Essex Township clerk charged with stealing $94K in taxpayer money

SHARE Essex Township clerk charged with stealing $94K in taxpayer money
freytag.jpg

Traci Freytag | Aiken County, South Carolina, sheriff’s office

A downstate township clerk has been charged with stealing $94,000 of taxpayer money.

Essex Township Clerk Traci Freytag was arrested Wednesday in Aiken, South Carolina, according to a statement from the Illinois attorney general’s office. She was charged with one count of theft of government property, one count of financial institution fraud and two counts of official misconduct, all felonies. Essex Township is about 20 miles west of Kankakee.

Freytag, 50, lives in Essex — about 20 miles west of Kankakee — and was appointed township clerk in August 2014, the attorney general’s office said.

Between November 2014 and May 2016, prosecutors claim she deposited about $94,000 of Essex Township checks into her personal bank account and used the money for personal expenses, including two trips to Florida.

As the clerk, Freytag had access to the township’s bank accounts and the ability to write checks from those accounts, prosecutors said. Her scheme was uncovered when a township employee’s payroll check bounced and it was discovered that the township’s account had been “completely depleted.”

“Stealing taxpayer money to use for personal enjoyment is a brazen form of public corruption,” Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in the statement.

Freytag will be transported to Kankakee to face the charges against her, according to the attorney general’s office. If convicted, she could face up to 15 years in prison.

The Latest
The two were driving in an alley just before 5 p.m. when several people started shooting from two cars, police said.
No Jimmy Butler, no problem for “Heat Culture,” as Miami jumped on the Bulls midway through the first quarter and never let go the rest of the night. With this Bulls roster falling short yet again, some serious soul searching to do, starting with free agent DeMar DeRozan.
The statewide voter turnout of 19.07% is the lowest for a presidential primary election since at least 1960, according to Illinois State Board of Elections figures.
“There’s all kinds of dangers that can happen,” said Itai Segre, a teacher who lives in Roscoe Village with family in Jerusalem.
Sandra Kolalou, 37, denied killing and then cutting up Frances Walker in 2022 at the Northwest Side home they shared.