By the time a grand jury indicted her father and husband in the Kendall County Food Pantry investigation, six months had passed since Maria Spaeth died of a prescription drug overdose.
Speath’s death came weeks after she and her husband quit their respective jobs as executive director and treasurer of the Yorkville-based nonprofit amid a local police investigation into missing funds.
Only Kenneth Spaeth, 56, and Maria’s 78-year-old father, William Crowley, were charged.
But police reports obtained through a public records request indicate that Maria Spaeth, who became executive director of the food pantry in 2008 after volunteering there for a few months, was initially a suspect — and, recent court proceedings revealed, remained one.
“The tragedy of it all is the person who brought the most wrong on the food pantry is gone,” said the pantry’s spokesman, board Chairman Greg Witek.
Special prosecutor Charles Colburn said Maria Spaeth was personally responsible for taking “several hundred thousand” dollars from the food bank without authorization while she was executive director.
The legal saga began to unfold around May 26, 2016, when Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis told a Yorkville police officer someone had contacted him about possible theft of pantry funds by Maria, then the executive director, and Kenneth, then the treasurer. The person who contacted Weis had prepared a packet of financial documentation and a four-page cover letter explaining some of the thefts, according to reports.
On June 7, 2016, the Spaeths resigned.
Two weeks later, Maria Spaeth was ushered into an emergency room at Valley West Hospital in Sandwich with high levels of Tylenol, Xanax and hydrocodone in her system. She had prescriptions for all three medications, and it’s unknown if the fatal overdose at a home on the Sandwich side of Lake Holiday was accidental or intentional, the DeKalb County coroner said.
At the time, pantry leaders expressed shock and sadness. An interim director, Jeff Young, said Maria had done a lot of good in the community and that he was experiencing a cycle of disbelief, anger, remorse and sorrow.
In January 2017, a grand jury indicted both Kenneth Spaeth and Crowley on charges of theft or unauthorized control of between $10,000 and $100,000, alleging each “knowingly exerted unauthorized control over property of the Kendall County Food Pantry.”
In a plea deal Monday, Kenneth Spaeth admitted his guilt to class 3 felony theft, agreeing to pay back $14,342 in restitution to the food pantry and to be on probation for two years.
Spaeth was also assigned a $750 fine and $257 in court costs, and must pay a $12 monthly probation fee.Spaeth’s attorney, Edward Edens, said Spaeth has already paid his restitution in full. Edens otherwise declined comment and said he never represented Maria and could not speak on her behalf.
Witek on Wednesday said the pantry hasn’t received the restitution money yet, but he expects it’s just a matter of process and paperwork.
Colburn said Kenneth Spaeth used a food pantry credit card to pay for personal expenses, but did not elaborate.
Next due in court April 23, Crowley remains accused of charging more than $10,000 to the pantry, and Colburn said that’s in addition to Spaeth’s spending. Crowley’s attorney, Gary Johnson , did not return a phone message left Wednesday.
In late February, the Kendall County Community Food Pantry filed a claim against Crowley for $24,580. That civil case is also pending.
Food pantry attorney Grant Wegner said when the new board took over, it went in and “tracked the dollars.” The food pantry paid off all the credit cards, and Crowley never reimbursed anything, though Wegner couldn’t speak as freely about the Spaeths because of a settlement with Maria’s estate, he said.
Wegner said the pantry reached a settlement with Maria Spaeth’s estate in late December or early January but couldn’t elaborate because of a nondisclosure agreement. He said they have done what they can for the benefit of the food pantry in terms of recovery. He also said other people were involved.
“There were some numbers close to $576,000… for this whole program,” Wegner said.
The civil filing against Crowley details alleged spending at stores, gas stations and restaurants in both Illinois and Arizona, where Crowley lives. He made dozens of trips on the food pantry’s dime to an Arizona Home Depot , according to a spreadsheet of the expenses attached as an exhibit in the litigation. He allegedly swiped a food pantry credit card during a $117.72 trip to East China Inn and was reimbursed for repeated visits to Yorkville’s Lakeview Grille. The filing also documents purchases at establishments including Southern Belles, Panda Express, Chick-fil-A, Portillos, Walmart, Jewel Osco, McDonalds, KFC, USPS, Rural King, Casey’s General Store, Rosatis, Office Max, Schweppes, Plano Molding, Target, Amazon Marketplace, Lake Holiday Marina, American Mattress, Ace Hardware, Menards and Bull Moose Bar & Grille.
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Wegner said they filed the action because they had tried to work with Crowley, but his lawyers wouldn’t respond, and the statute of limitations for civilly recovering the money expires in June.
“We really had no choice but to run forward,” Wegner said.
The pantry wasn’t privy to the criminal investigation, but Witek described Kenneth Spaeth’s expenditures as functionally flagrant, things the pantry couldn’t possibly have needed to buy.
Witek said in his opinion, Kenneth Spaeth took the least painful path to resolve his case. While the resolution provided a sense of justice among pantry staff, Witek said to his knowledge, Spaeth had never apologized or expressed remorse.
In July 2016, in order to continue providing services insulated from any legal trouble the old organization might face, the pantry reorganized and was renamed the Kendall County Community Food Pantry, a necessary step to create a new nonprofit.
When people would get upset about the Spaeths’ actions, they would pour themselves into the pantry and its clients, displacing the bitterness rather than letting it overtake them, Witek said.
He pointed to the relationships many pantry volunteers have with the Spaeth family. Maria and Kenneth had kids. No one wanted to see a father go to jail in this case, Witek said.
“People here aren’t heartless,” he said. “It is a struggle for the volunteers … there’s a humanness that wants to see justice done, but there’s more focus on caring for our clients that always gets in front of our anger.”
As for what motivated the thefts, Wegner said that’s anyone’s guess.
“I don’t think you’re going to find anybody to say that,” Wegner said. “I don’t know that anybody knows.”
The $14,000 is a small percentage of what was taken, Witek said, but it’s meaningful.
People just want closure, he said.