Jailed Ex-Cicero Town President Transferred

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."