Former Greene woman facing trial
WAYNESBURG – A former director of the Greene County tourism agency who was arrested in February on numerous charges stemming from allegations that she stole her 78-year-old grandmother’s identity and racked up $13,602.13 in credit card debt had all charges held for court at her preliminary hearing Monday. Carol Jean Howard, 32, of Sherrill Ford, N.C., and formerly of Waynesburg, was arraigned Feb. 6 before Magisterial District Judge Lee Watson on two felony counts of identity theft, one felony count of theft by unlawful taking, two felony counts of access device fraud and one felony count of computer trespass. Following her arraignment, she was released on $50,000 unsecured bond.
According to the criminal complaint filed Feb. 2, state police said Elizabeth Rohulich of Bobtown reported on Dec. 20 that she received a letter from her credit card company indicating her credit limit had been lowered because she had multiple credit accounts carrying a balance at or near their credit limits. Rohulich, who only had one card in her name, obtained a copy of her credit report, which did not have her address listed, but rather the addresses of Howard, her granddaughter, the complaint states.
Police said two credit card accounts were listed on the report that Rohulich had not applied for, and itemized statements showed her name as the account holder but the address was changed to Howard’s former Waynesburg address. The statements also included charges in North Carolina, where Howard currently resides, police said. Rohulich told police she never has applied for, used or authorized either of the two credit accounts, the complaint states.
A statement from one credit account indicated a balance of $9,912.54 and the other statement indicated a balance of $3,689.59, police said.
At the conclusion of Howard’s preliminary hearing Monday, Watson ordered all of the charges filed against her to be held for court. She remains free on bond.
Howard was initially arraigned on the charges on the same day she was sentenced to serve five years of probation for embezzling more than $2,000 from the county’s tourist promotion agency while she was the agency’s director.
Howard was sentenced before Greene County Judge H. Terry Grimes after she previously pleaded guilty in December to 10 felony counts of forgery, a felony charge of criminal use of a communication facility and nine misdemeanor counts, including theft by unlawful taking, tampering with public records and theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received.
The charges stemmed from an audit of Greene County Tourism for April 2006. An investigation by the Greene County controller’s office determined Howard embezzled $1,700 by using forged signatures on agency checks and took an additional $497.72 through a false invoice.
Howard repaid the $2,197.72 as soon as the discrepancies in the audit were brought to her attention, according to David Balint, deputy controller and director of audits for Greene County. The findings from the audit were presented to Howard in May 2006 and she paid partial restitution two days later. The restitution was paid in full in June 2006, Balint said.
The charges against Howard concerned forged cashier’s checks and a faked invoice given to Balint as receipts during the course of the audit. Police said she also forged a co-signer’s name on two checks and altered an entry in the tourism agency’s books. She was also charged with depositing funds into her business account and failing to make deposits for the tourism agency.
On Feb. 6, Howard was sentenced to serve numerous concurrent terms of five years of probation, plus 180 hours of community service, and was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and court costs.