Cop Who Stole From Union Gets 12 Years

CHICAGO (STMW) -- The former head of the Chicago Police Sergeants Association was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in prison for stealing more than $1 million from the union to fund a lavish lifestyle that prosecutors said included gambling trips, steak dinners and a down payment on a home, the Sun-Times is reporting.

Now-suspended police Sgt. John Pallohusky, 56, used the money to pay off a half dozen credit cards, take trips to Las Vegas and make the down payment on a home in the 6800 block of Wildwood, according to assistant Cook County state's attorney Bill Conway.

"Mr. Pallohusky, it doesn't get much lower than stealing from your fellow officers of the Chicago Police Department," Cook County Judge Diane Gordon Cannon told Pallohusky.

Pallohusky offered a "sincere apology to the association I was part of...for what I may have done."

He pleaded guilty in April without any deal with prosecutors on a recommended sentence. He faced as much as 15 years in prison.

Assistant state's attorney LuAnn Snow called Pallohusky's actions "bold and arrogant." Pallohusky used the sergeants union's money as his "own personal piggy bank" so he could live the life of a "millionaire," the prosecutor said, urging Judge Cannon to give Pallohusky prison time.

"His conduct denigrated the sergeants association," Snow said.

Pallohusky has been suspended without pay from the Chicago Police Department and relieved of all police powers, according to police spokeswoman Melissa Stratton.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2012. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)