Theft trail delayed for Island Lake employee

The trial of a politically connected Island Lake village employee charged with collecting money for hours she did not work was delayed Monday in Lake County Circuit Court.

Circuit Judge Fred Foreman moved the trial of Sharon Hyde, wife of former Mayor Thomas Hyde, to March 28 after attorneys on both sides of the case announced last-minute changes in their game plans.

Hyde, 60, is charged with collecting more than $100,000 in pay for hours she did not work between 1999 and 2009 as director of the Creative Playtime Preschool, a village-run day care center.

She is charged with theft of government funds over $100,000 and official misconduct and would face a mandatory prison sentence of six to 30 years if convicted of all charges.

Prosecutors claim Hyde was an hourly employee of the village contracted to work 22 hours per week, while her defense team and some village officials insist she was a salaried employee not required to account for her time on the job.

Defense attorneys Charles Smith and Brian Smith of Waukegan told Foreman on Monday they intend to call an expert in federal fair labor standards to testify that salaried employees can be paid over the course of a year without regard to the hours they work in any individual week.

Assistant State’s Attorney Christen Bishop objected to the move, saying the expert’s testimony would be irrelevant because Hyde is not charged with violating any federal labor regulations.

Bishop filed a motion seeking to have the village disclose all the billing records for village attorney Scott Puma between Jan. 1, 2008 and the present.

Bishop said she believed the records would be crucial to establishing a bias in favor of village officials in the event Puma was called to testify in the trial.

But Donald Anderson, another attorney representing the village, objected to that move by claiming the amount of money the village paid for legal representation was irrelevant to the issues in the case against Hyde.

Anderson said he also believed the billing records may contain information that would violate the attorney-client privilege between Puma and the village if disclosed in open court.

Foreman told the lawyers he would not rule on any issues raised Monday without further hearings on the matters, and the trial set to begin Monday would have to wait for those hearings to be completed.

He told the attorneys to return to court Feb. 4 to advise him on their ability to argue the matters March 1.

Classes at Creative Playtime will be held today and the rest of the week, even though school officials had announced their cancellation because of the trial. Village leaders had drafted a letter for parents announcing school would be open, just in case the trial was postponed, Mayor Debbie Herrmann said.