Former Coal City Area Club employee indicted for theft

A former employee of the Coal City Area Club is charged with theft following a detailed investigation by the Coal City Police Department.

A Grundy County Grand Jury on Wednesday, June 3 indicted Deborah S. Fatlan, 64, of Diamond, for theft between $10,000 and $100,000—a class 2 felony. A warrant was issued for her arrest and upon notification she turned herself over to police at 3:33 p.m. Bail was set at $50,000, she posted the required 10% and was released with a future court date.

In a release issued by Coal City Police Sgt. Tom Logan, the department met with board members from the Coal City Area Club on Friday, Dec. 20, 2019. At that time the board members reported Fatlan had stolen money from the club office located at 285 S. Broadway. The board members advised that they found irregularities within their finances and performed a professional audit detailing all of the transactions dating back to 2017.

“The detailed records and professional audit were supplied to our department and a comprehensive investigation commenced. The findings of the investigation were provided to the Grundy County States Attorney’s Office and presented to the Grundy County Grand Jury on June 3,” the release sates.

Logan reports no other information can be released pending court proceedings.

The Coal City Area Club released the following statement this afternoon—

In August 2019, the Coal City Area Club Board of Directors became aware of record keeping irregularities that led to the eventual termination of office staff Debbie Fatlan. The discovered irregularities caused the CCAC Board to initiate a detailed review of all bank records with the help of local accounting professionals. This review validated our initial findings in addition to numerous bookkeeping discrepancies.

The Coal City Police Department was notified on 12/20/2019 of our findings, leading the CCAC Board to provide relevant documents and information dating back to 2017. In March 2020, after consultation with the Coal City Police Department, the Coal City Board of Directors chose to pursue charges and an indictment against Mrs. Fatlan.

Prior to early 2018 many of the bookkeeping methods within the office dated back many decades, including the use of handwritten ledgers. Early 2018 we switched to computer-based accounting system, but this incident highlighted the need for still more rigorous bookkeeping methods which were implemented immediately along with a set of checks and balances to ensure this doesn't happen again.

At the request of Investigators, the Board of Directors had not made comment nor confirmed the many rumors circulating until recently in order to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation and those it involved. Additionally, the release of this information had been delayed by the Grand Jury due to the current health concerns. With that, we'd like to thank the Coal City Police Department for their help with this matter and Sgt. Christopher Harseim's professionalism in working with us.

The Coal City Area Club Board of Directors will have no further comment at this time as we let the matter work itself through the court.

Thank you CCAC Board of Directors

Editor’s note: Persons named in this report are innocent of all charges until proven guilty in a court of law.