Judge ruling on whether to bar gambling evidence at Watseka woman's trial
WCIA's partners with the Ford County Chronicle reported that Dee Ann Schippert, 57 of Watseka, is charged with 33 felonies, including eight counts of theft of government property by deception, eight counts of forgery and 17 counts of official misconduct. Schippert appeared in a Kankakee courtroom for a pretrial hearing on Tuesday with her Springfield attorneys Mark Wykoff Sr. and Daniel Fultz.
Taylorville teens nearly derail train hauling hazardous materials by putting plates on tracks
In December, two motions were filed in limine by her attorneys, including one seeking a judge's order to prohibit evidence and testimony related to her gambling, arguing it's 'irrelevant.' In a response to this motion, Assistant Illinois Attorney General Haley Bookhout, who is prosecuting the case with Assistant Attorney General Mara Somlo, argued otherwise.
Bookhout said that this will show that over a 20-month span during the COVID-19 pandemic, Schippert spent at least 759 hours at a Watseka gambling establishment while she claimed she was working. This turned out to be an average of almost 38 hours per month.
According to online court records, William Dickenson, Kankakee County Judge, who was reassigned this case after it was filed in Iroquois County Circuit Court in 2024 due to the recusal of two Iroquois County judges, heard arguments from both sides during the March 18 hearing before taking the matter under advisement. The case was then continued to 1:30 p.m. on May 5 for a decision on the motion.
The second motion in limine filed by Schippert's attorneys, which aims to bar prosectors from introducing evidence or testimony at trial indicating that she does not support the 'LGBTQIA+ agenda,' was granted with no objection from prosecutors. Additionally, both sides were advised by the judge to 'obtain leave from court' if cross-examination may involve such testimony or evidence.
The charges filed against Schippert last March allege Schippert stole more than $100,000 from the health department between May 31, 2020, and July 15, 2022, by submitting fraudulent timesheets claiming hours she did not work, including overtime and backpay she never earned.
Springfield Clinic to lay off staff, cites 'financial challenges'
She also allegedly made 'false representations' to the board of health to obtain its approval to receive pay for 179 hours of overtime and fraudulently used funds from a grant for COVID-19 contact tracing to pay for her overtime. On top of this, Schippert allegedly committed 'whistleblower retaliation' through the act of firing an employee on June 15, 2022, after the staffer tipped off authorities to her conduct.
Prosecutors said they plan to present time-stamped video recordings from Winnie's Gaming Café at 1004 E Walnut St. in Watseka as evidence, plus witness testimony from county employees who said they often would see her vehicle parked there on weekdays during normal business hours.
Additionally, other evidence includes Schippert's cellphone and office call logs and her remote-access log-in information from her work laptop.
'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 on Jan. 24. '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.'
Schippert currently remains free from custody on pretrial conditions.
More information on the trial can be found on the Ford County Chronicle's website.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
44 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Visualizing the Plunge in Border Crossings Under Trump
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. After a slight rise in May, arrests of immigrants illegally crossing the United States border with Mexico are back on the decline, reaching near-record lows. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, shared the Border Patrol's apprehension numbers for June, with 6,070 arrests between official ports of entry. That's down from over 83,000 in June 2024 for a roughly 93 percent year-over-year decline. Why It Matters Trump returned to the White House promising a more secure southwest border, after nearly four years of high crossing numbers under former President Joe Biden. While deportations remain a focus, the administration's deliverance of this pledge is being widely celebrated as a victory for border security. What To Know June's Customs and Border Protection (CBP) figures are yet to officially be announced by the agency, but Homan has been sharing updates earlier over the past few months. Numbers had been on the decline since June 2024, but the pace quickened following Inauguration Day. January, when Biden was still in office, saw 29,116 arrests, with that number dropping sharply to 8,347 in February. Click the play button on the graphic below to see how crossings have declined. The plunge comes after Trump effectively shut off crossings at official ports of entry for migrants seeking asylum or other forms of entry via the Biden-era CBP One app. Mexico has also been playing a greater role in keeping immigrants passing through the country from reaching the U.S. border. A similar drop occured in 2017 during the first year of Trump's first term, before numbers began trending upwards again until the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. That drop did not last for long, with numbers climbing during the tail-end of Trump's first term through the Biden administration and peaking in December 2023, at 249,740 apprehensions. During that period, a stretched CBP released many immigrants into the U.S. interior while they waited for their cases to be heard. Trump pledged to end that policy, known as "catch-and-release," and last month there were zero migrants apprehended by the Border Patrol who were then released into the country. Border Patrol Agent Rood, right, talks with Border Patrol Agent Gutierrez as they drive along the two border walls separating Mexico and the United States, Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in San Diego. Border Patrol Agent Rood, right, talks with Border Patrol Agent Gutierrez as they drive along the two border walls separating Mexico and the United States, Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in San Diego. AP Photo/Gregory Bull What People Are Saying Tom Homan, on X: "President Trump has created the most secure border in the history of the nation and the data proves it. We have never seen numbers this low. Never. God bless the men and women of the US Border Patrol and God bless the men and women of ICE. The interior arrests and consequences help to drive down illegal immigration. The TRUMP EFFECT keeps America winning." President Trump, speaking in Florida Tuesday: "With the help of those incredible Border Patrol agents, we now have the lowest level of daily border crossings ever recorded... Last month, the number of illegal aliens into the United States was zero... But there's still much work to do." Democratic Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, on NBC's Meet The Press: "No, I don't give [Trump admin] credit for that — border crossings are low because they're violating the law every day. We have a law in this country that says if you are fleeing terror or torture from another country, you can come here and apply for asylum. The Trump administration has suspended that law." What's Next CBP has been dismantling temporary holding facilities used at the peak of the border crisis, saying they are no longer needed. The agency will provide its official rundown of June's actions later this month.
