Feb. 07--Officials are investigating the death in Cook County Jail of a woman who was awaiting trial on a retail theft charge, four years after she pleaded guilty in a corruption probe.
Jaclyn P. Clair, 30, was found dead early Thursday in Jail Division 17, the primary women's section of the jail, and pronounced dead at 5:30 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office and sheriff's spokeswoman Sophia Ansari.
There was no indication of foul play, and the sheriff's office is investigating Clair's death as a possible suicide, Ansari said. The medical examiner's office determined following an autopsy Friday that Clair died from asphyxiation in a hanging and ruled her death a suicide,
Clair, who court records show lived in the 100 block of Andover Drive in Prospect Heights, had been booked into the jail Jan. 27 on a retail theft charge, Ansari said. Clair was being held without bail because she had been out on bond in a 2014 theft case at the time she was arrested, according to court records.
Her arrest took place when Norridge police were called to the Best Buy in the 4100 block of North Harlem Avenue in the northwest suburb a little before 9 a.m. Jan. 26, police said. Store employees told police Clair put something from a display in her purse and walked out, according to a police report. The merchandise was worth $169, but the Cook County state's attorney's office approved felony charges against Clair because of her conviction in a 2010 corruption case, according to police.
Clair was snared in 2010 as part of the Operation Cookie Jar investigation of corruption by the state's attorney's office and other investigators. Clair had formerly worked on the office staff of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 726 and was alleged to have forged the signature of her father -- a former Teamsters secretary and treasurer -- or another official to write checks from a union checking account to herself.
Clair forged 16 checks totaling about $4,000 from June to July 2008. After she was fired for the thefts, it was discovered that she had stolen nine more checks before she left the office.
Clair pleaded guilty in early 2011 and was sentenced to two years' probation and ordered to pay a $650 fine, according to the state's attorney's office and court records.
An autopsy was scheduled for Friday.
