Condo Officer/Unit Owner Facing Foreclosure Again Invokes "Mental Illness" Defense To Dodge Jail Time After Swiping $82K From HOA; Gets Probation

In DuPage County, Illinois, Chicago Breaking News Center reports:

• A former Addison condominium association official who admitted stealing about $82,000 from the association was sentenced to four years of probation [] by DuPage Judge Kathryn Creswell, who cited the defendant's long history of mental illness.

• Patricia Wilkinson, 54, wrote herself association checks and signed the names of other condo officials to pay medical and other personal bills in 2008 and 2009, said DuPage County Assistant State's Attorney Diane Michalak. Wilkinson was president of King's Point 3, a bookkeeper for King's Point 1, and the treasurer of the master association for all four groups, which include a total of about 150 units in four buildings [...].

• "I was stressed out and I had a lot of medical bills," Wilkinson said. "I felt so depressed that I didn't have any other choice." Creswell cited the defendant's clinical depression, obsessive compulsion disorder, her use for 20 years of psychotropic medication and the fact that she is in remission for cervical cancer.

• Wilkinson was arrested last December as she was about to flee the condo parking lot with $34,000 in cash after her own condo was placed in foreclosure. Creswell ordered that the $34,000 be used for restitution and that she still owes $8,550 to the condo association, with insurance paying about $40,000. She also ordered that Wilkinson take all medications, as ordered by the county probation department.

• Michalak had asked for a six-year prison sentence out of a range of three to seven years, stating "a lot of people have a lot of serious personal issues in this economy, but that's not a license to steal."

• Wilkinson had received probation following several robberies of Subway stores in the early 1990s in Schaumburg. That sentence came after she received court-ordered mental health treatment at a state facility.

For the story, see Probation for woman who stole $82,000 from condo association.