Biden commutes sentence of $53M embezzler, angering Illinois community

President Biden's clemency decision to include the woman behind the worst municipal corruption case in U.S. history angered a small Illinois village, as Fox News reported.

Rita Crundwell, 71, the former Dixon, Illinois comptroller who stole nearly $54 million from the town over 22 years and pleaded guilty in 2012, was one of 1,500 people whose sentences were commuted last Thursday, the most ever granted by a president.

Local leaders and even state lawmakers are upset she got off "scot-free." Dixon city manager Danny Langloss spoke to the issue on "Fox & Friends First" Tuesday.

"Rita's crime absolutely shocks the conscience…. at her sentencing on February 14th, 2013, [the judge] said that a significant prison sentence was essential to reestablish public trust and confidence, so what we've seen here over the last week is just unbelievable and really a complete betrayal by the federal criminal justice system."

Langloss, the police chief at Crundwell's arrest, said the rural Illinois community is "shocked," "outraged," and in "disbelief" and called her commutation "a complete disservice to all the victims of her crime" and to the "sanctity and the trust of the criminal justice system."

In exchange for millions of dollars, a corrupt judge in the "cash-for-kids" scandal sentenced youngsters to prison. Biden shortened his sentence.

"This is lazy governance, and it's really abuse of authority and power," Langloss continued on Tuesday.

"We're outraged that Rita's been released, but all the work I've done as a police officer around protecting children, alternatives to detention, the impact of detention on children, to have this judge walk free, to have a day taken off his sentence while they just really got this so wrong."

From the White House

Last Thursday, the White House announced 1,500 commutations for those who were in home confinement during the COVID-19 outbreak and have since reintegrated into their communities.

"These actions build on the President’s record of criminal justice reform to help reunite families, strengthen communities, and reintegrate individuals back into society.

"The President has issued more sentence commutations at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same point in their first terms," the statement continued in part.

Last Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the commutation emphasizes "second chances."