No. 88078 People v. Kotlarz

Appellate citation: No. 2--97--1194 (unpublished order under Supreme Court Rule 23).

Opinion by HARRISON, C.J.
BILANDIC and McMORROW, JJ., took no part.
HEIPLE, J., dissents [without opinion].

In 1992, the Illinois Toll Highway Authority made a sale of excess real estate which it did not need. This land was located west of Meyers Road on the north side of Interstate 88, in Du Page County. For some time, negotiations had been going on with Waste Management, Inc., as potential purchaser. No broker was involved. When the sale finally took place, the authority received $3.8 million. The buyer, however, paid $4,040,000.

The extra $240,000 paid by the purchaser but never received by the seller led to the criminal charges at issue in this appeal. Robert Hickman, Sr., who had been executive director of the authority, and his friend, Chicago attorney and former alderman Joseph Kotlarz, were both indicted for theft by deception. In nonjury proceedings, Kotlarz was convicted for his role in arranging, with Hickman, to have $240,000 designated as a brokerage fee and paid to a real estate company which kept $50,000 for itself and then passed $190,000 on to Kotlarz. His conviction was upheld by the appellate court in 1999.

In this appeal by Kotlarz, the Illinois Supreme Court rejected claims that the elements of theft by deception had not been shown and that it was unclear who the victim was. The supreme court agreed with the trial court's finding that, if Waste Management had known it could have purchased the property for $3.8 million, it would have done so, and if the Toll Highway Authority had known it could get $4,040,000 for the property, it would not have rejected it.

The results below were affirmed.