Miami Herald
8 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Feds arrest scores in $14 billion Medicare/Medicaid fraud. South Florida high on list
As always, the numbers boggle the mind. The Justice Department on Monday unveiled new healthcare fraud charges against 324 defendants nationwide, including 37 in South Florida, who were recently arrested as part of the government's annual take-down initiative. Overall, Justice Department officials said 96 doctors, nurses and pharmacists were among those arrested across all 50 states. Authorities said the defendants submitted more than $14.6 billion in falsified bills to the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs as well as to private insurers, describing the magnitude of fraud as the 'largest' in U.S. history — more than double the prior record of $6 billion. The alleged schemes, fueled by stolen identities, financial kickbacks and fabricated bills, continue to plague the medical equipment, genetic testing and painkiller sectors, among others. READ MORE: Kendall companies and doctors pay $810,000 to settle Medicare fraud charges In a statement, Attorney General Pam Bondi described the array of defendants as 'criminal actors who prey upon our most vulnerable citizens and steal from hardworking American taxpayers.' Agents with the FBI and Health and Human Services seized more than $245 million in cash, luxury vehicles, cryptocurrency and other assets nationwide, authorities said during a news conference in Washington on Monday. But while that number may seem huge, it pales next to the government's losses to healthcare fraud every year, according to experts. South Florida, often described as the capital of fraud, continues to be among the hardest-hit regions in the country. For all of its resources committed to fighting the schemes, including data analytics, the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs for the elderly and indigent continue to lose untold sums to fraud, waste and abuse because they routinely pay bills quickly — leaving law enforcement to chase after offenders who cheat the system after payments land in their pockets. Authorities say the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has reduced the rate of 'improper payments' — a combination of 'fraud, waste and abuse' — to 7.46% for the 2022 fiscal year compared with 9.51% in fiscal year 2017, the latest comparisons available. But the federal agency has never publicly disclosed the total amount of improper payments that should not have been made or were made in the wrong amount. Experts estimate that CMS, with an annual budget of $850 billion funded with payroll taxes, loses tens of billions yearly as a result of improper payments. Here are a few South Florida cases filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami during the national take-down: ▪ Dave Sudarshan Singh, 37, of Pembroke Pines, was charged on Thursday with conspiracy to commit healthcare and money laundering for submitting false claims to Medicare for over-the-counter COVID-19 tests — tests that beneficiaries, including some who were deceased, had not requested. An indictment accused Singh and others of using his business, MDP Products and Services, Inc., to file over $14.1 million in bogus claims to Medicare between 2022 and 2023. Medicare, in turn, paid Singh's business about $13 million for the over-the-counter tests, which did not qualify for reimbursements, prosecutors said. His arraignment is pending. ▪ Lazaro Delgado, 59, of Miami, was charged last week with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, alleging he and others submitted false Medicare and Medicaid bills for orthotic braces on behalf of unsuspecting beneficiaries. Prosecutors said Delgado acted as an intermediary to place a nominal owner as the head of Hucel Custom Med Inc., while other co-conspirators coordinated the phony claims for durable medical equipment products that the beneficiaries did not need. In 2022, Hucel fraudulently billed Medicare/Medicaid for about $9 million worth of orthotic braces and received government reimbursements of $1.8 million. His arraignment is pending. ▪ Marlen Veliz Rios, 58, of Hialeah, owner of Loves Community Health Mental Health Inc., was charged last week with health care fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. An indictment accused Veliz Rios of scheming with others to bill more than $15.3 million worth of wound care and skin graft products on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries who never did not need them or receive them. As a result, Medicare paid her company about $10 million. Further, the indictment accused Veliz Rios of transferring the money from Loves' bank account to shell companies under her control and then to others in the alleged laundering scheme. As part of the probe, federal agents have seized $4.6 million from her various accounts, prosecutors said. Her arraignment is pending.
