Former County OEM Director Found Guilty of Theft
December 16th, 2016 by
A former Drew County office of emergency management director accused of a combination of mismanagement and theft of property causing a total loss of an estimated $103,000 from a local business, was found guilty of theft of property, Thursday, by a Drew County Circuit Court.
The 3 day trial for Bill Horn, age 60, rested at 1 PM, before going to the jury who found him guilty of theft of property over $1000, but less than $5,000.
Horn was sentenced to pay restitution of $4,560 and a fine of $2,500.
Horn had been business manager for Towing & Logistics Management Services, a local towing company, along with three other associated entities operating within it.
He and the owner agreed to start a new business partnership, Dan’s Used Cars, which according to testimony “lost” 31 vehicles.
Horn admitted that he got his co-owner’s permission to buy his wife a Lexus for personal use, never reimbursing the company for it. There is a strong possibility that many of the remaining vehicles were sold as scrap/salvage, but there is no documentation to prove that.
MLive interviewed a juror who explained that recordkeeping of/between all business entities involved was so confusing, there was no way to determine which money belonged to which entity or were funds went to.
There was so much confusion, the jury could only determine that Horn was only responsible for paying the co-owner back for the Lexus, and not the other vehicles. The reasoning for this was because he felt responsible, and the beginning, to call and ask for permission to purchase it. That is why the $4560 was chosen.
