Former Masontown council member gets ARD
A former Masontown council member accused of stealing funds from a local nonprofit group was admitted to a pretrial diversionary program on Wednesday.
Fayette County Judge Steve P. Leskinen also ordered Kim Essig, 55 of Masontown to make restitution in the amount of $1,610, and perform 50 hours of community service, as conditions of her participation in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program.
Enter-ing the ARD program does not require an admission of guilt. If Essig successfully completes the program, charges of tampering with records of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds will be expunged from her record.
Essig formerly served as treasurer of Masontown Matters. In January 2014, the group’s president, Kay Rendina, told police she noticed some altered bank statements that concealed a $500 check that was unlawfully “borrowed'” from the organization, according to court documents.
Fayette County Task Force Det. Steven Kontaxes examined Masontown Matters’ books, and discovered altered bank statements and balances, indicating attempts to try and hide the thefts of funds, according to the criminal complaint Kontaxes filed in August 2014.
Police looked at bank statements from November 2013 through January 2014 and compared them to the statements that Essig provided to the organization, and determined figures had been allegedly altered by Essig, court records state.
When police interviewed Essig in June, she said she had sent the November 2013 through January 2014 PNC Masontown Matters bank statements to a friend in New York City who performed the alterations for her. Essig told police she did this because she did not want the president of the organization to know that there was money missing from the bank account.
Essig told police she knew what she did was unlawful, and said she returned the $500 to the bank account, according to police.