Former Iroquois County official accused of gambling while being on the clock

Attorneys for former Iroquois County Public Health administrator Dee Ann Schippert argued in a motion that her allegedly gambling for more than 750 hours while claiming to be on the clock for her job is not relevant to the charges against her.

According to charging documents, the 58-year-old Schippert stole more than $100,000 from the health department between May 31, 2020, and July 15, 2022, and has been charged with eight felony counts of theft of government property, eight forgery felonies and 17 felony counts of official misconduct.

Shippert’s attorneys are asking Kankakee County Circuit Judge William Dickenson to deny prosecutors’ attempt to use video footage from a Watseka business showing Schippert gambling, as well as witness testimony regarding Schippert gambling.

Springfield attorneys Mark Wykoff Sr. and Daniel Fultz argued that under Schippert’s board of health employment agreement, she was required to work at least 40 hours per week.

However, the agreement did not specify the days of the week or hours of the day her work should be performed, according to a story published in the Ford County Chronicle Jan. 31.

In their motion filed in December, Schippert’s attorneys noted that the agreement did not state which activities she was permitted to perform or prohibited from performing during her “128 hours per week that constituted her personal and discretionary time,” the Ford County Chronicle story said.

The motion argued: “Permitting the state to present speculative evidence and/or elicit testimony that (Schippert) was engaged in vice, as opposed to being fully engaged in her duties, would serve no purpose other than to inflame the passions of the jury,” the Ford County Chronicle story said.

Assistant Attorneys General Mara Somlo and Haley Bookhout are prosecuting the case for Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s Public Integrity Bureau.

Bookhout argued in the response that while Schippert’s employment agreement did not specify her daily work schedule, it did specify that Schippert was to work at least 40 hours a week — which, the evidence shows, she did not, the Ford County Chronicle story said.

“Records and witness testimony, … including evidence of hours spent gaming, are expected to demonstrate that, while the Defendant was reporting to ICPHD employees, the board of health and the county board that she was working all hours of the day, she was, in fact, not working her required hours, much less the additional overtime claimed,” according to the Ford County Chronicle story.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, prosecutors argue Schippert spent at least 759 hours gambling at Winnie’s Gaming Cafe located in the 1000 block of East Walnut Street in Watseka while claiming to be performing her duties as administrator of the Iroquois County Public Health Department, prosecutors alleged in a recent court filing, the Ford County Chronicle story said.

“The People intend to present evidence from both witnesses as well as documentary records reviewed during the investigation to demonstrate that the Defendant was not only not working her required 40 hours per week (but) was also falsifying her overtime hours in order to receive overtime pay,” Bookhout wrote. “Evidence of her hours spent at Winnie’s, coupled with other evidence obtained, is both highly relevant and necessary to the People’s case-in-chief,” according to the Ford County Chronicle story.

Between March 2020 and July 2022, Schippert claimed on her biweekly timesheets and was paid for more than 1,830 hours of overtime, including more than 1,500 hours spent on COVID-19 contact tracing alone, Bookhout said in her filing.

While Schippert told health department staff and board members that she would often work daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. taking work-related phone calls related to contract tracing, her personal cellphone and office-phone call logs challenge that contention, Bookhout said.

Schippert is charged with:

• Two counts of theft of government property, Class X felonies punishable by up to 30 years in prison;

• Six additional Class 1 felony counts of theft of government property, each punishable by up to 15 years in prison;

• Eight counts of forgery, Class 3 felonies punishable by up to five years in prison; and

• 17 counts of official misconduct, Class 3 felonies each punishable by up to five years in prison.

Sentences are ultimately determined by the court and can run concurrently.

Dickenson released her on pretrial services during the pendency of the case.

The next court date is 9:30 a.m., March 14 in Kankakee, according to court records.

Beginning in 2015, Schippert was the Iroquois Public Health administrator.

Prior to that, she had more than 20 years of experience working with the Iroquois County Public Health Department, according to a news release after Schippert was arrested March 24, 2024.

While in the administrator role, Raoul’s office alleges from May 2020 to July 2022, Schippert knowingly deceived the government by misrepresenting to the Iroquois County’s Board of Health how much work and what type work she did.

This action included submitting multiple fraudulent timesheets claiming regular and overtime work hours she did not actually work.