Judge dismisses special prosecutor request
A Greene County judge dismissed Jefferson Borough solicitor Dennis Makel’s motion requesting that he be appointed special prosecutor to pursue criminal charges against a former borough secretary for allegedly embezzling $120,000. Common Pleas Court President Judge H. Terry Grimes issued a ruling Wednesday denying Makel’s motion, which also asked the judge to review the case to determine why District Attorney Marjorie J. Fox has not yet filed charges against former secretary-treasurer Cynthia Walters or her husband, a former borough council president.
In his order, Grimes said Fox stated in court that the case remains under investigation by her office and state police, and Makel’s motion was premature.
A hearing was held on Makel’s motion Monday.
His motion says borough officials don’t understand what information, if any, could come from further investigation after the Pennsylvania Ethics Commission already investigated the case.
The motion says the results of the Ethics Commission investigation created a factual basis for charges of theft, fraud, forgery, embezzlement and conspiracy.
“I’m continuing to work on it,” Fox said after the judge issued his ruling. “I’ve never declined to file charges.”
The Ethics Commission’s findings included allegations that Cynthia Walters wrote checks to her husband, who also did snowplowing and maintenance work for the borough as an independent contractor, for work he did not perform.
“It’s difficult to prove what was not done,” Fox said.
She said it was her understanding that Walters is making payments on $120,000 in restitution to the borough through an agreement she worked out with the Ethics Commission.
In her written response to Makel’s motion, Fox said Cynthia Walters’ settlement with the commission included an initial payment of $40,000 and monthly payments of $952.
An order from the Ethics Commission in March 2005 said Walters allegedly violated the state’s ethics code by abusing the public trust from 1998 to 2003, when she was fired.
She started working for the borough in 1987.
The commission’s order said Walters allegedly charged the borough rent for working out of her home without council’s permission.
Walters allegedly overpaid her husband by more than $100,000 in 156 checks for services that were never provided, forged bills from her husband and forged council members’ signatures on the checks, according to the commission.
She allegedly opened two bank accounts in which she deposited the money she siphoned from the borough and padded her own paychecks, according to the commission.
The commission found that Walters falsified her husband’s tax returns by not reporting the overpayments.
In 2000, the commission determined that Lonny Walters violated the ethics code and ordered him to pay $17,260 in restitution. He repaid the money that year, but his wife allegedly reimbursed him with five checks from the borough.
Fox’s response to the motion states that legal principles suggest that “all charges against one or both parties should be filed at once to avoid a claim of double jeopardy, that the summary provided by the Ethics Commission does not sufficiently set forth probable cause for a criminal complaint … and that the entry of a settlement in an Ethics Commission investigation does not establish the quantum of proof necessary to a criminal prosecution.”