A former Illinois State Police Merit Board employee who was fired by the small state agency in July 2020 for alleged felony theft, forgery and official misconduct received $71,400 in workers’ compensation and disability payments after her termination.

It’s unclear why Jenny Thornley, 41, received the benefits for more than a year based on her claim of sexual assault, even after an independent review conducted by a Chicago consulting firm at the request of the board said the assault likely did not take place.

The case of Thornley, a former campaign volunteer for Gov. JB Pritzker who says she was sexually assaulted by her boss, has become political in an election year when Pritzker is seeking a second four-year term.

Republican leaders in the General Assembly suggested in a Jan. 4 letter to the Democratic governor and leaders of the Democratic-led House and Senate that Pritzker’s administration engaged in an "apparent pattern of obstruction of justice" in the handling of Thornley’s case.

Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie, R-Hawthorn Woods, and House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, say they haven’t received any responses to the letter, which requested "all of the materials" provided to the news media by the Merit Board, governor’s office and any other agencies involved with the case.

The governor’s press secretary didn’t respond to Illinois Times’ requests to comment for this story.

Thornley’s sexual harassment lawsuit against the board, the state and former board executive director Jack Garcia remains pending in federal court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Thornley alleged in the lawsuit that she was in Garcia’s office in Springfield reviewing paperwork on Jan. 23, 2020, when Garcia approached her from behind and "groped" her right breast.

Garcia, 60, of Orland Park, and the Merit Board denied Thornely’s allegation. The former State Police officer joined the agency in 2017 but left in September 2021 to become public safety director for the Chicago suburb of Burbank.

Garcia’s attorneys have said in court documents that when Thornley learned Garcia was gathering information about the alleged overtime scam, she "fabricated the most explosive allegations that she could invent, allegations that could spread throughout state government in an effort to discredit, hurt and neutralize Garcia."

Thornley was fired July 21, 2020, by the five-member board, which oversees an agency that certifies state police candidates for appointment, certifies troopers as eligible for promotion and disciplines ISP officers.

Thornley was indicted by a Sangamon County grand jury in September for allegedly cheating the agency in 2019 out of between $10,000 and $100,000 in overtime she allegedly never worked. She had an annual salary of $86,556.

A $450,000 internal investigation conducted by the McGuireWoods firm at the Merit Board’s request and completed in July 2020 questioned Thornley’s credibility. The firm’s report said that at the time she claimed to be sexually harassed, she was "extremely upset" the governor’s office didn’t choose her for a similar job at the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

McGuireWoods said there was insufficient evidence that Garcia sexually assaulted Thornley but there was sufficient evidence that she arranged fraudulent overtime payments.

Thornley told The State Journal-Register last year she was innocent of the criminal charges, and entered a formal plea of not guilty in response to the charges, which carry a potential penalty of four to 15 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.

Neither she nor her lawyer, Carl Draper, would comment to Illinois Times after a Jan. 18 status hearing in the court case, and Draper wouldn’t comment on an apparent ongoing state investigation into whether she defrauded the state’s workers’ comp and disability programs.

A pretrial hearing on the case is scheduled April 11 while Thornley remains free on her own recognizance.

Former Merit Board program director Emily Fox, who since has replaced Garcia as executive director, complained to the Office of Executive Inspector General for the Agencies of the Illinois Governor in September 2020 that the governor’s Central Management Services agency granted Thornley workers’ compensation request without allowing the Merit Board to contest the decision. Thornley first filed the request in February 2020.

In a Dec. 15, 2020, letter, deputy inspector general Antoinette Kwateng told Fox that the Merit Board’s complaint should be addressed by the Merit Board rather than the inspector general, according to documents Illinois Times obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Fox told Garcia in a Sept. 21, 2020, email that CMS manager Kevin Richey told Fox he "has the authority to override any case, which he did in this particular case, since according to Workers Compensation laws, the Merit Board wrongfully terminated Jenny Thornley."

Fox told Richey the board terminated Thornley "for cause," so Thornley didn’t deserve any workers’ comp or related disability payments.

After being turned down by the inspector general’s office, the Merit Board filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Insurance Workers’ Compensation Fraud Unit on July 23, 2021. According to an email from Fox to Garcia later that month, insurance department official Brad Lucchini called the workers’ comp payments to Thornley "a clear case of fraud."

The department opened a criminal investigation, Fox said. A Department of Insurance spokeswoman didn’t respond to questions about the status of the investigation.

The result of the CMS decision meant Thornley received $63,261 in workers’ compensation benefits from July 21, 2020, through Sept. 7, 2021. The end date was shortly before the grand jury indictment.

Thornley also received $8,140 for the time period "as a result of incurring a work-connected disabling condition with the State Police Merit Board," according to a State Employees Retirement System official responding to a Freedom of Information request.

CMS spokeswoman Cathy Kwiatkowski didn’t respond to an email that asked why it took so long to cut off Thornley’s benefits.

SERS paid the $8,140 disability benefit to Thorney as part of a state-mandated formula that allows state workers with legitimate claims to receive benefits totaling 75% of their regular pay, SERS director Tim Blair said.

The systems continued to pay the disability portion of the benefit, and deferred any investigation into the legitimacy of Thornley’s claim to CMS, he said. Inside CMS, "there was some belief that her story was accurate," Blair said.

The Merit Board told SERS in October 2020 that Thornley’s alleged sexual assault didn’t occur, but no one sent SERS the full McGuireWoods report, Blair said. The 129-page report "could have affected our decision," he said.

Thornley’s benefits were terminated as the criminal indictment for overtime fraud was imminent because "it became clear there was more to this," Blair said.

If it’s determined that Thornley lied to state officials to get her benefits, SERS could reimburse itself for the $8,140 loss by withholding a portion of her future retirement benefits, he said.

Thornley worked for the Merit Board for more than seven years. She was a volunteer for the Democratic governor’s first election campaign. In 2019, Thornley ran unsuccessfully for the Springfield Metropolitan Exposition and Auditorium Authority Board.

Her connection with Pritzker has raised questions as to whether political favoritism influenced the involvement by the governor’s office in the handling of her case.

A former deputy director of the Illinois State Police, Jack Garcia is a member of Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin’s law enforcement advisory council as part of Irvin’s campaign for the Republican nomination to run against Pritzker in November.

Garcia’s lawyers, in their written response to Thornley’s federal lawsuit, said Thornley "issued thinly veiled threats of political retribution in the governor’s name."

Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer for Illinois Times. He can be reached at dolsen@illinoistimes.com.