Officer William Christie Accused of Stealing from Dead Man

After the discovery of the body of a resident at the Leaning Tower YMCA in Niles, village police officer William Christie reached out to the man's sister, offered to clean out the room and later even sent her $274 in cash he said he found among the possessions.

But Christie's gestures didn't turn out to be so magnanimous, authorities charged Thursday.

Instead, the veteran officer had himself pocketed about $1,700, including more than $500 in coins he carted off in a cardboard box from the dead man's room, the charges alleged.

Investigators captured the theft on a video camera hidden in the YMCA room, authorities said. YMCA staffers had grown suspicious and alerted Niles police after Christie attempted to access the room repeatedly in the days after the resident's death. In a sting operation, police had even added marked bills to the stash left by the resident.

Christie, 48, a Niles officer for 27 years, surrendered to authorities Thursday at the Skokie Courthouse on theft and official misconduct charges following an investigation by his own department and the Cook County state's attorney's office. He was released after posting 10 percent of $50,000 bail. His attorney, Terry Sullivan, declined to comment.

"We take these types of allegations very seriously," Niles Police Chief Dean Strzelecki said in a telephone interview. "If we had not acted immediately, (the money) would have been all gone."

Christie resigned from the department in late November, just a day before Strzelecki was expected to present evidence of the theft to the village's police and fire board.

Court records show that Christie was facing severe financial difficulties. Last March a bank moved to foreclose on his $680,000 Niles house, saying he and his wife hadn't made a mortgage payment for almost a year. That lawsuit is still ongoing in Cook County Circuit Court.

In mid-2008 Christie and his wife filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors. He reported more than $750,000 in liabilities, including $81,000 in credit-card debt. His mortgage payment totaled $3,742 a month, according to the records, and he said he and his wife had only $20 cash in hand.

Police and prosecutors declined to release the name of the resident whose decomposed body was discovered Nov. 9 at the YMCA at 6300 W. Touhy Ave. in Niles, but records from the Cook County medical examiner's office identified him as Larry Pollak, 57. An autopsy determined he had died of cardiovascular disease.

On the night Pollak was found, authorities alleged, Christie made an odd request. He told YMCA staff that he would be off-duty for the next three days but that if anyone wanted to gain entry to the room, he should be notified immediately. He provided his personal cell phone number and told employees to keep the room sealed.

But the only one trying to enter Pollak's room was Christie himself, even after he'd been instructed to withdraw from the routine death investigation, Strzelecki said. On Nov. 17, YMCA staffers called Christie's supervisor, saying something was strange about the officer's repeated attempts to enter Pollak's apartment.

"He'd been told to let the detectives handle it and then the Y called," Strzelecki said. "That kind of raised everybody's suspicions."

The next day, Nov. 18, investigators hid a video camera in the room and tallied how much cash had been left behind by Pollak, according to the charges. They found more than $1,000 in coins and an additional $768 in currency. Investigators added an additional $355 in marked bills.

They didn't have to wait long, authorities said. Later that same day, Christie entered the room and was caught on the covert camera emptying numerous containers of coins into a cardboard box, they said.

The next day, video at a credit union allegedly captured Christie carrying a cardboard box. Records at the credit union showed he deposited $501.27 in coins in the morning and cashed an additional $40.49 in coins later that day.

He later mailed $274 to Pollak's sister in California, telling her that was all the money he found, authorities said.

Officer Edward Guerrero Charged with Robbing Police Station

A police officer found himself on the other side of the law in Moab, accused of robbing his own police station.

43-year-old Edward Guerrero is charged with burglary and theft.

Moab police say Guerrero broke into a locked office inside the police department and stole $900.

Guerrero has hired well known defense attorney Greg Skordas, who says his client didn't break into a locked office, but is accepting responsibility.

Guerrero will be back in court on Tuesday.