April 07--A former suburban police officer was sentenced to two years of probation Monday for stealing more than $1,500 in cash from a man discovered dead in his room at a YMCA facility in Niles.
William Christie, 53, who was a veteran Niles cop at the time, offered no apologies before Cook County Circuit Judge Angela Petrone spared him a sentence of potentially up to five years in prison.
Christie had been taken into custody three weeks ago after the judge convicted him of a single felony count of theft following a bench trial.
Petrone told Christie she found it "particularly egregious" that the theft played out over several days and included reassurances in calls, emails and a card that he had turned over all the money to the dead man's family.
The judge ordered that he be evaluated for drug, alcohol and gambling addictions, reimburse the dead man's estate and stay out of trouble while on probation.
Several members of his family wept as the sentence was handed down to the father of four. They declined later to comment.
Christie was convicted of stealing the money -- including more than $500 in coins in a cardboard box -- after he responded to a call to the Leaning Tower YMCA in Niles after the man was found dead in November 2009 in a room where he had been residing.
Records from the Cook County medical examiner's office identified the victim as Larry Pollak, 57. An autopsy determined he died of cardiovascular disease.
Christie had been with the department for 27 years at the time of the theft. He resigned in the face of an internal departmental probe a few months before he was criminally charged in February 2010.
The town of Niles is seeking to revoke Christie's pension of about $4,000 a month, his attorneys said.
"He basically disgraced the badge," Assistant State's Attorney Daniel Weiss said in seeking a prison sentence.
Weiss told the judge that Christie was in trouble with the department twice before, including for stealing an instrument from a music store in Chicago's Jefferson Park neighborhood while off-duty. That resulted in a two-month suspension, he said.
But Irv Miller, one of Christie's attorneys, countered that a flute was mistakenly placed in a box with a saxophone Christie had rented for his son and that he never noticed.
After finding the body in November 2009, Christie sealed access to the room and then returned to the room several times over the following days, drawing suspicion and causing a staffer to contact police. Investigators set up surveillance cameras and recorded Christie stealing cash, including $355 in marked bills left there by investigators.
In the meantime, Christie contacted the victim's sister in California, offering to clean out the room. He then sent her $274, saying it was all he found in the brother's possession.
sschmadeke@tribune.com
