A former Illinois public school food director has been sentenced to nine years in prison for robbing a chicken wing parcel worth $1.5 million, prosecutors announced.
Vera Liddell worked for more than a decade in Harvey School District 152, a “low-income” neighborhood in the Chicago area. Accused He was arrested in January 2023 for allegedly stealing food that he was tasked with providing to children, WGN reported.
According to court documents obtained by the outlet, the 66-year-old man allegedly ordered more than 11,000 cases of chicken wings from the school district’s food supplier and picked them up in a district van but never delivered them to children who were learning remotely at the time.
It’s unclear what happened to the thousands of chicken wings, but they were never served to students.
Cook County authorities said Liddell’s web of lies wasn’t discovered until midway through the school year, when the school district’s business director discovered the district had exceeded its annual lunch budget by $300,000.
“[The business manager] “Separate invoices were discovered signed by Mr. Liddell for the purchase of large quantities of chicken wings, which were never served to students because they contained bones,” court documents state.
Gordon Food Services, a food supplier to the area, was said to be familiar with Mr Riddell as he had “purchased large quantities of chicken wings from them”.
“The massive fraudulent activities began during the height of COVID-19 and when students were unable to physically attend school,” Liddell’s statement for his 2023 bail hearing stated. “Even as children were learning remotely, the district continued to provide meals to students for their families to receive.”
The district serves approximately 1,600 students, more than 80 percent of whom are considered “low-income.”
Liddell pleaded guilty Friday and received a nine-year prison sentence, the Cook County state’s attorney said. said wagon.
Flashback — “All the Nuggets”: A bear steals a Chick-fil-A from a family’s porch.
