Letter: Realism about Human Nature |CITY|

Dear friends,

Deborah O'Brien, a 43-year-old victim assistance worker in DuPage County, Illinois (in the suburbs of Chicago) has just been sentenced to 11 years in prison for stealing somewhere around $1 million from the victim restitution fund. She had worked for the office for 13 years, but from March 2003 to March 2006 (when she was arrested) she stole an average of over $30,000 a month to sustain her gambling addiction.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, she used various methods for stealing the money, including forging checks to bogus crime victims which she cashed herself. She also cashed money orders designated to the restitution fund and had checks made out to her teenage son sent to her home. To cover her embezzlement, she expanded efforts to collect restitution payments from offenders. In fact, she increased the amount of money collected from $580,000 in 2003 to $1.2 million in 2005. This success prompted a special audit, which is how she was caught.

Meanwhile, a Georgia District Attorney has resigned amid allegations that he misappropriated thousands of dollars in victim assistance funds. This matter is still under investigation, and his attorney has said that the resignation is not an admission of guilt.

According to the Athens Banner-Herald's website, Madison maintained four bank accounts that are being investigated, including one for victim assistance and another for the proceeds from drug arrests. These accounts were used to pay salaries and to fund travel, meals and staff whitewater rafting excursions. Because his office managed the accounts, there was no county commission or city council oversight of them. He has held office for more than a quarter of a century.

This suggests that a city that responds as restoratively as possible to all crimes, victims and offenders needs a justice system that is not surprised when people -- even its own employees -- commit crimes. N.T. Wright, in his book Evil and the Justice of God, says that the modern tendency is to view the world as basically a good place with a few remaining problems that can be solved by technology, education and development.

When we confront evil acts, he says, we respond naively because we are shocked to discover that it in fact exists. One coping mechanism we use to process this disturbing information is to divide the world into good people and bad people (one always puts oneself in the "good" category). But in fact, he argues, we are all capable of doing good and evil.

The Georgia district attorney had helped start Peace Place, a shelter for domestic violence victims, and served on its board. The executive director of the shelter said that his successor has big shoes to fill as a friend of domestic abuse victims. Is it possible that someone with this commitment to victims would misappropriate victim assistance funds? The answer is yes, it is possible. We don't know yet whether he actually did, but it is possible.

Deborah O'Brien was very effective in collecting restitution, but was captive to an addiction that caused her to steal large sums rather than forward them to the actual victims. In doing this she not only betrayed victims, but the offenders who had made payments as well.

These two stories, as exceptional as they are, reminds us that we need to be realistic in our view of human nature. it also suggests that regular and special audits might be a useful feature of RJ City life to guard against certain kinds of financial crime, or at least to uncover it when it happens..

Let's stay in touch,

Dan Van Ness