The son of former Joliet fire chief Larry Walsh was sentenced Friday to 24 hours in Will County Jail and ordered to perform 300 hours of community service for stealing a Fire Department transmitter in 1996 and selling the unit to Will County.
Will County Associate Judge Martin Rudman handed down the sentence to Richard Walsh, 40, of Joliet, after Walsh’s attorney, Michelle Hanson of the Will County public defender’s office, presented a check, made out to the city of Joliet, for $6,144 from Walsh’s father in restitution for the transmitter theft. Walsh will also be on probation for 48 months.
Had restitution not been made, Rudman noted that he would have sent the younger Walsh to the penitentiary. Walsh, who had been charged with felony theft and burglary for stealing the transmitter from a Joliet Fire Department base station in Silver Cross Hospital in the summer of 1996, could have been sentenced to up to 7 years in prison.
Walsh pleaded guilty in January to the burglary charge and agreed to pay $6,144 for the stolen transmitter in hopes of getting a lighter sentence. According to Hanson, Walsh’s father covered the debt because the younger Walsh was “destitute.”
Rudman made it clear that he could still send Walsh to prison if he does not complete a minimum of 25 hours of community service each month until the 300 hours are completed.
At the time of the theft, Walsh worked for an electronics firm that had done radio communications maintenance work for the Joliet Fire and Police Departments. He was arrested in March 1997 for stealing the transmitter after the firm learned that it had unwittingly installed the stolen transmitter for Will County’s Emergency Management Agency.
An investigation revealed the transmitter had been removed without authorization from the Joliet Fire Department’s radio base at the hospital and sold by Walsh to the county agency for $4,600, with Walsh pocketing the proceeds.
Walsh’s father, a 30-year Joliet Fire Department veteran, served as Joliet’s fire chief from 1991 until his retirement in 1998.
