People v. Fuchs

2021 IL App 200118-U

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CYNTHIA L. FUCHS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 4-20-0118

Court of Appeals of Illinois, Fourth District

August 27, 2021

This Order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).

Appeal from the Circuit Court of Sangamon County No. 19CF710 Honorable Adam Giganti, Judge Presiding.

JUSTICE HARRIS delivered the judgment of the court. Justices DeArmond and Steigmann concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

HARRIS, JUSTICE

¶ 1 Held: The trial court did not consider improper aggravating sentencing factors or fail to consider mitigating evidence.

¶ 2 On November 13, 2019, defendant, Cynthia L. Fuchs, pleaded guilty to theft (720 ILCS 5/16-1(a)(1)(A) (West 2016)). The trial court sentenced defendant to seven years' imprisonment. Defendant appeals, arguing the court erred in its sentence because it relied on improper sentencing factors and failed to consider certain mitigating evidence. We affirm.

¶ 3 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 4 On July 16, 2019, the State charged defendant with theft (720 ILCS 5/16-1(a)(1)(A) (West 2016)), alleging that between October 1, 2010, and October 6, 2017, defendant stole between $100, 000 and $500, 000 in United States currency and Microsoft rebates from her employer, the Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities (Federation). The offense was charged as a Class 1 felony. In November 2019, defendant entered an open guilty plea, which the trial court accepted.

¶ 5 On December 20, 2019, the trial court conducted defendant's sentencing hearing. During the hearing, the State called Detective Shawn Daubs of the Springfield Police Department. Detective Daubs testified that, in 2018, he had been assigned to investigate defendant's conduct and concluded that between 2010 and 2017, defendant "had continuously and repeatedly" stolen money from the Federation, including from a Federation account containing money from a federal grant called Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS). Detective Daubs further testified that defendant was an administrator on the Foundation's TPS account and used her position to write numerous checks from that account to herself and to family members. According to Detective Daubs, the value of the checks defendant wrote to herself from the TPS account totaled $148, 295.70. Defendant also wrote checks to her sister which totaled $97, 545.77 and wrote checks to other family members which totaled $5274.50. In addition, Detective Daubs testified that defendant charged personal expenses, including repairs to her car and vacations for herself and her family members, to a credit card in the Federation's name and paid the credit card expenses from the TPS account. Defendant would also charge the Federation's credit card for business-related expenses claim that she had paid the expenses out of pocket, and receive reimbursement from the Federation. Finally, Detective Daubs testified that defendant improperly deposited into the TPS account rebates that the Federation received from its use of certain computer programs "in an apparent attempt to replace some of the money that she had been stealing." In total, according to Detective Daubs, defendant had stolen more than $375, 000 from the Federation. Regarding defendant's financial circumstances at the time of the hearing, Detective Daubs testified that defendant received Social Security benefits and did not have any other assets. Detective Daubs continued that defendant had emptied her retirement account, her home was in foreclosure, and before she was arrested, she had been living with a family member.

¶ 6 The State also called David Tretter, the president of the Federation. Tretter testified that defendant began working for the Federation in 1991 and worked her way up to become vice president for administrative services, earning an annual salary of $102, 000. Tretter also testified that, before defendant was terminated in 2017, she had been a "trusted employee" who had access to all the Federation's bank accounts and whose responsibilities included paying the Federation's bills and writing checks on its behalf. According to Tretter, defendant's actions had "a profound effect" on the Federation and "it took a considerable amount of time and effort on the staff's part to put the puzzle back together and get the organization back up and running." Tretter further testified that, as part of defendant's employment, she had participated in a retirement savings program and that, at one point during her employment, she had approximately $350 000 in her retirement account. However, according to Tretter, defendant had liquidated that account. Tretter described the withdrawals from the retirement account as follows: "It was over a period of years, aggressively the last-'13, '14, '15, '16, '17 would be the bulk of it."

