DIXON, Ill. (AP) – A former Dixon comptroller convicted of stealing nearly $54 million from the northern Illinois city has won an early release from federal prison. Sixty-eight-year-old Rita Crundwell was sentenced to serve 19 years and seven months in prison. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons says she had been scheduled to be released on Oct. 20, 2029. However, with about eight years left on her 19{-year sentence, she was released Wednesday from the Federal Correctional Institute in Pekin to a Chicago halfway house. Dixon officials say the reason for her early release was not disclosed. Dixon Mayor Liandro Arellano says his city is “still dealing with the social and financial aftermath of the damage she did.”
