Former Wabash Township Trustee Jennifer Teising will pay over $27,000 dollars in restitution and serve 124 days in the Tippecanoe County Jail, a judge announced Monday.
Monday’s sentencing came after Teising was found guilty in January of taking her trustee salary while not a legal resident of the township she served.
Before announcing the sentence she had determined, Judge Kristen McVey spoke directly to Teising, noting that the case was not “the crime of the century” but that she had nonetheless violated the public’s trust.
“You understand you will take scrutiny and publicity [for this job],” McVey said. “That’s what the job requires.”
Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Patrick Harrington said the repayment of her salary is a key component of the decision.
“That’s taxpayers' money that went and shouldn’t have,” he said. “That will be something we’ll be following closely during her term of probation, because the citizens need that money back.”
Teising’s case has sparked statewide attention and even legislation aimed at making it easier to remove a trustee from office.
Ed Ward, chief of the Wabash Township Fire Department, was fired by Teising and reinstated after her departure by now-trustee Angel Valentin.
“There’s a ton of work ahead of us and I think there was just a looming dark cloud of this stuff that we had to get out of the way to be able to move forward,” he said. “I think we’re on the way to that.”
In a separate statement, Angel Valentin said the sentencing “brings to a close this traumatic experience for our fire department, our employees, and our constituents.”
Teising has 10 days to appeal the decision before she’s scheduled to check into the county jail.
After serving her sentence, Teising will need to begin paying $500 a month until she has repaid the $27,897 required by the court.
Teising’s attorney did not immediately respond to WBAA’s request for comment.
