For the second time, the former director of the Fayette County Association for the Blind pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $50,000 from the nonprofit.
On Monday, Eric Dolfi, 44, of Smithfield entered a general guilty plea to theft, according to District Attorney Mike Aubele.
Dolfi initially pleaded guilty to 494 theft-related counts last fall, and was sentenced to one to four years in prison in February.
After the sentence was handed down, Dolfi’s attorney Michael Ford argued the plea and sentence should be set aside because the way prosecutors filed charges against his client was incorrect.
Ford successfully argued that prosecutors should have either filed one count of theft that covered the entire $47,949.20 that was taken, or filed 494 charges, with the charges related to each individual instance of theft.
Judge Nancy D. Vernon, who handed down the sentence in February, granted Ford’s motion to negate Dolfi’s sentence and allow him to withdraw his plea last month. She also released Dolfi on a $20,000 unsecured bond.
During Dolfi’s original sentencing it was revealed that between January 2020 and July 2021, he transferred a total of $17,280.71 from the Blind Association’s PayPal account to his personal PayPal account, used the association’s credit card to make $28,607.50 in unauthorized charges and inflated his paychecks by $2,061.
Ford did not return a call seeking comment.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 14.