Dorothy Rivers

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Dorothy Rivers, a once prominent Chicago democrat, has never held a political office. Mrs. Rivers was a former lead official in Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and the former executive director of the Chicago Mental Health Foundation. As an important actor in Chicago’s private charitable sector, she was responsible for the distribution of funds (state and federal tax dollars) to those in need: the homeless, the impoverished, and the disabled.

In 1997 Dorothy Rivers was charged and pled guilty to stealing 1.2 million tax dollars in federal grant money. She used it to buy, among other things, a $35,000 dollar fur coat and a Mercedes-Benz for her son.

Mrs. Rivers was sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison but was pardoned by former President Bill Clinton. Her sentence was commuted at the personal request of Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush who said she was a loyal and hardworking member of the democratic party.