South suburban Chicago library exec charged with stealing over $40,000
MARKHAM, Ill. (CBS) -- A fraud scheme rocked has south suburban Markham – with a longtime library worker now charged with stealing tens of thousands of dollars.
Authorities said the theft has been going on for years.
Christal Beyer is now the director of the Markham Public Library, and she takes humble pride in her role.
"I'm a community servant," Beyer said. "It's all about serving the community."
Yet before Beyer stepped into the role, the library was hit with its first scandal. The former director, Xavier Menzies, was indicted on charges of embezzling nearly $800,000 for nearly a decade.
So the board moved longtime employee Bridget Roland into the interim director position. Yet when Beyer was hired, she looked at the payroll and noticed Roland was making more than she.
Court and police records showed soon after stepping into the interim role, Roland on Dec. 24, 2019, changed her salary from $74,100 to $78,000 a year. Two weeks later on Jan. 7, 2020, she gave herself another bump in pay to $83,200.
"Any kind of pay increase for staff has to be officially approved by the library board," said Beyer.
Court records reveal the salary change was "unauthorized." Beyer did her duty and launched a probe.
"Numbers don't lie," Beyer said. "That's it, really, and there's no getting around it."
After 30 years, Roland was fired. This week, the 62-year-old was officially charged with theft greater than $500.
"It was a terrible thing to find something so underhanded and shady in public libraries," said Beyer, "because I'm passionate about public libraries."
And investigators say Roland was passionate about padding her paycheck. It wasn't just the bump in pay – she is also accused of racking in a total of $16,652.25 to her pension, for a combined total of $43,752.25 stolen altogether.
"It's tax dollars, and it's misappropriation of funds," Roland said.
This was money Beyer said could be used to maintain the computer labs and more.
"I'm here to assure you that everything is going to be handled properly," Beyer said.
CBS 2 reached out to Roland's attorney, who was with her when she turned herself in to Markham police this week. He has not gotten back to CBS 2 about these charges.