Charges against a Northwestern administrator arrested in connection with embezzling more than $150,000 have been dropped, a representative for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office said Thursday.
Doris Green, 55, the former associate director at the Buehler Center on Aging at McGaw Medical Center on NU’s Chicago Campus, was arrested at her home on the 5300 block of South Ingleside Avenue on Aug. 17.
The arrest came after university officials received a tip from LaSalle Bank that Green had deposited a check made out to the school in her personal account, said Marcy O’Boyle, a spokeswoman for the state’s attorney’s Office.
Green, who was released on a $50,000 bond the day after being arrested by Chicago police, was to face a grand jury Sept. 12. But the case was dropped early last week pending further investigation, said Jodee Sargeant, another spokeswoman from the state’s attorney’s office.
Lawerance Vance, Green’s attorney, said Green pleaded not guilty before the case was dismissed last week.
“I haven’t seen any evidence or discovery from the state,” Vance said. “I would like to see what they have.”
Green, who was employed by NU for 11 years and was a finalist for 2000 Chicago Campus employee of the year, could face a class-one felony charge punishable by up to 15 years in prison if the case is reopened, O’Boyle said.
According to Vice President for University Relations Alan Cubbage, Green admitted to the crime to university officials when members of the school’s internal audit staff and University Police confronted her Aug. 17, the same day NU received the tip from LaSalle Bank.
Cubbage said Green said her mother had been ill and she needed the money to help pay hospital bills.
Green declined to comment Thursday.
The university immediately suspended Green after the arrest and her position has since been terminated, Cubbage said. Her responsibilities as associate director at the Center on Aging included budget supervision and dispersing funds.
NU is still conducting its own investigation along with police to determine whether the school’s money was deposited into her personal accounts, Cubbage said.
The investigators are reviewing checks and looking at the center’s budget and receipts from the past five years in order to determine the amount of the loss.
“There’s a lot of tracking that needs to be done … it’s a fairly complex process,” Cubbage said. “We have verified that it was more than $200,000 through checks that were diverted to her personal accounts.”
The Center on Aging, a research facility that deals with issues related to aging such as Alzheimer’s disease, receives funding from an affiliated group of hospitals.
University officials suspect Green simply deposited the checks in her personal account while signing them on behalf of the center, Cubbage said.
No other information about the state attorney’s investigation was available Thursday.
