Theft charges dismissed against veterans advocate
All charges were dismissed during a preliminary hearing this morning against a local veterans advocate who had been charged with stealing more than $60,000 from American Legion Post 51.
U.S. Assistant Attorney Todd Goodwin, in conjunction with Uniontown police Detective Donald M. Gmitter, said Joe T. Joseph, 73, of 322 Dixon Blvd., South Union Township, was charged in December before Magisterial District Judge Michael M. Metros with felony counts of theft by unlawful taking or disposition, theft by deception and theft by failure to make required disposition.
Gmitter and the attorney general’s office investigated the case against Joseph for several years after learning in the summer of 2009 that a “substantial amount of money” was missing from American Legion bank accounts in Uniontown, where the post was located before moving into a new home in South Union.
Gmitter said that it appeared that Joseph failed to deposit all of the Legion’s funds into the appropriate bank accounts and “instead took unlawful possession and control of a significant portion” of the money.
After the two main witnesses for the prosecution pleaded the Fifth Amendment under cross examination by Joseph’s attorney Samuel J. Davis and after Davis stipulated to a report prepared by a certified public accountant that showed more than $60,000 in discrepancies between bank account totals and daily finance reports but did not indicate where the money had gone, Davis moved for all charges against Joseph to be dismissed.
Davis told Metros and a packed courtroom that the testimony offered by prosecutors did not indicate that Joseph had stolen the money, failed to identify the source of the funds and also said that his inability to cross-examine the witnesses because of their invocation of the Fifth Amendment did not meet the requirement of a preliminary hearing to provide the accused a chance to confront his accusers.
Metros then dismissed the charges, citing a lack of evidence in the case.
For full details, read tomorrow’s HeraldStandard.com.