Teacher Faces Additional Larceny, Forgery Charges

By Andrew Gorosko

Police this week arrested a Newtown High School teacher for a second time, charging her with four additional felonies stemming from her alleged submission of fraudulent reimbursement forms to illegally obtain public funds.

Police Detective Sergeant Robert Tvardzik said April 27 that after learning that police held a warrant for her arrest, Sabrina Post, 47, of 18 Split Rock Road surrendered to police at the police station that afternoon.

Police arrested Ms Post on two counts of second-degree larceny for allegedly defrauding a public community, and also on two counts of second-degree forgery, stemming from incidents dating back to December 2002.

Attorney Robert Lacobelle of Trumbull, representing Ms Post, accompanied his client to the police station. 

On April 22, Ms Post was arraigned in Danbury Superior Court on three felonies and a misdemeanor, including larceny and forgery charges, with which she was charged by police on April 11.

On April 11, police had arrested Ms Post on one felony count of first degree larceny for allegedly defrauding a public community, two felony counts of second degree forgery, and one misdemeanor count of criminal attempt to commit fifth-degree larceny.

Ms Post, who did not enter a plea at her April 22 court arraignment, was accompanied to court by Mr Lacobelle.

On February 8, school officials had placed Ms Post on paid administrative leave. Ms Post is the high school’s choral director, a senior class advisor, a Drama Club advisor, and had been the director of the NHS Drama Club’s production of Show Boat.

Following the her suspension, school officials declined to comment on why Ms Post was removed from duty as a teacher.

Following her April 27 arrest, police released Ms Post on a written promise to appear May 19 in Danbury Superior Court for arraignment on the four additional charges.

At her April 22 arraignment on the previous criminal charges, Judge John R. Downey continued Ms Post’s case to May 19. Thus, when she appears in court again on May 19, Ms Post will be facing a judge on eight charges, seven of which are felonies.

At Ms Post’s April 22 arraignment, Mr Lacobelle said he needed a court continuance to allow him to study the allegations made against his client.

“We still haven’t reviewed the specific allegations,” he then said.

Ms Post’s court appearance on April 22 lasted about one minute.

Assistant State’s Attorney Debbie Mabbett served as the prosecutor in Courtroom 2 at the White Street courthouse.

Ms Post has referred all questions about her case to Mr Lacobelle. Mr Lacobelle could not be reached for comment following his client’s April 27 arrest.

In a brief statement on Ms Post’s April 27 arrest, police said that the charges stem from an ongoing investigation based on a complaint made to police by the Newtown public schools in February.

“The charges on the arrest warrant allege that Post submitted fraudulent reimbursement forms to the Newtown public schools business office, and was reimbursed $910 in February 2004, and $825 in December 2002,” according to police.

Police received that arrest warrant from the court on April 26.

“The investigation is still continuing,” police added.

The police’s arrest warrant application, which contains details about the allegations, was not available for review before the deadline for this edition of The Newtown Bee.

School Superintendent Evan Pitkoff could not be reached for comment concerning Ms Post’s April 27 arrest.  

Following Ms Post’s April 11 arrest, Dr Pitkoff had said, “We’re [school administrators] still collecting information at this time” in terms of Ms Post’s future employment status. Dr Pitkoff then said he expects to make some recommendation to the school board on the matter.

“She’s [Post] innocent until proven guilty,” he then said, adding, “We need to respect the [legal] process that’s in front of us.

“We always look for ways to improve upon our accounting system,” Dr Pitkoff then said. School officials will seek appropriate measures to ensure that school accounts are safe, he then said.     

Ms Post’s April 11 arrest stems from a February complaint made by the public schools that alleged that Ms Post received monetary reimbursement during 2003 by submitting a fraudulent invoice.

Police have said Ms Post also attempted to receive payment for purchases made in December 2004. Police said the forgery charges stem from Ms Post’s allegedly altering invoices with the intent to defraud.

Charges listed in the April 11 arrest warrant stem from Ms Post allegedly fraudulently obtaining or seeking to obtain reimbursements from the school system for various goods and services, including, generally, bus transportation, music equipment purchases, electronic equipment purchases, and private music lessons.  The aggregate amount of those offenses was somewhat greater than a $2,000 loss, based on the first-degree larceny charge.