A former Woodridge police officer
pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing thousands of dollars from a charity event
intended to benefit families of police officers killed in the line of duty.
Scott Webb, 40, remains in DuPage
County Jail awaiting sentencing in May, according to records. He did not seek a
plea deal and faces up to seven years in state prison, law enforcement
officials said.
Webb, who was involved in organizing
“crawlin’ for the fallen” pub crawls, diverted more than $30,000 from the
charity in 2009 and 2010, which he used as a “personal slush fund” to support a
lavish lifestyle, prosecutors said.
“I don’t know why he decided to do
what he did, but we’re just happy that it’s finally over with,” said Craig
Figgins, president of the Illinois Concerns of Police Survivors, the group Webb
stole from.
Webb, formerly of the 1700 block
Rebecca Drive in Romeoville, owned two homes, a Harley Davidson motorcycle and
several automobiles. The stolen money helped pay for his lifestyle, prosecutors
said at a court hearing last fall.
“I speak for all survivors when I
say he took money out of what we could do for the families of fallen officers,”
said Figgins, whose brother was a sergeant with the St. Charles police
department when he was killed in the line of duty in 2005.
After felony theft charges were
filed last spring, Webb was supposed to turn himself in. Instead he fled the
area after withdrawing $16,000 from his bank account, officials said.
He was taken into custody in October
in Branson, Mo., where authorities say he was living in an apartment under an
assumed name. His pickup truck was being stored in a shed, its Illinois license
plate replaced by one from Washington, D.C.
“Not only did Mr. Webb, a former
police officer himself, steal from the families of police officers who gave
their lives in the line of duty, he then fled the state to avoid responsibility
for his deplorable actions,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said
in a statement.
