New judge to hear arena theft case

Posted on November 3, 2017

*Central Illinois Arena Management President John Butler appears at an earlier court hearing. Friday, a new judge was assigned to hear the case of Butler and four co-defendants. (pool photo)*

By Howard Packowitz

A new judge will hear the case of five former managers of the city-owned downtown sports arena, who are accused of defrauding Bloomington taxpayers of one-point-one million dollars.

McLean County Judge Scott Drazewksi granted the motion from the State’s Attorney’s office to take him off the case. It’s now been assigned to Judge Robert Freitag.

A grand jury in September indicted the five on a total of 111 charges including theft of government funds, money laundering, tax evasion, conspiracy to commit tax evasion.

Central Illinois Arena Management President John Butler faces 44 counts in all.

Two co-defendants who are out on bond were allowed to leave the state, one of the defendants to spend the holidays with relatives in Pennsylvania, the other for job training in Nebraska.

Status hearings for all five are scheduled next month.

Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected].

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