Woman charged with stealing from county
A warrant was issued for the arrest of a New York woman who allegedly hacked into Fayette County’s general fund and spent nearly $1,500 of taxpayer money on a computer and paying bills. State police filed charges against Yaisha S. Hadley, 38, claiming that she paid two cellular telephone bills, a cable bill and an electric bill with county funds between Sept. 18, 2007 and Oct. 9, 2007. Senior Magisterial District Judge Brenda Cavalcante issued a warrant for Hadley’s arrest on five counts of access device fraud, theft by deception and receiving stolen property.
Controller Sean P. Lally, who alerted officials to the transactions shortly after taking office, said how Hadley got the county’s information is still a mystery.
“No one knows exactly how she obtained this information. Police are theorizing that it could have been someone in the courthouse that gave her the checking and routing numbers,” he said.
Lally said authorities uncovered no evidence that the county’s computer system had been hacked to get the information.
Trooper Thomas B. Broadwater said in a court filing that he met with deputy controller Jeanine Wrona in March 2008, and she gave him copies of the county’s general fund statements from the previous September and October.
In September 2007, Hadley allegedly spent $682.74 at Sears.com for a computer. She also made a $384.45 cable bill payment and reinstated her cellular telephone services with AT&T with a payment of $162.80, Broadwater alleged.
In October, there was an additional $80.87 paid on Hadley’s cell phone bill to reinstate service after it was shut off a second time, police said. There was also a $139.38 payment made to Hadley’s electric company.
Commissioner Chairman Vincent Zapotosky and Commissioner Angela Zimmerlink both praised Lally and his staff for being diligent in noticing that there were questionable transactions.
“Taxpayers can be assured that the county had and continues to have safeguards in place protecting our accounts, but gaining access to internal county accounts and bank routing numbers shows a breach of confidential information which continues to be under investigation,” Zimmerlink said.