Saw that pop up on my TV screen the other day.
It’s a bio type show about a lady that scammed her town to the tune of 53 million or so to play with the big dogs in the horse world.
Has anybody seen it? It’s on youtube TV and I would like to know before I bother with activating it.
I generally have Prime on a garden show in the background.
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been several old threads on Rita, who was pardon by Joe Biden a few weeks ago
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There was a great podcast deep dive into the story. There’s so many interesting angles. How the town leadership did not question things is forever interesting to me.
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Incorrect. She had her sentence commuted by Biden. A pardon is when the guilty party is exonerated of the crime. A commutation is when they are still considered guilty, but their sentence is lessened.
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“All the Queen’s Horses” is a great doco on Rita Crundwell
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whatever, Rita destroyed that town even though the city did recover most of money the cost of the forgone projects that could have been completed in a timely manor with the stolen funds has escalated ten fold or more
Hope she enjoys her remaining time in hell
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American Greed on CNBC devoted a show to her, that one should be out there to find. It was good.
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She was already in a halfway house. So not that big of deal that her sentence was commuted.
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then why commute the sentence if it was no big deal?
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I know nothing about this case in particular. But maybe some of the embezzled funds went to political donations. Might explain both the commuting of her sentence and why the town leadership turned a blind eye for so long. Just a thought.
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I thought the American Greed episode was really well done, too.
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Well, someone had to bring her potential commutation before the Office of the Pardon Attorney in DC, so the question should be who did that for Rita? I don’t think Biden was keeping a list of people and she topped it. Th OPA makes recommendations for a president to consider, and then he/she acts on them or not.
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in court Rita had no remorse for her actions
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Many who were commuted had been granted release due to health issues and COVID. So I don’t know if anyone went to bat for her specifically
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gets her off the feed and hospital bill. She had been granted early release during COVID due to health reasons.
I have not heard of anyone having any contact with her. But I am a bit out of the loop so it is possible.
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nope none nor to the industry that she hurt
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I haven’t seen that one I will have to search for it.
I tell you I got so tired of people telling me to “just ask Rita” when I was working with the youth in the state. No Nope Nada. That wasn’t because I had any inkling that she was embezzling it was just because kids should have to put in some effort and not just their hand.
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maybe local? I seem to recall that she commonly loaned local people money-
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Crundwell was originally scheduled to serve 85% of her 19 year sentence, which would have had a release date in 2029. 19 years was a bit short of her 20 years of embezzlement from the city.
But she apparently has been very good at filing paperwork to get an earlier release date. And she reportedly suffers from ill health, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc. & so on. Even though the Dixon City Council put up a strong opposition to her early release.
She was released in Aug. 2021 on home confinement. She was supposed to go to a halfway house, not sure if she did, but it ended up with home confinement. Speculation was that she was living with her brother.
Crundwell covered up her embezzlement by claiming that the city’s frequent budget shortfalls were due to the state being late in paying its share of tax revenue.
She forced city departments to make drastic service cuts in order to keep the budget within reason. As a result, employees went two years or more without raises and the police department could not afford new radios. The most visible effect, however, was on street maintenance; the city was forced to lay off three of its nine street repair workers and cut the rate of maintenance. In the decade prior to Crundwell’s arrest, only 65 blocks of road were repaired or replaced.
Going 2 years without a raise means that any subsequent raises are likely to be proportionately less, if they are a percentage of the current salary. Basically, some of these families were set back for both the current generation and what they were spending and saving for their children.
Plus the 3 street repair workers who lost their jobs altogether.
All so that Rita Crundwell could show her pricey horses in fancy saddles and fancy outfits, traveling in luxury mobile accomodations. Staying in her Florida vacation home. And a lot of other spending. She seems to have had absolutely no stop to what she would spend during the show circuit every year. For 20 years.
Nearly a dozen years later, frustration, shock, disappointment, and outrage were some of the responses Thursday to the decision to commute Crundwell’s sentence. The fact notwithstanding that Crundwell has been out of prison for several years, many involved with the case said clemency sends the wrong message.
U.S. Marshal Jason Wojdylo spent four years tracking down Crundwell’s assets, and took CBS News Chicago on a tour of her Florida vacation home before her items—including the custom-made furniture at the Florida property and Crundwell’s 405 horses—were sold at auction, bringing in $10.5 million.
"Just the overwhelming nature of her crime made it near impossible for her to account for everything that she had had bought with the stolen funds," Wojdylo said.
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I had the opportunity to go see All The Queen’s Horses in Dixon, in the grand old theater, presented by the person that made it and got to hear some of the employees affected talk after. It was absolutely stunning. The way she stole details from her coworker’s life to make up stories about where she got the money was really disgusting. I wish someone could have petitioned against her commutation simply because it’s still just another slap in the face to the people of Dixon. A lot of people already feel like she basically got off scot-free, got to have her fun and then be put up and taken care of in her old age. What a selfish, selfish woman.
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