Published Thursday, January 16, 2003
$41,053 in taxes
Herald Staff Writer
It's been almost a year and a half since Barbara Estman quit her job as Lackawannock Township tax collector. Now she has been charged with stealing money from the township and the county.
Monday, state police charged Ms. Estman with theft by failure to make required disposition, theft by deception and taxation and fiscal affairs. From January 1987 until she quit in August 2001, Ms. Estman misappropriated $41,053 from tax receipts and used the money for herself, police said.
According to the affidavit of probable cause:
The shortage was initially discovered when West Middlesex Area School District was audited, and preliminary reports indicated a possible misappropriation of funds. Then the township and county had their own audits conducted.
The audits showed Mercer County was missing $25,983 and the township was missing $15,070. No money was missing from the school district.
Police theorize that Ms. Estman, 56, of 218 Reiber Road, Lackawannock Township, took tax money paid to the township or county and credited the funds toward the school district in an effort to hide the shortage.
State police interviewed Ms. Estman on July 18, 2001, and she admitted she took the money because she was having financial problems and couldn't pay for medicine for her sick mother, police said.
Ms. Estman told police she intended to pay back the money, but couldn't because the school district eliminated commissions for tax collectors.
Ms. Estman also told police she took money from one account to cover shortages in others, but the law changed; all the accounts came due at the same time and she didn't have the money to cover the shortages.
She admitted to taking only about $2,500 and could not explain why the shortage was so much more, the affidavit said.
The possibility that there were problems with tax collection and that Ms. Estman may have been responsible came to light in August 2001 when Lackawannock supervisors, their solicitor and five West Middlesex school officials held a closed-door meeting at the township building while residents stood in the parking lot and complained about the secrecy.
Officials would only say the meeting was about personnel, although some residents said they had heard there were problems in the township's tax office.
Supervisors met a few days later to accept Ms. Estman's resignation. At the same meeting, township solicitor Thomas W. Kuster said supervisors were "made aware of an investigation (by state police) initiated by the West Middlesex School Board concerning the office of tax collector of Lackawannock Township."
Ms. Estman was not at that meeting and told The Herald she would not comment on why she resigned.
When contacted at home Wednesday night, Ms. Estman said, "Number one I haven't been charged yet, and no I would not care to comment." She then hung up the phone.
Ms. Estman is expected to be arraigned on the charges today at District Justice Ruth M. French's office in Mercer, according to a clerk in the office.
You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Kristen Garrett at kgarrett@sharonherald.com