PONTIAC -- The former director of Pontiac Public Library was in jail Tuesday, accused of using his leadership role to steal more than $10,000 from the library.
Eric Colclasure, 42, of Pontiac, appeared for a bond hearing Tuesday in Livingston County Circuit Court via video from the jail. The judge set his bond at $100,000, meaning he must post $10,000 to be released.
If convicted of the charges, Colclasure could face a harsher sentence because of an existing 2003 felony theft conviction against him out of Cook County, said Cary Luckman, first assistant state's attorney for Livingston County.
Prosecutors contend that between April 3 and June 2, Colclasure misdirected checks that Heartland Community College paid the library for leased space. Heartland's Pontiac Center, a satellite campus for the Normal-based college, is in the library building at 211 E. Madison St., Pontiac.
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Colclasure, who was hired by Pontiac about a year ago to lead the 152-year-old library, is accused of taking those payments and redirecting them to a separate Odell Public Library fund. At the time, he also was head librarian at the Odell site, 301 E. Richard St., Odell.
A preliminary hearing on the case will be at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 4 in Livingston County Circuit Court.
A warrant was issued for his arrest Friday after a nearly three-month investigation into the library's accounts.
He was on unpaid leave from June until early August, when he officially resigned from the post, said Pontiac City Attorney Alan Schrock.
The library staff is managing the facility until the board hires a new director, he said. Library board Chairman Eric Hoover is leading that search.
The board is referring all questions about this case to Schrock because of the legal ramifications, said the attorney.
Schrock said neither the city nor the board was aware at the time of his hiring about Coclasure's 2003 felony theft conviction in Cook County.
He said the city has suffered no financial loss, and that Heartland's checks have once again been deposited in Pontiac library accounts.
Heartland Community College officials declined to comment on the case, other than confirming the lease agreement exists with the library and that payments were made, said Heartland spokeswoman Janet Hill-Getz.