Jailed Ex-Cicero Town President Transferred
Betty Loren-Maltese convicted of fraud in 2002
Friday, Aug 28, 2009 | Updated 10:37 PM CST
AP
In this Jan. 9, 2003 file photo, Betty Loren-Maltese is seen at federal court in Chicago where she was sentenced for a 2002 racketeering conviction. The 59-year-old Loren-Maltese was sentenced to eight years in prison, and was serving her term in a California prison camp. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons records, she has been transferred to a community correctional facility in Phoenix. She is scheduled to be released from federal custody in February 2010.
Convicted on federal corruption charges, former Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese is out of prison, but she won't be going home.
Her release from a California prison unexpected, Maltese was relocated to a federal half-way house closer to where her mother lives, according to her former lawyer.
The move is a step closer to freedom. While still in custody, she'll get the opportunity to work a 40-hour per week job and get counseling to make the transition back into society.
The 59-year-old was convicted in 2002 of using an insurance scam to bilk Cicero taxpayers out of more than $10 million dollars from 1992 to 1996 through a bogus insurance company.
Loren-Maltese is scheduled to be released from federal custody in February.
Before the racketeering conviction of Loren-Maltese and five others, federal agents spent years investigating the small, blue-collar suburb just west of Chicago that was known as a haven for corruption since the 1920s, when Al Capone made it the hub of his bootlegging empire.
Loren-Maltese hasn't made a public comment on her release, but in past interviews, published as recently as last year, she said she would "never go back to Cicero."
Copyright Associated Press / NBC Chicago
Posted Friday, Aug 28, 2009 - 9:50 PM CST
