Gutierrez trial: Companies’ invoices led to probe, felony charges

When Kane County Circuit Clerk Theresa Barreiro first took office Dec. 1, 2020, she had defeated two-term incumbent Republican Thomas Hartwell.

And when she checked the invoices that would go before the County Board to be paid for the previous months, Barreiro testified she thought some of them were unusual.

“The invoices were excessive when you add them all up,” Barreiro said.

The invoices for Gutierrez Productions Inc. and DAR Illumination LLC, added up to $119,575.

Barreiro was the first of seven witnesses in the bench trial Monday for St. Charles businessman Robert Gutierrez, 75, who was charged with more than $100,000 in theft by deception. Gutierrez Productions and DAR Illumination were both his businesses.

Gutteirrez was charged with nine felonies in 2023 as part of an alleged kickback scheme with the late Circuit Clerk Thomas Hartwell. Hartwell was charged with 19 felonies connected to misusing public funds between December 2018 and November 2020, records show.

“I questioned my chief of finance and asked what they were for because they – the ones I was questioning at the time – were November and October,” Barreiro said. “I asked her what they were billed for...I put everything together in a file and was very nervous, wondering what to do with this.”

Those invoices would come under her billing cycle as the newly elected circuit clerk, Barreiro said.

She put the records into a file and sent it to the Attorney General and the State’s Attorney’s Office, which began an investigation into the alleged misuse of public funds.

The invoices stated various reasons, such as for public relations, marketing about the circuit clerk’s services on radio and television, in outreach to the Hispanic community, and for expungement clinics, records show.

An expungement clinic assists people with low-level charges such as marijuana possession eliminate them from their record and make it easier for them to get jobs.

Kristy Sharpness, who was Hartwell’s executive assistant, testified that she created a PowerPoint for the expungement clinics held in Elgin, Aurora and at Centro de Información, also in Elgin.

Gutierrez was there, collecting names and email addresses, Sharpness said.

Later, she saw the invoice for $11,900 from Gutierrez Productions.

“It was kind of a kick in the gut,” Sharpness said.

Illinois State Police Special Agent Nathan Schramka, who investigated the payments, invoices and bank records, played the audio of a half-hour interview he had with Gutierrez.

“You killed my business,” Gutierrez said. “Thirty-three years, clean as a whistle. Dead in the water. ... It’s dead in the water. ... I’m a good guy. I served my country.”

Gutierrez was referring to his service in Vietnam.

Schramka also testified that bank records showed Gutierrez made three $5,000 payments to Hartwell. The charging documents allege the payments were kickbacks.

In other testimony, Schramka said no one could find a contract for Gutierrez Productions in any Kane County record.

Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Dore said he would call three more witnesses Tuesday.

Gutierrez’s attorney, Liam Dixon, said he had no witnesses to call unless his client chose to testify.

Circuit Court Judge John Barsanti listed the various prison terms possible if Gutierrez is found guilty of any of the charges – the most serious being a Class 1 felony punishable by one to 15 years. But Gutierrez could also be sentenced to probation. The maximum for probation would be 48 months