Criminal Activity At Joliet Housing Authority's Liberty Meadow Estates: Joliet Police Obtain Arrest Warrant

JOLIET, IL — Will County Judge Art Smigielski has issued a warrant authorizing the Joliet Police Department to arrest 55-year-old Johnathan Scott of University Park in connection with allegations he stole large sums of rent money from tenants at the Joliet Housing Authority's Liberty Meadows housing development along Briggs Street. Scott was employed last year as the Liberty Meadow Estates property manager,his criminal charges indicate.

The arrest warrant, however, indicates that Scott will not be taken to the Will County Jail; he will be released on his own recognizance. Scott is now charged with five counts of theft. He stole money from four different Joliet Housing Authority tenants between March 28 and July 21, 2025, the warrant alleges. Joliet Police Detective Jeff German obtained the arrest warrant.

According to German's criminal complaint, Scott obtained or exerted unauthorized control over property of the Housing Authority of Joliet, having a total value exceeding $500 and less than $10,000, "while acting as the property manager of Liberty Meadow Estates, a property of the Housing Authority of Joliet." The complaint outlined how Scott "accepted rent payments from tenants and failed to remit said monies to the Housing Authority of Joliet and such acts were done in furtherance of a single intention and design by a series of acts and that the property was obtained from the same victim."

One of his theft charges alleges that last March 28, Scott induced a female tenant to tender blank money orders in the amount of $2,500 as rent payments and failed to remit the monies to the Housing Authority of Joliet.

Another of his charges identifies a different woman as his victim. For that charge, Scott is accused of having the woman tender a blank money order in the amount of $1,000 as a rent payment last May 30 and having failed to remit the monies to the Housing Authority of Joliet.

A third female victim is listed in one of the additional theft charges for Scott. German's complaint indicates that last July 8, the woman gave Scott blank money orders in the amount of $2,000 as rent payments, and he failed to remit the money to the Housing Authority of Joliet.

The fifth and final charge of theft listed a fourth female victim. German's Joliet Police complaint indicates that last July 17, Scott induced the woman to tender a blank money order in the amount of $453 as a rent payment and that Scott, as the Liberty Meadow Estates property manager, failed to remit the money to the Housing Authority of Joliet.