Former State Official Charged With Phone Threats

By Prescott Carlson in News on Nov 27, 2009 9:30PM

Tamara T. Hoffman, newly-former chief of staff for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, has been charged in Springfield with making harassing phone calls and texts to a woman who is supposedly involved in a love triangle with a man that both her and Hoffman have been seeing. Police say Hoffman made the calls/texts from her state issued cell phone. Authorities also say Hoffman tried to throw her political weight around with the downstate woman, allegedly telling her, "If you see him again, something bad is going to happen to you. I work for the State of Illinois, and you don't know who you're messing with."

Hoffman also allegedly threatened the officer when contacted about the incidents, and posted 2 photos of herself -- one posed with Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and another with her and a man holding guns -- on the victim's daughter's Facebook page.

Followers of the Blago impeachment hearings might remember Ms. Hoffman's testimony in front of the Illinois House Impeachment Committee, when her and department director Barry Maram got legislators' panties in a bunch when they played dumb in regards to Blago's controversial health care program, All Kids. Lawmakers had rejected expansion of Family Care coverage, and claimed that since Blago continued with it anyway, he displayed an abuse of power.

Hoffman had resigned her $119,400-a-year job a day before the arrest.