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The former village manager and chief financial officer of a west suburban town was indicted today on multiple counts of Theft and Official Misconduct for granting himself numerous unauthorized pay raises and bilking the town of Bellwood for hundreds of thousands of dollars, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez announced today.

Roy McCampbell, 56, who resides in Schiller Park, is the latest public official to be charged in the State’s Attorney’s ongoing crackdown on local public corruption.  McCampbell has been charged with four separate counts of felony Theft, including the Class X offense of Theft of Government Property in excess of $100,000.  He has also been charged with Official Misconduct. 

McCampbell was originally hired by the Village of Bellwood in 2001 to serve as the Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer.  In addition to his $95,000 salary, he was also granted a stipend for performing additional management duties as well as a contribution to his deferred compensation account.

In 2005, McCampbell, who is a licensed attorney, was allowed to draft his own employment contract when his original contract expired.  In the new contract, he wrote in provisions that provided himself with a 4% raise, as well as increasing his management stipend by 28 percent and his deferred compensation payments by 156 percent; in addition to crediting himself with 180 sick days as well as 60 days of accrued leave.

Though his second contract was purported to last five years through 2010, McCampbell began a scheme in which he drafted at least three new contracts for himself over the course of the next three years.   The new contracts continued to provide McCampbell with a 4% raise in his base salary as well as tripling the size of his stipend and deferred compensation payments. 

McCampbell also significantly boosted the amount of annual sick and vacation days he was allowed and granted himself the ability to sell back unused sick and vacation days, a perk that was not granted to any other village employees.  

“This case represents an offensive example of a public official bold enough to repeatedly line his pockets with taxpayer money over the course of several years with no apparent regard at all for the citizens  who were footing the bill,”  State’s Attorney Alvarez said.  “The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office is committed to aggressively investigating and prosecuting this type of public corruption which has a devastating impact on local governments and taxpayers.”

The investigation also found that the defendant was able to illicitly use taxpayer funds to boost his pension.   According to prosecutors, McCampbell made a $75,000 contribution into his municipal pension using village funds and disguised the transaction as a repayment for unused sick time.

According to prosecutors, the defendant deliberately deceived officials about his compensation throughout the scheme. During village board meetings discussing his compensation, McCampbell never mentioned the significant increases to his stipends or paid days off he granted himself, and maintained the only increase he received was a 4% raise.

Reports detailing employee salaries were routinely altered at McCambell’s direction to only reflect his base salary.  In one 2008 report, the defendant claimed he was paid $125,000 while his total compensation for that year was actually $401, 704.26.  Prosecutors say the total amount of theft of funds exceeded $500,000. 

The investigation also found that McCampbell had fraudulently expanded the village’s health insurance plan to pay for a variety of treatments for his family including horse therapy for his children and to purchase home exercise equipment. When he was questioned by village board members and the insurance company about benefits that far exceeded industry norms, McCampbell independently told each group that the changes were made at the recommendation of the other. This scheme allowed the defendant to receive over $100,000 in coverage for questionable medical claims.  

The State’s Attorney’s Office began an investigation into the matter after the town’s mayor and village clerk became suspicious about the payments McCampbell was receiving.  State’s Attorney Alvarez thanked village officials for their cooperation during the course of the investigation. 

“Mr. McCampbell betrayed our trust and took advantage of parts of a system that he himself created,” said Bellwood Mayor Frank Pasquale.  “On behalf of the residents of Bellwood, I look forward to our day in court.”

McCambell appeared in court today at the Cook County Criminal Courts Building at 26th and California where he pled not guilty. Judge James Linn released him on his own recognizance and the case was continued to October 18th.

The public is reminded that the charging documents contain allegations that are not evidence of guilt. The defendant is entitled to a fair trial at which the state has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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