A former Bureau County deputy will see the other side of a jail cell after being sentenced to 30 months in prison for stealing just less than $136,000 from the Bureau County Sheriff’s Office.

Dexter D. Hansen, 53, who was the former Bureau County Jail administrator, was sentenced by Judge James Andreoni as a result of a guilty plea in the case.

Hansen pleaded guilty in October 2021 to one count of official misconduct, a Class 3 felony. The charge carried a sentencing range of up to 30 months of probation, plus $25,000 in fines or 2 to 5 years in prison.

Hansen’s attorney, Brad Popurella, requested probation for his client, citing a pain killer addition from a years-ago knee surgery that led Hansen to divert funds from the jail’s bail forfeiture account over a six-year period.

Special Prosecutor Brian Towne said that defense didn’t fly, as the surgery was in 2010 and the thefts didn’t begin until four years later.

“A hundred and thirty thousand dollars is a lot for pain meds, even on the black market,” Towne said.

Towne instead painted a picture of a county employee who knew the system, how to work it and who claimed a drug problem to avoid facing the consequences of his actions.

“This self-reported substance abuse, which was only brought up last month, is to manipulate TASC probation as opposed to facing the consequences of what he did,” Towne said. “He was a 20-year veteran of law enforcement and knows how the system works. This is an attempt at a lighter or easier sentence.”

TASC probation is a special kind of sentence available to criminal defendants who have substance abuse issues and elect to receive treatment for their disorder

In requesting a custodial sentence, Towne told the judge there were several unique factors to Hansen’s case because of his position. Towne said as a law enforcement officer, Hansen’s duty was to seek and uphold justice as a gatekeeper for the jail and instead he used his position to commit his offense, breaching the public trust.

“The public is watching this case,” Towne said. “They see a law enforcement officer who violated his duty and it needs to be shown that he is not above the law.”

Towne also brought a special agent from the Illinois State Police, Brian Lewis, in as a witness a to testify Hansen had allegedly committed forgery and fraud against one of his daughters. He said, that starting in 2020, Hansen began signing her name to papers that diverted a percentage of income from a family farm into his own pockets, saying he may bring additional and unrelated charges against Hansen.

Additionally, Towne said Hansen scheduled a trip this winter to Mexico, having zero qualms about traveling despite his legal troubles.

“You have a person charged with stealing from his employer, who stole from his own daughter, who had a self-reported drug problem, only brought up a month ago — and he didn’t pay a cent of restitution but scheduled a trip to Mexico,” Towne said.

Andreoni, in his ruling, said he was particularly concerned not a dime of restitution had been paid to the county, despite Hansen having a $22,000-a-year farm lease income.

As part of the sentencing, Hansen will lose his municipal pension. The funds he contributed, which Popurella estimated to be $40,000 to $50,000 will be taken, after taxes, as part of Hansen’s restitution, as will any farm income.

In his allocution statement, Hansen said fixing everyone else’s problems instead of his own led to the situation he was in.

“I apologize the the court and to Bureau County for my actions,” Hansen said. “I’m ashamed of who I’ve become. I didn’t know how to fix my problems. I always try to fix everyone else’s problems. I could have brought people to testify for me, but I wanted to continue to move forward and to do right and do some good in this county as a law abiding citizen.”