing a hood, robe or mask, and two counts of aggravated unlawful restraint, all of which carry 2 to 5 years.

Newly appointed State's Attorney Terry Costello is asking for a sentence enhancement of 15 years for the home invasion and aggravated kidnapping with a firearm charges, and for a minimum of 15 years for the armed violence charges.

The amended complaint was filed Thursday. Schipper is represented by Whiteside County Public Defender James Heuerman.

Investigators say the 40-year-old Geneseo man broke into the Erie couple's home on Feb. 7, threatened to shoot them with a handgun and handcuffed them to their bed. He also used a stun gun to force the VanOostens to cooperate, the amended complaint said.

According to published reports and the complaint, Schipper removed them from their home, and put them in a secret room in an unoccupied home he owns in rural Geneseo. Around 4 p.m. the next day, he took them to First Trust and Savings Bank in Albany and forced them to obtain a $350,000 cashier's check as ransom. Suspicious bank employees notified police that they thought the VanOostens had been abducted, and a description of the car was made public.

Schipper was arrested at 4:45 a.m. the next day after fleeing police who tried to pull him over, then crashing his car on state Route 84 north of Port Byron.

The VanOostens were found 15 minutes later in the home. Schipper was hospitalized in Illini Hospital in Silvis with unspecified injuries until Sunday afternoon, when he was taken to jail with his right arm in a cast.

Schipper, an Erie High School graduate and father of six, opened Schipper Financial Services LLC, which he runs out of his home at 14163 Wolf Road, on July 12, 2013. It is registered with the state of Illinois, but Schipper has not been a registered investment adviser or broker since September 2013, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which regulates businesses and people selling securities in the U.S.

According to his affidavit seeking a public defender, Schipper is unemployed.

According to a GoFundMe account to help Schipper's wife, Donielle, a stay-at-home mom, and their children, set up by her sister, Randin Joy Letendre, Chad Schipper "destroyed countless lives by taking and squandering the investments of those who trusted him" and kept the family's financial information to himself. She learned after his arrest that "there is no money; they have lost their home due to delinquent taxes ... and that he ran up over $180,000 worth of credit card debt in her name alone," Letendre said. As of Tuesday afternoon, the effort has raised $7,220 of its $200,000 goal.

Schipper has not been charged with any financial crimes.

According to Rock Island County Court records, though, he is being sued for more than $50,000 in three civil suits stemming from a 2014 traffic accident in which he rear-ended a stopped car and set off a chain reaction accident.

The VanOostens and their daughter, Amy Powell, own Quality Interiors, an interior design and gift shop in Erie. They have not answered requests for interviews.