Oct. 22--Nearly nine months after he admitted to misusing money meant for a police nonprofit, a former suburban police chief had his six-figure pension revoked Wednesday in a case that highlighted the legal debate on how and when to stop retirement checks to cops found to be corrupt.
State law requires a pension be taken away if an officer is convicted of a felony that relates to, arises out of or is connected with his or her work as an officer. Based on that, the Countryside police pension board voted 5-0 to stop sending pension checks to ex-Countryside Chief Timothy Swanson.
Swanson is serving a 27-month sentence in federal prison after pleading guilty in January to felony charges he committed fraud and pocketed money meant for a police helicopter program he ran while chief of Countryside and, later, as an employee in the Kankakee County sheriff's office.
The ruling caps a career of a man who once drew praise in law enforcement circles for starting the police helicopter program, and built on that notoriety to rise through the ranks of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police to become its president, a role in which he mingled with top state politicians. But Swanson was forced out of the association in 2012 after a Tribune investigation exposed questionable spending and other problems in his program.
In the years since, his program was shuttered. He lost the policing job in Kankakee County. He was indicted in March 2014, pleaded guilty in January, was sentenced in May and began serving his sentence in August.
Swanson argued to the pension board that he deserved to keep getting his $101,000-a-year pension because he really admitted only to wrongdoing related to "personal tax issues" concerning the nonprofit and a side firm he began, according to legal filings by his attorney. Those filings said his misdeeds were "of an individual nature" and had "nothing to do" with his job as chief.
However, the city of Countryside, which funds much of the pensions, argued Swanson should lose his pension because his job as chief was critical to his ability to commit the fraud. The military surplus helicopters were formally registered to the city, and Swanson put Countryside police logos on them. He worked on the nonprofit at times from his chief's office, solicited some donations while in uniform, signed some solicitation letters on Countryside letterhead using the title of chief, and had secretaries -- on city time -- solicit and track donations for the nonprofit before he retired at age 50 from Countryside in 2009.
In a quirk of Illinois law, despite losing his pension, Swanson may qualify for a significant check from the pension fund. State law calls for him to be paid his original employee contributions to his pension -- roughly $139,000 over the years -- minus pension payments the board sent him after he was formally convicted May 29. The pension board's attorney, Thomas Radja, said Swanson would have to apply to receive any money back, at which point the board would calculate the amount due.
Still, Wednesday's decision is a major financial loss for Swanson, 57, for crimes that prosecutors have said involved stealing more than $200,000 to build a new sun room, pay down a family credit card and prop up a for-profit business, among other things.
Federal court records show Swanson is already on the hook to pay $87,457.71 in restitution to Countryside, on top of $55,140 to the IRS and $229,128 to scores of his nonprofit's donors, including many area police departments. The restitution figure may have been lowered depending on the value of items Swanson has since forfeited to the government to begin paying off the debts -- something not detailed in court records.
His sentencing requires that, once he's released from prison, he put 20 percent of his disposable income toward paying off the rest of the restitution.
jmahr@tribpub.com
