Former county employee pleads guilty
A Uniontown man who used to serve as Fayette County’s fiscal analyst pleaded guilty Monday to stealing money from organizations and businesses for whom he did accounting work, and will serve a term of probation. Bruce Beard, 44, was thrown out of the county’s Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program last year after he failed to make court-ordered restitution and stopped reporting to his probation officer.
Beard was admitted to the ARD program in October 2003 for a term of four years. He forged checks from New York Pizza and Pasta in South Union Township and the North Union Township Volunteer Fire Department.
Between June 21 and Aug. 2, 2002, Beard allegedly forged the signature of the restaurant owner on 14 checks totaling $6,679.37. He also was charged with forging the signatures of two volunteer fire department officials on a $2,500 check cashed on Aug. 6, 2002.
He was balancing the books for both the restaurant and the fire department at the time the alleged thefts occurred.
In October 2005, the county’s adult probation office filed a violation report, and a judge scheduled a hearing. However, when Beard failed to attend, the judge removed him from the ARD program. Had Beard completed the program, he could have requested his criminal record be expunged.
He pleaded guilty to two counts each of forgery and theft by deception and one count of theft by unlawful taking.