The former computer manager for a DuPage County 911 dispatch center was sentenced Wednesday to a year in the county jail’s work-release program after he paid back most of the $152,000 he stole.
Shaun Lang, 27, of Gilberts pleaded guilty this year to official misconduct and theft from DuComm, the DuPage Public Safety Communications Center in Glendale Heights, which provides service to 27 police and fire departments.
Assistant State’s Atty. Tim Diamond told Judge Michael Burke that the money was stolen from 2003 to 2005 in more than 20 separate thefts. It was used, he said, to buy more than $5,000 of pornography, a keg of beer and food for a birthday party, iPods and large-screen televisions, among other items.
Diamond said that some of the thefts by Lang were made using a DuComm-approved credit card. Others were made through false billings to a company that DuComm didn’t know he owned. And some were made by selling old DuComm equipment on eBay.
“He put the entire DuPage County emergency response system in jeopardy,” said Diamond, who asked for a 7-year prison sentence. “He lived high on the hog, was making $90,000 a year, and chose to live the lavish high life with the coffers of DuComm.”
Lang’s attorney, Kent Sinson, said the thefts were caused by mounting bills and emotional distress due to Lang’s mother’s death from cancer in 2003 and the high-risk pregnancies of his wife.
Lang apologized to the judge, saying: “Sorry. I know what I’ve done. I don’t know what else I can do.”
Burke said he wasn’t imposing a prison sentence because Lang has paid back $132,000 and because an insurance company paid DuComm $20,000. Lang was also ordered to serve 4 years of probation and to pay the $22,500 that remained in his cash bond to DuComm for other expenses it incurred during its investigation into the thefts.
“This was not just a company making a buck, but a group trying to save lives,” Burke said. “God help us if everyone who has family or financial problems decided to steal from their employer.”
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