The Rita Crundwell story aired on Rock Center with Brian Williams Thursday night at 10:00pm/9:00 central on NBC. Reporter Harry Smith reported about Crundwell and the City of Dixon. GoHorseShow.com was happy to assist the Producers from NBC as contributors to this segment.
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>>>
the
central illinois
town of
dixon, authorities announced a 60-count indictment felony, felony indictment rather against a woman named
rita
crundwell. she also faces federal charges. she is accused of stealing taxpayer money on a breathtaking scale. as
harry smith
reports tonight, this story of a local hero gone wrong has shaken just about everyone in a
small town
that for decade had pretty much decided in
rita
we trust.>> reporter:
on summer nights, people still come to hear the
dixonmunicipal band
playing in the band
shell behind the
high school
.
dixon
, illinois, the boyhood home of
ronald reagan
. people say this is the place young ronnie learned his values. a place where trust flows as gently as the waters in the
rock river
. [ applause ]
dixon
‘s mayor is is
jim burke
.>>
at one time i was thinking about moving to
florida. but i was on the way home, as i went down the street, i heard
and it was one of my grandsons up on the porch playing with some kids. i
thought that’s why i am not leaving
dixon
.>> reporter:
dixon, a place where your word is your bond. a place where trust has been
part of the glue that held the town together, especially in the last few
years. and despite all that
dixon
had to seem going for it, the city budget had been cut to the bone. no
one who works for the town has received a pay raise in more than three
years. dealt debt is piling up town workers just buckled down and made
do.>>
they all got on board with us each year and knew
that in order for us to survive there weren’t going to be any raises.
and not new hires and those things. just so we could get by with what we
had. it didn’t get any better. actually this last year it was actually,
seemed even, more drastic in regard to maybe layoffs.>> reporter:
how could things be so bad in a seemingly prosperous town. for decade
dixon
‘s budget was in the capable and
hard working
hands of one person. who is
rita
crundwell?>>
well,
rita
crundwell, a very likable person. everybody around
city hall
liked her. she was very friendly. always had a big hi and hello.>> reporter:
danny landloss is the
chief of police.>>
you had a question, go to
rita. if you need something, go to
rita. any time you have an expenditure of significance check through
rita
. everybody looked at her, she would fix any problem or take care of anything that needed to be done.>> reporter:
she was the go-to gal.>>
she was. rita
crundwell grew up in
dixon
. belonged to national honor society and started working in
city hall part time
as a 17-year-old student and ultimately became the city’s treasurer comptroller. in her
spare time
, crundwell developed a more glamorous avocation, she built up a nationally famous quarterhorse farm right on the edge of town.>>
“congratulations to our newly crowned,
world champion.”>> reporter:
rita
owned 400 horses and be came known
coast to coast
for her 54
world championships
. a glimpse in a room reveals
wall to wall
trophies and award.>>
“bred by
rita
crundwell.
