December 19, 2011 – After serving 21 months of a 37-month sentence, Gary Kimmel, the former dentist and former Marina City resident convicted in 2008 of money laundering, has had a year shaved off his supervised release.

That means Kimmel no longer has to check in with a probation officer. Judge Blanche M. Manning granted the request on December 8.

According to his attorney, Joseph Lopez, Kimmel has not found work since being released from a “halfway house” west of the Loop on December 3, 2010, and has been living on Social Security benefits.

“The defendant has faithfully complied with the provisions of his supervised release and followed the instructions of his probation officer,” wrote Lopez in a motion filed on December 2. “The defendant has not tested positive for drugs. All fines are paid.”

On March 8, 2011, Judge Manning approved a request by Kimmel to travel to the Philippines to see his wife, Monalisa, and their three children. Kimmel left on March 21 and returned on April 10, according to court records. Monalisa moved to Roxas City, the capital of the province of Capiz, to live with her mother after Kimmel went to prison on March 2, 2009.

(Above) Monalisa and Gary Kimmel in an undated photo.

And the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Monday that Kimmel “is ready to practice dentistry again,“ although the article does not say what steps, if any, Kimmel has taken toward getting back his dentist’s license that was suspended in 2006.

A source with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation told the Sun-Times that Kimmel, in addition to paying a $50,000 fine, would have to re-test for his license, and his request would have to be approved by the director of the agency. If approved, he would be on probation for three years, reporting every four months.

“We hope to have him back working as a dentist in no time,” Lopez told the Sun-Times, noting Kimmel’s supervised release was ended early “because of his exemplary conduct.”

Lopez could not immediately be reached for an update. In November 2009, he told Marina City Online that Kimmel wants to return to Chicago after being released. “I think he’d stay in Chicago,” said Lopez. “He wants to get out and be a dentist again. And he can if he pays a $50,000 fine, he gets his license back.”