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Ex-Country Club Hills Police Chief Pleads Guilty To Obstruction Of Justice

(STMW) -- Former Country Club Hills Police Chief Regina Evans plead guilty Monday to federal obstruction-of-justice and witness tampering charges in connection to a $1.25 million state grant-fraud scheme.

Evans appeared in federal court and entered a guilty plea to one count each of obstruction of justice, witness tampering and conspiracy to obstruct justice and witness tampering, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

Evans' move followed a June guilty plea for fraud that was tied to the same 2009 state grant she administered on behalf of We Are Our Brother's Keeper, a not-for-profit she owned with her husband, Ronald W. Evans, Jr.

Regina Evans remains in federal custody and will be sentenced for Monday's conviction on Oct. 15, the same date she'll face sentencing for the June fraud guilty plea.

State funds that she administered were to have been used for a job-training program that was part of an effort to restore the historic, dilapidated New Regal Theater on Chicago's South Side.

But instead, Evans and her husband were accused of misappropriating more than half of the $1.25 million grant, diverting much of that money to pay the mortgage on the theater building and on payments to friends, family and to her.

As part of Regina Evans' pleading Monday, she admitted to conspiring with an unnamed witness to create a false story for federal investigators and a grand jury, stating that actual job-training skills were taught using the state funds.

But Evans acknowledged the witness did no work and checks that went to that person instead were part of a scheme to convert the grant money to cash and divert it back to Evans and her husband.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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