The decision by Sangamon County prosecutors not to charge anyone connected with the Phoenix Center for fraudulently billing and cheating the state out of thousands of dollars for HIV testing was disappointing but could lead to progress in restarting the nonprofit’s state funding, the center’s leader says.
“We’ve flipped our organization on its head in the past two years,” Phoenix Center Chief Executive Officer Teresa Silva told Illinois Times on Oct. 16.
She and members of the board of the Springfield-based nonprofit, which serves the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and provides harm-reduction and housing services, said in a social-media post Oct. 15 that the grant fraud described by state officials cast a “dark shadow” over Phoenix Center for several years.
An investigation by the Illinois Department of Public Health and Illinois State Police into the alleged grant fraud over a nine-year period resulted in the previous executive director, Jonna Cooley, retiring in November 2024, and the suspension of state grants to the organization that previously totaled $500,000 to $1 million annually.
The IDPH put the 25-year-old charitable organization on the state’s temporary “stop-payment” list effective Feb. 15, 2025, and there’s been little communication from state officials since then despite many safeguards that Phoenix Center put in place at the state’s request, Silva said.
The center operates out of a building at 109 E. Lawrence Ave. and at its Out on Second site at 120 E. Scarritt St., though many programs have been downsized because of the loss of state funding. The center now is entirely donor-supported and is down to two full-time employees from a high of 18 to 20.
Silva and others associated with Phoenix Center previously said Cooley was primarily responsible for the conduct that led to the investigation and cutoff of state funds.
When contacted Oct. 16, however, Silva declined to comment about Cooley, 65, a Springfield resident who led Phoenix Center for 18 years. Cooley was hired as the center’s funding development director in 2006 while she was under investigation for allegedly misusing funds at the Sangamon County Child Advocacy Center while she was executive director.
Cooley was able to keep her job at Phoenix Center even when she was charged in 2008 with nine felony counts of theft and official misconduct and three felony counts of forgery in connection with the controversy involving the Child Advocacy Center. The advocacy center is a department of Sangamon County government that coordinates investigations into child sexual abuse.
Cooley also kept her Phoenix Center job when, as part of a plea deal to settle the criminal case, she pleaded guilty in 2009 to one felony count of forgery. She was sentenced to 30 months of probation, fined $1,500 and was ordered to pay $8,000 in restitution to the advocacy center.
Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser wouldn’t speak about Cooley when contacted Oct. 16, and Cooley hasn’t responded to requests for comment.
Milhiser told Illinois Times that he reviewed results of the state police investigation into grant funds received by Phoenix Center.
“There is no evidence that money was diverted from the Phoenix Center,” he said. “The determination was made that there is insufficient evidence to support the filing of criminal charges in the case.”
Milhiser wouldn’t comment when asked why the lack of evidence that anyone benefited personally from defrauded funds prevented him from filing criminal charges.
Silva said anyone complicit or otherwise involved with any grant fraud is no longer associated with Phoenix Center.
In addition to installing a new executive director, the center has put seven new board members in place, enacted new operating, fiscal and governing policies and hired an accounting firm to oversee its finances, she said.
Silva joined Phoenix Center as a part-time worker in 2022. She was hired full time in 2023, then named interim executive director in December 2024. Her appointment was made permanent in February.
The only board members remaining since 2024 are Board President Josh Wright and Secretary Candice Trees, and Silva said those two weren’t involved in any discussions with the state in 2024.
Phoenix Center so far has repaid IDPH $101,000, including a $5,000 payment in August, according to information Illinois Times obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Phoenix Center officials believe they have repaid the entire amount that the organization was overpaid, Silva said.
However, IDPH Assistant General Counsel Patricia Montalvo said in an Oct. 13 email to Illinois Times that the overpayment “is expected to be some number in excess of $600,000.”
IDPH officials wouldn’t say what hurdles remain before state funding to Phoenix Center can resume.
Silva said the center hasn’t ruled out paying more to the state.
“We’re open to negotiations to get this resolved … to resolve the stop-payment status,” she said.
An IDPH letter dated Feb. 5, 2025, to Phoenix Center that the newspaper obtained through FOIA said the department initially stopped payments to the center because of “double billing” for fiscal years 2016 through 2024.
The stop-payment status was lifted on Nov. 7, 2024, after the center put in place a corrective action plan, according to the letter.
The stop-payment status resumed in February 2025, the letter said, after the Phoenix Center’s board disclosed on Nov. 20, 2024, that documents related to grant administration were destroyed in February 2024 at Cooley’s direction.
In addition, the letter said an unnamed board officer “admitted withholding material information about destruction of records from Oct. 18, 2024, to Nov. 20, 2024, and duplicate billing from February to November 2024, despite previous assurances of full disclosure.”
Silva told Illinois Times that the board officer mentioned in the letter no longer is associated with Phoenix Center.
In a story that the newspaper published in April detailing many of the allegations of misconduct, Silva said the center’s existence would be threatened if the financial problems weren’t resolved within 12 months.
That threat remains, Silva said on Oct. 16. She also said she and other center officials are investigating options for future survival that give them hope. She wouldn’t elaborate.
“We’re optimistic that with these new potential avenues, that we will be OK,” Silva said. “We’re not out of options. We’re not done. We’re the queer community. We’re built on fighting for our right to exist.”
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer with Illinois Times. He can be reached at dolsen@illinoistimes.com, 217-679-7810 or www.x.DeanOlsenIT.
