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Yet Annabel Melongo is innocent, despite having recorded a conversation to retain for her defense. As a result, charges against her are spurious. She willfully committed no crimes.
Besides covering up SALF wrongdoing, at issue is protecting powerful insiders, perhaps complicit in corruption and kickback schemes. Since the 19th century, it's been commonplace in Illinois and Chicago because of lax enforcement or one hand greasing another. For every offender caught, dozens go unprosecuted. The tradition continues today, discussed in one section of a detailed article on Chicago, accessed through the following link:
It's why former Chicago alderman Paddy Bauler said "Chicago ain't ready for reform," not in his day or now.
Despite her innocence, Melongo is being held without probable cause, initially on $500,000 bail, reduced to $300,000, an amount high enough to keep her jailed until tried.
Background on Melongo, SALF and Spizzirri
A Cameroon-born computer professional, Melongo worked in Chicago since 2003, and in 2006 for SALF, an NGO chartered to teach public school children first aid.
Foundered in 1993, it was a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) member organization, receiving nearly $9 million in federal and state funding. Yet to date, no definitive accounting explains where it went, suggesting willful criminal fraud.
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