Published Saturday, October 19, 2002
Herald Staff Writer
The attorney representing Rosemary Moses said Thursday the former Hermitage receiver of taxes did not plead guilty to a misdemeanor embezzlement charge in court Wednesday morning.
Grove City lawyer Raymond H. Bogaty said Mrs. Moses, 64, of 719 Hasenflu Drive, Hermitage, pleaded no contest to a charge of stealing $92,000 from the Hermitage School District, the city of Hermitage and an individual between 1988 and 1999.
Assistant District Attorney Brian Farrone said he told The Herald Wednesday that Mrs. Moses pleaded guilty. "She pled guilty by entering a no-contest plea. There is no difference between a guilty plea and a no-contest plea in the eyes of the court, except that with a no-contest plea, it can't be used as evidence of civil liability."
Bogaty, who refused a Herald request for a comment Wednesday after the court hearing, said Thursday's story "has and will continue to cause anguish, emotional trauma and stress to Mrs. Moses."
"A no-contest plea, unlike a plea of guilty, cannot be used in a civil proceeding as an admission" of guilt, Bogaty said after the story was published.
Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Dobson and John Reed, president of the Mercer County Bar Association, concurred with Farrone.
"No contest is still a guilty plea from a criminal standpoint," Dobson said. "There is no difference in the eyes of the law. She pled guilty by pleading no contest," he said, adding that he says that to every defendant who pleads no contest.
A plea of no contest in Pennsylvania "is considered a guilty plea," Reed said. The person entering such a plea has "some sense of well-being they're not admitting their guilt, but legally they are," he said.
Dobson agreed with Bogaty that a no-contest plea cannot be used as an admission of guilt in a civil case.
Mrs. Moses came under scrutiny after Hermitage School District's business manager, Eugene Fornadel, began asking questions about occupational tax refunds for city residents. Investigators discovered she had paid about $11,000 in refunds to residents, but the school had given her more than $50,000 in refund money over 11 years. She was also accused of stealing at least $38,000 from wage-tax payments and an individual.
The DA's office agreed to her plea because Mrs. Moses agreed to pay back the money and to give up her pension. She will continue to be free on her own recognizance until her sentencing hearing Dec. 31.