Ex-NCHS groundskeeper convicted of copper theft
BY BILL BIRD wbird@stmedianetwork.com January 18, 2013 11:04PM
James W. Logan, 53, of Montgomery, has been ordered to make $3,400 restitution to Naperville School District 203, for stealing copper early last summer from the campus of Naperville Central High School. The former school district employee is one of the first participants in the DuPage County state's attorney's "pretrial diversion" program for first-time criminal offenders. Courtesy of the Naperville Police Department.
Updated: February 21, 2013 6:51AM
A former Naperville School District 203 maintenance worker has been found guilty of stealing more than two tons of copper wiring over a 10-month period from the campus of Naperville Central High School.
But James W. Logan will avoid that conviction should he succeed in a “pretrial diversion” program for nonviolent, first-time offenders that was recently created by the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office.
Logan, 53, of Montgomery, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of theft. He admitted to stealing 4,500 lbs. of copper wiring between August 2011 and June from a storage area at Naperville Central High School, 440 W. Aurora Ave. Naperville police in June said the wiring was valued at $9,000.
Police also charged Logan with last year’s theft of $1,000 from a locked cabinet inside a District 203-owned trailer parked on the 600 block of Fifth Avenue.
District officials fired Logan from his job as a building and grounds maintenance worker within a week of that theft. The cash theft charge was dismissed in court in exchange for Logan’s plea in the wiring theft.
DuPage County Circuit Court Judge Kathryn E. Creswell on Monday accepted Logan’s plea and ordered him to make $3,400 restitution to the district, said Paul Darrah, spokesman for State’s Attorney Robert B. Berlin.
Creswell also approved of Logan’s admission into Berlin’s pretrial diversion program, which Darrah said sets different conditions and standards for each participant.
Darrah said Logan, in addition to making restitution, will be expected to serve 10 days in the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program, or SWAP. He must also find work and maintain his employment.
Logan will also have to write a letter of apology to District 203 officials, undergo periodic drug testing and attend meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous or similar substance abuse prevention groups, Darrah said. He added Logan could be sentenced to as much as seven years in prison should he fail to complete the year-long program.
