ABOVE PHOTO: FIRED INSPECTOR GENERAL RON EVANS AND HIS WIFE POLICE CHIEF REGINA "CRUSTY TOES" EVANS
Embattled Country Club Hills Police chief Regina Evans is taking a break from her post running the town’s police force.
Two days after her husband Ronald Evans was laid off from his job as inspector general, Evans went on disability leave.
Mayor Dwight Welch, who appointed police Lt. Mark Scott to be the interim chief, guessed Evans could be gone from anywhere from two weeks to a year.
“She’s really ill,” he said.
Welch refused to get into specifics about what’s ailing Evans, but says it’s been going on long before her husband was laid off or her pending financial troubles were made public.
The SouthtownStar disclosed last month that the Evanses filed for bankruptcy in March, listing $4.5 million in debt and only $400 in assets in a checking account.
The couple has lawsuits pending against them, their companies and a non-profit foundation Regina Evans started. They also face foreclosure on several properties.
Ronald Evans was hired for the inspector general job a year ago and earned $109,281 in that role up until he was sacked on Aug. 1 due to budget cuts.
As inspector general, he had the power to investigate alleged wrongdoing by city workers and officials, including his wife and his brother-in-law, who was a recent addition to the city payroll. Regina Evans, a retired Chicago police sergeant, has been the city’s chief since Welch hired her in 2009 and she earns $123,821 in that role.
Before working in her current role, she owned a limousine service the city paid $254,385 from Aug. 2, 2006 until Aug. 23, 2008 to transport musical acts to and from the Country Club Hills Theater.
Ald. Vincent Lockett (2nd), a political opponent of Welch, said he believed Scott was the right person for the job. He said he had worked for the department for 12 years, starting as a patrolman and working his way up the management ladder.
“He’s a good guy and I think he’ll do a great job,” Lockett said, adding that he didn’t know when Evans would return. “Right now the department is looking for direction and he will take it in the right direction.”