¶ 7 In mitigation, defendant called Laurie Fuchs, defendant's daughter-in-law. Laurie testified that defendant had four sons and that two of her sons, Eric and Adam, were "the source of [defendant']s financial issues." Laurie explained that Eric and Adam were addicted to controlled substances and constantly demanded money from defendant and threatened her. According to Laurie, on one occasion in 2019, Adam struck defendant and threatened to throw defendant off her apartment balcony. Laurie testified that defendant complied with Eric's and Adam's demands for money out of "a combination of love and fear," giving the two over $100, 000 in the four years preceding the sentencing hearing alone. Defendant initially hid her financial issues from Laurie, but Laurie eventually learned defendant had cashed out her retirement savings and she was deeply in debt.

¶ 8 Defendant also presented several letters in mitigation which were consistent with Laurie's testimony, indicating that, since 2009, Eric and Adam had pressured defendant into giving them money to support their drug habits. For example, defendant's sister wrote the following:

"Those boys have taken everything from [defendant]. They took her home, her car; they threaten her every day for money for drugs. They have been in prison, have not worked in years, they have also been physically abusive to her. *** They have threaten[ed] to throw her out of a 12th floor window, one of them beat a cat to death in front of her, knocked her down and broke her glasses. They scare the whole family."

¶ 9 Defendant made a statement in allocution. According to defendant," [e]ven though [she] worked and made a good salary, [she] couldn't keep up with the money [Eric and Adam] needed to support *** [their] out-of-control drug habits and all that goes along with that." She continued, "[t]here was never enough money to support their habits. That's when things started spiraling out of control and I started taking money from the Federation." Defendant concluded that she was "so sorry and ashamed for the things that [she] did to enable [her sons'] drug addiction."

¶ 10 Following the presentation of evidence, the State and defense counsel presented argument. The State requested defendant be sentenced to 10 years in prison, and defense counsel requested probation. Ultimately, the trial court sentenced defendant to seven years in prison. In issuing its sentence, the court stated, in relevant part, as follows:

"I have considered the factual basis, presentence investigation report, and the addendum; the history character, and attitude of the defendant; also the letters of support that were submitted along with the other exhibits that have been submitted; the evidence presented, the argument of each of the attorneys, and of course, the statement of allocution made by the defendant. I've also considered the statutory factors in aggravation and mitigation and having due regard for the circumstances of this particular offense.

* * *

Now, I do note that [defendant's] sons[, ] Eric and Adam[, ] through her testimony and through [defendant's] witness indicated that there is a drug problem. According to the amount of money that she gave them-I don't know the exact amount; that was never really made clear-but it would have to be an incredible drug problem, monumental drug problem to justify the amount of money that she's claiming she gave to them. At best, she facilitated or enabled their drug habit and kept it hidden.

***

I note that [defendant] had no alcohol or drug problem, at least none that I've been made aware of. And this step took place over conservatively a seven-year period of time. And she worked at the Federation for many years, over 25 years. That goes back to what I first said. And I underlined. Trust. That's building up trust. During that period of time, she's earning an income in excess of $100, 000. Not to mention whatever other benefits and pension, retirement.

Many, many people would be incredibly happy with that type of income. Now, though, afterwards, she claims she only has income of approximately $2, 000 in Social Security, only approximately $100 in checking and savings accounts, and some $75, 000 in debt. She cashed in her retirement. Over $300, 000. I'm not 100 percent sure as to when that happened, but it's my belief from the testimony and evidence presented it was done towards the end of her tenure at the Federation. In other words, it wasn't done over this period of time of 10 years. It was done towards the end. She consciously made the decision to use the Federation's credit cards for her own personal use over and over and over.

As I previously mentioned, she cashed in her retirement over $300, 000. Did that all go to Eric and Adam? Where did that go? It's gone. Could be insinuated that it was taken out to avoid having to pay any restitution

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