On Thursday, President Joe Biden granted clemency to nearly 1,500 people currently serving time for a variety of crimes. One of the sentences that was commuted was the 20-year prison sentence of former Dixon Comptroller Rita Crundwell. Crundwell pled guilty in 2012 to stealing $54 million from taxpayers in what is considered to be the largest act of municipal theft in U.S. History.
Upon learning that her sentence had been commuted, State Senator Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport) issued the following statement:
“Outgoing President Joe Biden’s decision to commute the sentence of Rita Crundwell is nothing short of a slap in the face to the people of Dixon and the surrounding areas. Her crimes did not only affect the taxpayers of Dixon, but they also had a rippling effect across the region and state, as communities became subject to stricter, more tedious regulations. First, it was the pardoning of his son, and now Biden is apparently extending clemency to anyone with political connections, including corrupt government employees. It’s sickening.”