Former McDonough County Sheriff candidate Justin Lundgren has been removed as executor of his late mother's estate. A judge also ordered Lundgren to repay the money he spent from the account.
Lundgren’s siblings asked the court to remove him as executor, citing numerous bank transfers from the estate account to his personal account. The transfers added up to nearly $100,000.
Lundgren said he transferred the money to reimburse himself for expenses associated with taking care of the five cats his mother left him. Lundgren told Tri States Public Radio he had his mother’s best interest at heart.
Judge Thomas Ewing heard the case. He ruled Lundgren was in breach of the fiduciary responsibility as executor of the estate and posed he could be using the cats as a subterfuge. Ewing gave him 30 days to pay the money back into the estate account and named Lundgren’s brother as the new executor.
Tri States Public Radio started following the estate battle because Lundgren was running for sheriff and – if elected – would have managed the department’s budget.
Lundgren ultimately lost in the Republican primary, though he remains employed as a detective for the sheriff’s department.
