Two Illinois Officials Sentenced For Theft

CHICAGO - Former Illinois State Toll Highway Authority executive director Robert Hickman and ex-state Rep. Joseph Kotlarz, D-Chicago, late Tuesday were sentenced to six months in prison for felony theft.

The two were convicted last April in DuPage County Circuit Court, in suburban Chicago.

Judge Ronald Mehling found both guilty of skimming nearly $250,000 from a 1992 toll deal. According to court documents, Hickman and Kotlarz conspired to collect a $240,000 brokerage fee on land the authority sold in the north suburb of Oak Brook to Waste Management Inc. Kotlarz, a former Chicago alderman, had been a consultant to Waste Management at the time of the deal.

Sentencing originally had been set for June, but the two men had requested new, separate trials following their convictions. The pair had argued they were improperly indicted, and that they waived their rights to separate jury trials due to misinformation from the county prosecutor's office.

Last month, Mehling rejected their request, declared their joint trial fair, and set sentencing for yesterday. Both men had faced up to 15 years in prison for multiple counts of felony theft.

Hickman and Kotlarz were indicted by a DuPage grand jury in 1995. Hickman had already stepped down from his post in 1994 amid criticism that he had flown aboard a toll authority helicopter for personal use. Kotlarz did not resign from office until he was convicted last spring.

The two also were sentenced to pay $240,000 restitution, and serve 400 hours of community service and four years of probation.