Hide Article Text (OCR)
Ex-coroner gets 3 yearsfor orderingJoliet arsonAssociated Pressmm •twoFormer Will County Coroner Robert Tezak was sentenced Friday to three years in state prison for ordering a fire that destroyed a Jolietbuilding in 1987.Judge Edwin Grabiec also ordered Tezak to pay $937,000 in restitution tcbusinesses harmed by the fire and an insurance company, Will County state’s attorney’s office spokesman Lisa Las said.Tezak faced up to seven years in prison.A McLean County jury convicted Tezak of the arson in May. The trial was moved away from Joliet because of Tezak’s notoriety there.In 1993, he pleaded guilty to federal charges that he arranged to have his Crest Hill bowling alley burned down because it was losing money. In that plea, Tezak also admitted ordering the Joliet fire, which destroyed the office of the Will County Private Industry Council.But federal prosecutors did not charge him with ordering the Joliet fire, allowing state prosecutors to bring the charges.At the time of the Joliet fire, a federal grand jury was investigating the council. Twenty boxes of records were in the building, which Tezak owned.The fire occurred three days before those subpoenaed records were to be submitted to federal authorities investigating allegations the agency had steered grants and low-interest loans to political insiders in the county.Tezak will begin serving the state sentence after completing his 12V-year federal prison term in Arizona.Tezak, who parlayed his invention of the card game Uno into a $40 million fortune, was coroner from 1976to 1988.
Newspaper Details
Arlington Heights Daily Herald Suburban Chicago
Arlington Heights, Illinois, US
Sat, Jul 06, 1996
Page 82
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
AZ, USA 26 Jan 2020
Other Publications Near Arlington Heights, Illinois
Arlington Heights Daily Herald Suburban Chicago
Arlington Heights Herald
Daily Herald
Arlington Heights Day
Arlington Heights Sunday Herald
