Rock Falls woman nabbed on multiple local, multistate warrants

MORRISON – A Rock Falls woman wanted in Lee, Ogle and Whiteside counties, as well as several states, for failing to appear on a variety of low-level felony and misdemeanor offenses dating back at least four years, was arrested this week in Rock Falls.

Samantha J. Sliger, 33, was arrested around 1 p.m. Tuesday in the 1600 block of Riverdale Road, in a home in the Country Acres Mobile Home Park, Sheriff John Booker said in a news release Friday.

According to court records, Sliger lived in the park at one time. Whether that’s her current home was not provided.

She was charged Friday in Whiteside County Court with disorderly conduct, seven counts of theft and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, a glass pipe.

According to the charging document, on the day of her arrest Sliger stole mail from seven people and forced a man to make a false 911 call about the park, felonies punishable by one to three years in prison.

Sliger also was charged Friday in another case with possession of a stolen vehicle, an ATV, which carries three to seven years in prison, and another theft, also involving a mailed package. Both crimes occurred on Oct. 7, the charging document says.

She has three other open cases in Whiteside County. According to court records:

Sliger was charged Feb. 7 with aggravated identity theft for using a senior’s credit card to buy less than $300 worth of goods between July 12 and 13, 2022; she faces three to seven years in that case.

On October 5, 2020, she was charged with possession of methamphetamine, punishable by two to five years, possession of a controlled substance – 53 Aprazolam pills – and driving on a revoked license, which are punishable by one to three years each. She also was charged with misdemeanor obstructing identification.

On Aug. 14, 2019, Sliger was charged with theft. According to the charging document, on several days in December 2018, “in furtherance of a single intention and design,” she intentionally wrote 10 bad checks on her own account at several Sterling and Rock Falls businesses, totaling a little more than $2,000. This charge is punishable by two to five years.

It was accompanied by a charge of deceptive practices, which carries one to three years.

Her preliminary hearing is Nov. 15.

It appears the last time Sliger appeared in Whiteside County court was on Oct. 19, 2020, in the last two cases, court records show.

In Lee County, she was charged Oct. 8, 2021, with possessing fewer than five grams of meth the day before.

She is wanted in Ogle County for violating her probation. On March 26, 2021, she was sentenced to four years’ probation for a 2019 identity theft between $10,000 and $100,000 two years earlier. A charge of possession of a stolen vehicle and intent to steal were dismissed per a plea agreement.

According to Booker’s release, Sliger also is wanted in Stephenson County for forgery, in Winnebago County for driving while revoked, in Bettendorf, Iowa for eluding and having no valid driver’s license, and in Janesville, Wisconsin, for two counts of vehicle theft, fraud, attempting to elude and first-degree recklessly endangering safety.

The Janesville event occurred on June 17, 2019, and involved Sliger skipping out on a hotel bill worth more than $2,500. All charges but the nonpayment are felonies, a Rock County, Wisconsin court spokeswoman said.

The endangerment is the most serious offense, punishable by up to 12 years, six months in prison; the vehicle theft by up to six years; and fleeing by up to three and a half years.

Sliger, whose crimes and convictions – which date back to 2009 in Whiteside County – are not violent in nature, would normally be released under the terms of the SAFE-T Act, but she was being held to be sent to court appearances in each of the other six jurisdictions in which she is charged.

Only Illinois has no cash bail.