Feds accuse former Carlyle police chief of wire fraud, theft
[March 06, 2026]
By Beth Hundsdorfer, Janelle O'Dea
A Metro East police chief spent more than $100,000 of public money
intended to combat drug use and support a local fire protection district
on personal expenses, including basketball tickets, travel, and diamond
engagement ring, according to a federal indictment.
A federal grand jury returned a four-count indictment on Tuesday
charging now former Carlyle Police Chief Mark Pingsterhaus on wire fraud
and theft of public money counts. He resigned in December after the
federal investigation became public.
“We strongly support law enforcement because the overwhelming majority
of officers service with dedication, honor and courage. But when any
officer, especially the chief, betrays the community they are sworn to
protect, we will take decisive action,” said U.S. Attorney for the
Southern District of Illinois Steven. D. Weinhoeft in a statement.
Investigation details
A Capitol News Illinois and Illinois Answers Project investigation
published in February detailed the probe into Pingsterhaus, who leased
office space in the police state to an FBI task force that battles
public corruption in southern Illinois.
A search warrant obtained by the news organizations stated Federal
Bureau of Investigations agents were looking for correspondence, gifts,
keys, photographs “indicating a personal relationship or travel” with a
person reporters learned was a public official in a neighboring county.
Agents sought police department records dating back to 2012 — when
Pingsterhaus, who is married, became chief.
The indictment alleged that Pingsterhaus engaged in this fraud for more
than eight years, in part, to conceal that personal relationship.
Pingsterhaus used a city credit card to purchase tickets for
professional women’s basketball game between the Washington Mystics and
the Indiana Fever, featuring WNBA star Caitlin Clark, in Washington,
D.C., on Sept. 19, 2024.
Pingsterhaus also acted as the financial officer for the Carlyle Fire
Protection District. He used the district’s bank card to buy a 3/4 carat
“composite diamond split shank engagement ring,”according to the
indictment.
He also made unauthorized purchases on the district’s credit card, the
charges stated.
Federal prosecutors also alleged Pingsterhaus also wrote checks for
unauthorized expenses on the Carlyle Fire Protection District’s account.
Pingsterhaus also allegedly devised a way to get cash. The indictment
detailed an alleged scheme where Pingsterhaus would have an unnamed
employee cash checks from the city’s drug and education account, telling
the employee that the funds were to be used as “buy money” in undercover
drug operations for the police department.
“Instead, Pingsterhaus took the money for himself,” according to the
indictment.
Pingsterhaus could not be reached for comment.
‘Full confidence in the current police department’
During part of the time when federal prosecutors alleged Pingsterhaus
committed the crimes, he shared office space with the home of the FBI’s
Southern Illinois Transnational Organized Crime West Task Force, or
TOC-W. Pingsterhaus signed a lease with the FBI to house the task force
in 2021.
[to top of second column]
|
On June 9, 2023, the city posted a photo of Mark Pingsterhaus
shaking hands with then FBI Director Christopher Wray, heralding
Pingsterhaus completing the FBI Academy. Pingsterhaus later was
suspended amid an FBI investigation. (City of Carlyle Facebook
page.)
The 12-member task force occupies a designated office within the Carlyle
police department secured behind a keypad.
The task force focuses on international drug trafficking rings operating
in southern Illinois, money laundering, extortion, kidnapping, public
corruption and murder.
“When resources meant for community elevation are diverted for personal
gain, it undermines the safety we work so hard to build and harms the
community we swore to protect,” said Ruben Marchand-Morales, special
agent in charge of the FBI Springfield field office.
After the indictment, the city released a statement on their social
media.
“The City of Carlyle would like to assure the citizens of the community
that police services have not and will not be affected by this
investigation. The City of Carlyle has full confidence in the current
police department. We want to make clear, no one else in the Carlyle
Police Department was involved. The city has total confidence in the new
Police Chief Jason Herzing and all the officers.”
Herzing could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
Pingsterhaus, 51, must appear in federal court in East St. Louis to
answer the theft and wire fraud charges on March 16.
‘It’s Just Awful’
The federal grand jury returned the indictment on Tuesday — the same day
police found 41-year-old Sadie Tull dead inside her Carlyle home during
a welfare check.
“All of this has just shook our community to its core,” said Mayor Judy
Smith on Thursday. “It’s just awful. I hope that we can get find out who
did this so we can begin to heal.”
Carlyle, the county seat of Clinton County, is located 50 miles east of
St. Louis. It’s home to about 3,200 residents and the largest manmade
lake in Illinois. There hasn’t been a murder in Carlyle in more than a
decade.
The Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis Area is working the murder
case. The Major Case Squad is composed of investigators that assist the
local police departments that are detached from their local departments
for five to 15 days to assist with the investigation of murders in the
St. Louis area.
Tull ran a dog grooming business called Furfetti Pet Salon. She was
well-known and well-loved in the community, Smith said.
One of Carlyle’s officers is assigned to the Major Case Squad working
Tull’s murder, Smith said.
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government
coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily
by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
 |
