Joseph Pecora, a former Chicago police officer who served federal time in 2006 for taking 50 kilos of pot from a drug provider, has been sentenced to probation after DNA proof allegedly tied him to a $350,000 housebreaking on town’s Northwest Aspect.
Shortly earlier than 8 a.m. on Might 6, 2023, somebody entered a 79-year-old lady’s house within the 5700 block of West Faculty by breaking a basement window whereas she was away. The burglar stole about $350,000 in money from a secure and slipped out, in line with Chicago police information. However investigators additionally discovered blood on a basement curtain and despatched it for DNA testing.
Prosecutors mentioned the pattern matched Pecora.
Pecora pleaded responsible to residential housebreaking final week and obtained a two-year probation sentence from Decide Peggy Chiampas, in line with court docket information. He had been on digital monitoring since his arrest in February 2024.
He was in his fifth yr with the Chicago Police Division in 2005 when he grew to become entangled in a federal drug investigation on the Close to North Aspect. Federal authorities mentioned he took about 50 kilos of marijuana price roughly $150,000 from a provider with the intention of promoting it and paying later. What Pecora didn’t know was that the provider’s provider was working with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
When the informant confronted him in regards to the unpaid $150,000, Pecora claimed the marijuana had been seized by regulation enforcement and that he narrowly prevented arrest, in line with the federal grievance. He later urged he might present a false police report to assist the informant clarify the loss, the grievance acknowledged.
Pecora, who resigned from the police division shortly earlier than heading to jail, has apparently continued his service to town post-conviction. Municipal payroll information listing him as a $51.41-per-hour “asphalt laborer” for the Chicago Division of Transportation.
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