Dec 10, 2003 By Josh Krysak 4 min read

PERRY TWP. – After state police arrested current Perry Township secretary Rebecca Gira last week for allegedly stealing $10,378.32 in cash from District Justice Michael Rubish while working as his secretary, the township supervisors had little to say about the case. “All I can say is she helped Perry Township while she was here,” Supervisor A.J. Boni said.

He said that while Gira has not been back to work since being charged Thursday, Boni and Supervisor Janet Galla was hesitant to speculate about her position with the township.

“We don’t know what her intention officially is,” Galla said.

Gira, 45, of 326 Cemetery Road, Perryopolis, was charged with theft by unlawful taking or disposition, theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received, tampering with public records or information and obstructing administration of law or other governmental function.

State police said a warrant was issued for Gira’s arrest on Tuesday and she was arraigned and arrested before Belle Vernon District Justice Jesse J. Cramer. She was released on a $50,000 bond and scheduled for a preliminary hearing before Cramer.

Tuesday, the supervisors voted have the township’s finances audited for the 2003 year and also named Galla the secretary treasurer.

This is just another blow to the township in a string of financial and personnel woes that have left the supervisors scrambling to pass yearly budgets and spending township tax dollars on lawsuits to recoup lost money.

Last month former supervisor Richard Uhrin waived indictment in federal court and pleaded guilty to charges of embezzlement and filing a false income tax return totaling $574,503 during the late 1990s. Current supervisor Adam Muccioli is also under investigation in connection with $36,000 missing township coffers during the same period. The misappropriations were discovered in an audit conducted in 2000.

Both supervisors said the move to audit the township’s finances for 2003 is a required when there is a change at secretary and that it is just a precaution. Galla said she has been scrutinizing the finances since the charges.

“I’m not alarmed at anything at this point,” she said.

Galla noted that Gira is paid $8 per hour as a part-time employee without benefits. She has worked for the township for a little more than a year.

According to an affidavit filed with Cramer’s office, state police said the state auditor general’s office was conducting a routine audit of Rubish’s office for the years 1999-2001 when Gira resigned on Nov. 4, 2002. She had been hired earlier that year on May 16.

State police said Gira’s replacement, Amanda Golden, found irregularities in the Statewide Automated District Justice System and brought it to the attention of Rubish who then alerted the auditors.

The auditors decided to extend the audit to include 2002 and police said that Gira had taken $10,378.32 from Rubish’s office by dismissing or withdrawing citations for people who paid cash or by substituting one person’s check for another’s cash to make the books balance at the end of the day.

Police said the person who paid by check would be found not guilty and their payment would be applied to another person’s account who had paid cash. Police said the audit found 107 citations that were either withdrawn or marked not guilty in the computer system when in fact they pled guilty and paid their fine. The police copy was marked pled guilty and the fine paid before it was sent to the issuing police department.

The audit compared the District Justice System records to the police department records, said police, and in every case the disposition in the system was dismissed or withdrawn and the paper copy the police possessed indicated that the individual had plead guilty and paid the fine.

Police said that the records show that Gira was working at Rubish’s office every time money was taken and that the Statewide Automated District Justice System also showed that Gira was the system operator who made the fraudulent entries on all the citations in question.