dixon, illinois.”>> reporter:
it was as if
rita
crundwell was leading two lives.>> there would be stories floating around town that she sold a horse for $250,000. people in
dixon
assumed the horse business was making her rich. they were flattered that
rita
still worked so hard for her neighbors in
dixon
.>>
what i thought she cared about the city. wants to
seep it through. she wants to be here to make sure everything goes well
with the city. an that’s what i believed.>> reporter:
let me get this straight.>>
uh-huh.>> reporter:
you think her heart is so large and her — faith and love and loyalty to
dixon
is so strong that even though she has this very successful horse
business she is still working nose to the grindstone every day in
city hall
.>>
no doubt.>>
year after year,
rita
was the bearer of bad news. the town of
dixon
couldn’t make end meet. sack rifices would have to be made. she would present the figures for the
annual budget
workshop and that showed it was going to be nip and tuck as far as how things would go.>> reporter:
one day when
rita
was away at a
horse show
, a city employee discovered something suspicious.>>
our
city clerk
brought a
bank statement
to me. and she said, i cannot connect this with anything. and i took a look at it. and i thought, this can’t be.>> reporter:
there in the statement was a rogue account. in it,
hundreds of thousand of dollars that had apparently been taken from
city fund. could it be that
rita
crundwell, the one-time president of the
high school
business occupations club, was stealing from the city?>>
then i thought, well you know this
small town
, if we’re wrong about this, she is going to get all sullied up, rumors will fly all over there is swroung with the money thing.>>
shaken and nervous, the mayor could not ignore the evidence before him. so he called the
fbi
.>>
i started to get sick to my stomach. i realized this was a big ripoff going on.>> reporter:
from what you could see right there, how big did you think it was?>>
i could see there was $775,000 had gone in and out of this account in one month of september.>>
in one month?>>
one month.>> reporter:
what did the
fbi
then say to you? what plan did they come up with?>>
first of all they wanted me to keep my mouth shut.>> reporter:
he did just that. for 5 1/2 months, the
fbi
secretly scoured
dixon
‘s finances. all the while the mayor and clerk who tipped him off had to act
business as usual
. you are coming in here every day, you know what you know. you are
looking at her, she must not have had any idea that you knew?>>
oh, i don’t think she did. i don’t think she did.>> reporter:
until the morning last april when the
fbi
came to
city hall
to pay
rita
a visit.>>
she come wheeling right in this door here. and i
said, good morning, rilta. she said good morning. and i said three
gentlemen would look to talk to you. one agent identified himself with
the
fbi
we’ve got some questions to ask you. she said, sure. her face never changed emotion for anything.>> reporter:
boy, ice in her veins.>>
yeah. yeah.>> reporter:
no tears? no hysteria?>>
no.>> reporter:
i didn’t do this.>>
no.>> reporter:
it was far worse than anyone dreamed or could even
imagine. according to prosecutors, the trusted comptroller
misappropriated an astonishing amount of money. $53 million in
transactions, over the past 20 years. i have to believe there are people
in this town who say, mayor, you have been mayor here for more than a
decade. how could you not know this?>>
absolutely. absolutely. they’ll ask that. you know this took place over, roughly almost a 22-year period. we had five
city councils
. three financial commissioners. three mayors. 21 annual audits. and no
red flags
surfaced, at least that any body detected.>> reporter:
perhaps the flags were hard to detect because they
were so easy to see. prosecutors believe the money to run the horse
business was coming from a modest office in
dixoncity hall
.>>
unbelievable actually. it sure is.>> reporter:
missing was $53 million that should have gone to fixing things like the street under
dixon
‘s famous arch and providing raises for all of those loyal city workers. disbelief has turned to disgust.>>
it makes me furious to think about what she has
done. not only to the citizens at large, but the people very close to
her, good, decent people. who trusted and who respected her. you know
there is nothing worse than to have somebody that is close to you betray
you like that.>> reporter:
if you had a chance to talk to
rita
, what would you say to her?>>
i would just look at her and shake my head at her and say, how could you,
rita
, how could you, how could you hurt so many people? how dcould you do
this? put people’s jobs and families at risk for your greed, for a
horse? for a trophy? are you kidding me? i would tell her i hope you go
to prison for the rest of your life.>> reporter:
perhaps the music from the band will help people get over what happened here in
ronald reagan
‘s boyhood home. but they do well to remember something
president reagan
once famously said — trust, but verified.>>
harry smith
is here. couple things to point out. she pleaded not guilty. and
ignored our pleas for an interview. how do they allege she got away with
this?>>
the town has a mailbox at the
post office
and she volunteered to pick up the mail every single day. and somehow
all of that mail that came back, except one tiny piece that had the —
proof of that one account.>>
as the mayor tries in his own dech defense to point out, many blame at many administrations here over 22 years.>>
right. the people in this town trusted her so
much. the last person they would have suspected. they thought they weren
trouble like
everybody else
. but the town is going to get some of its money back. a big sale of
hundreds of those horses this weekend. a lot of her property. so,
they’re going to get some of it back. but it will be more like pennies
on the dollar.
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