Published Tuesday, January 1, 2003
collector
gets
jail time
A former Hermitage tax collector was sentenced to jail time Tuesday and ordered to repay money she embezzled from the city and the school district.
Rosemary Moses, 64, of 719 Hasenflu Drive, must also give up her state pension. She was sentenced to serve 1 to 18 months at the state prison at Muncy. Mercer County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Dobson ordered her to serve her sentence there so he could maintain jurisdiction over her parole. Muncy, a women's prison, is in Lycoming County.
She must repay $50,500 to the city and $42,087 to the Hermitage School District. She has already cashed in an Individual Retirement Account worth $25,000 to start repaying the money.
Dobson told Mrs. Moses that even though she pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charges of embezzlement by a tax collector, she was still guilty in the eyes of the law.
When a person accused of a crime pleads no contest, it is the same as a guilty plea in criminal court, he said. The difference between no contest and guilty pleas are that no contest pleas cannot be used as an admission of guilt in a civil case.
There is a civil case pending against Mrs. Moses. When Dobson asked her if she'd like to say anything to the court, her attorney said she would not offer comment because of the civil action.
Mrs. Moses came under scrutiny after the school district's business manager, Eugene Fornadel, began asking questions about occupational tax refunds for city residents.
Earlier in the court proceedings, Assistant District Attorney Brian Farrone said investigators discovered Mrs. Moses had paid about $11,000 in refunds to residents between 1988 and 1999, but the school had given her more than $50,000 in refund money over the 11 years. She was also accused of taking at least $38,000 from wage-tax payments and from an individual during the same time period, Farrone said.
Fornadel said school directors covered the loss with the general fund, and any money Mrs. Moses repays will go back into that fund. City Manager Gary Hinkson said the tax money was taken before it ever made it to city coffers and any repayments would be put into the general fund.
Mrs. Moses faced up to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for the misdemeanor charge.
"I have thought long and hard about this sentence," Dobson said, "and how others will view what they can do in this circumstance."
Mrs. Moses' health was a topic of debate at the sentencing hearing. Her attorney, Ray Bogaty, produced letters from doctors he said supported the claim her health problems would make a prison sentence unduly harsh.
Dobson disagreed, saying the letters did not prove to him it would be impossible for Mrs. Moses to serve her sentence.
Mrs. Moses was allowed to sit down as her sentence was read. Usually, those being sentenced stand before the judge.
The case had been delayed several times; Mrs. Moses was originally charged more than two years ago.
You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Amanda Smith-Teutsch at: ateutsch@sharonherald.com