Chicago Tribune
21 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Alleged co-conspirator linked to Loretto Hospital scandal pleads not guilty
The owner of two allegedly fraudulent COVID-19 testing labs linked to a disgraced ex-executive of Loretto Hospital pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges he was part of a sprawling fraud scheme that siphoned more than $290 million in federal funds for testing that never occurred. Mahmood Sami Khan, 36, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel McLaughlin in a 13th-floor courtroom at Dirksen Federal Courthouse Tuesday afternoon about two weeks after he was arrested in Texas on charges of wire fraud and money laundering. At the arraignment, McLaughlin released Khan from electronic monitoring and slightly expanded his travel limitations, among other changes to provisions first ordered after his June 17 arrest. Prosecutors and Khan's attorney had previously argued in court records over whether Khan intended to keep working for Anosh Ahmed, the previously indicted ex-CFO of Austin safety-net hospital Loretto Hospital and the lead defendant in a recently unsealed case against Khan and two other men. Prosecutors said in court documents that Ahmed, who fled to Dubai before he was charged, appears to have helped others involved in the cases against him leave the country and asked that McLaughlin keep Khan on electronic monitoring to prevent his potential escape. McLaughlin said he was not it was clear that Khan had 'significant' ties in the U.S. and noted that he had known about the investigation for some time but not fled. 'I know there was a private jet and this and that, but my understanding is that he wasn't on that jet,' McLaughlin said. Prosecutors had accused Khan in a June 30 filing of angling to keep in touch with his alleged co-conspirators and specifically that he intended to continue working for Ahmed. They alleged Ahmed, who fled to Dubai before he was charged in 2024, has helped others implicated in the investigation leave the country. 'Ahmed's conduct shows he is able and willing to pay for his co-schemers to flee to Dubai, to prevent them from having any opportunity to be a witness against Ahmed,' the filing stated. 'If Khan continues to have contact with Ahmed, his risk of flight is heightened by having the available resources and opportunities.' But Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg said Tuesday that she and Khan's attorney Gabrielle Sansonetti had clarified before the hearing that Khan was in fact willing to forego contact with a previously drafted list of witnesses and alleged co-defendants and not work for Ahmed. Khan, whose wife, two sisters and mother were present in the first row of the courtroom along with several pieces of luggage, left the hearing barred from contact with witnesses and alleged co-defendants as well as any employment with Ahmed or any entities he owns or manages. Prosecutors allege Khan owned and operated a pair of labs in Texas between December 2021 and June 2022 as part of a company that Ahmed used to submit false reimbursement claims for COVID-19 testing on samples 'purportedly collected from uninsured individuals, knowing that such testing had not occurred.' If convicted of the charges, Khan could face what amounts to the rest of his life in prison and up to about $605 million in penalties for five counts of wire fraud and money laundering, according to court records. Prosecutors allege in a recently unsealed indictment that Khan, Ahmed and co-defendants Mohamed Sirajudeen, 53, and Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry, 34 used laboratories in Illinois and Texas to submit nearly $900 million in false claims to the government from April 2021 to June 2022. They were reimbursed for $293,221,468, according to the indictment. Ahmed was charged in 2024 with embezzling $15 million from Loretto Hospital, an Austin safety-net hospital from which he resigned in 2021 amid a maelstrom of controversy around improperly doling out COVID-19 vaccinations at the height of the pandemic. A motion filed June 29 stated that besides being placed on electronic monitoring, Khan was also barred from working for any firm that received federal funding and required to turn over his bank records, not incur new debt and submit to regular credit checks as conditions of his bail. McLaughlin on Tuesday afternoon struck the provision that Khan could not work for a company that received federal money, saying he wasn't sure how Khan would be able to determine that while searching for a job. Khan is also close to his family in Texas and helps to care for his disabled sister, which makes him unlikely to pose a flight risk before trial, Sansonetti argued. The motion asks that McLaughlin authorize a relative as a third-party custodian to Khan while the case makes its way to trial.
