March 12--The former acting treasurer of the Rice Township Volunteer Fire Department is charged with felony theft after police say he wrote nearly $4,400 in checks for equipment the department never received.
Donald Leo Bly, 31, of 224 Cherrywood Drive, is charged with one count of theft by deception, according to court records.
Rice Township police say township Supervisor Chairman Miller Stella reported the theft of department funds in the last half of 2012. Stella told police that multiple checks had been written to Bly for equipment but the department had no record of the gear, according to an affidavit filed by Sgt. Harold Ehret.
In an interview Monday, Stella said he noticed something was wrong while working as a firetruck operator at the department.
"For three months, everybody kept asking for a checkbook," Stella said. "Checkbooks were not being provided. (Assistant Fire Chief) Paul Eyerman and I said, 'There's a problem here.'"
Stella also reported that Bly was refusing to turn over the checking account books he had in his capacity as acting treasurer, according to police.
Ehret obtained records from Citizens Bank and found multiple checks had been written to Bly between June and December 2012.
Police met with Bly at the department on Jan. 9, when he told Ehret he wrote the checks to himself to make purchases for the department, the officer wrote.
Asked for receipts, Bly said he didn't have any and that some of the purchases had never been made -- that he still had the money and would return it to the department's bank account, Ehret wrote.
Bly was supposed to have brought the check books and financial logs to the meeting but did not, instead offering to go get them. But he never turned the books over, Ehret wrote.
A review of the bank statements revealed Bly had written checks to himself for a total of $4,395.43, with no supporting receipts or purchase information, according to Ehret.
Court records indicate Bly is not longer the acting treasurer of the department, having been replaced by Eyerman. Eyerman told police on Jan. 16 that he had received the checkbooks and financial records for the department but that no current accounting record was included.
Stella said the alleged thefts were not connected to a recent audit by the state Auditor General's Office. The office in January released $37,000 it withheld from the volunteer fire department and fireman's relief association because for three years they failed to comply with findings of audits.
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Copyright 2013 - The Citizens' Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
