Woman Who Worked At Deerfield Health Care Facility Pleads Guilty

DEERFIELD, IL — A former employee at a Deerfield health care facility pleaded guilty last month to the attempted identity theft of a 90-year-old Lincolnshire woman, according to police and court records.

The woman's daughter discovered nearly $1,350 in unauthorized charges had been made after her mother received two weeks of treatment at Whitehall of Deerfield, 300 Waukegan Road, starting March 9, 2019, according to police.

Kathleen Bellini, 28, formerly of Norridge, turned herself in at the Deerfield Police Department Nov. 11 on a warrant for identity theft, a class 4 felony. Records show she entered a negotiated plea of guilty on Dec. 20 to an amended charge of attempted identity theft, a class A misdemeanor, in exchange for a sentence of two years supervision.

According to police, an administrator at Whitehall contacted detectives about a week after the discovery of the theft to share his suspicions about Bellini. He told officers Bellini had only worked at the facility a couple weeks — starting just before the 90-year-old victim checked in and quitting shortly after she was released. No other full-time employees had done anything like that in more than 10 years, he told police.

At some point prior to March 13, the patient's credit card and $20 in cash were stolen from her purse. More than two dozen fraudulent charges were made on the card, ranging from a $1.11 purchase at a McDonald's to a $260.56 purchase at the Victoria's Secret in Norridge, according to police.

Deerfield detectives went through the list of places where the card was used and requested whatever security video they could obtain. One store provided police with still images of a woman identified as Bellini by two employees of Whitehall's nursing department, according to police.

Police also found someone had used the stolen credit card to purchase a pizza from Domino's, according to their reports. Detectives learned the same IP address used for that transaction was also used to buy pizzas delivered to a phone number and address listed in Bellini's application to work at Whitehall, according to police reports.

Bellini said she had not been closely following the details of her case but decided, with her attorney Paul Augustyn, to resolve the allegations with the plea deal.

"I'm not a person who gets in trouble, so I didn't want there to be risk of that at all, especially having a baby," Bellini said.

Bellini said she had no regular contact with patients while working at Whitehall, serving in an administrative support role during her brief tenure. If she successfully abides by the term of supervision, prosecutors could chose to drop the charge on or before Dec. 17, 2021.