Former booster club president going to jail for stealing $10K

(WHEATON) The former president of a west suburban high school booster club be going to jail after admitting she stole more than $10,000 from the group while serving as an officer of the group, according to prosecutors.

Dorothy “Dee” Horky, 59, of Carol Stream, who once served as president of the Wheaton North Booster Club, will now be spending 75 days in the DuPage County Jail after pleading guilty April 24 to one count of theft over $10,000, a statement from the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office said.

Judge Daniel Guerin, who accepted the blind guilty plea, also sentenced Horky to two years of probation, and counseling after her release, the statement said.

From May 2006 until May 2011, Horky served as president of the booster club and was given a group American Express card in her name, prosecutors said. In November 2012, inconsistencies were found in the books and Wheaton police were notified.

The investigation pointed to Horky, who prosecutors said lied to other club officials that she had destroyed the American Express card after her term as president was up.

Prosecutors also said that from July 2012 through November 2012, Horky took cash advances of $10,985.53 from the credit card, then withdrew $9,838.32 from a booster club bank account and transferred it to pay off the cash advances.

On March 7, 2013, an arrest warrant was issued and Horky turned herself in four days later, posting $500 bail. She remained free on bail until Sept. 12, when she was arrested for missing a court hearing.

“As president of the Wheaton North Booster Club, Dorothy Horky was entrusted with promoting extra-curricular activities for the students at Wheaton North High School,” state’s attorney Robert Berlin said in the statement. “She repaid that trust by stealing more than $10,000 earmarked for the benefit of the student body.”

Horky has already made full monetary restitution to the booster club, prosecutors said. She will receive credit for 21 days served at the jail.