Ex-Stroger Aide Out Of Jail After Posting Bond
CHICAGO (CBS) -- After spending three nights behind bars, a disgraced former top aide to Cook County Board President Todd Stroger was released from jail Thursday afternoon when she posted bond.
Stroger's former deputy chief of staff, Carla Oglesby, walked out of Cook County Jail around 3 p.m. Thursday after coming up with $25,000 bail -- the 10 percent of her $250,000 bond required to get her out of jail, according to the Cook County Sheriff's office.
Oglesby spent Tuesday and Wednesday night in protective custody at jail at her own request while her family tried to come up with money to post her bond.
Oglesby, 41, was arrested Monday on charges alleging she steered $300,000 worth of public relations contracts to her own PR firm and to affiliated companies that did little to no work. The contracts were no-bid deals worth less than $25,000 each, meaning they did not require approval of the county board.
She faces felony charges of theft of government property in excess of $100,000, official misconduct and money laundering. Oglesby resigned from her post in Stroger's office Tuesday.
Once a rap promoter running her own public relations firms, Oglesby became a campaign spokesperson for Stroger in final months of his losing bid for re-election this year. After losing the Feb. 2 primary, Stroger hired her to become his $120,000-a-year deputy chief of staff.
Authorities allege that almost from the start, Oglesby was sniffing around for county contracts, hoping to line her pockets and those of her friends.
According to court records, she first steered a no-bid contract to her privately-owned public relations firm CGC Communications. The firm won a $24,975 deal to get the word out to county residents about federal relief money available to the them if their property was damaged in the 2008 floods.
One county employee told investigators that she was asked to hurriedly prepare press releases in April regarding the flood relief grants because of concerns the "feds" would take the money back if the county could not provide proof any work was being done, according to court documents.
However, prosecutors said, Oglesby later provided those press releases and other materials produced by county employees to investigators — and claimed CGC had done the work.
Alvarez has said the investigation into her alleged contract rigging hasn't ended.
"This remains an active investigation. It is an ongoing investigation. We will continue to work each and every day on uncovering corruption," Alvarez said Tuesday.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
