No Arrests Planned In Waste Transfer Station Cash Thefts

By Andrew Gorosko

After a review of two arrest warrant applications submitted by town police detectives to Danbury Superior Court concerning two unidentified town workers’ theft of an unspecified amount of cash at the municipal waste transfer station on Ethan Allen Road, police have received word that no arrest warrants will be issued.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe said police detectives investigated the reported theft of paper money by two town workers in seeking to obtain arrest warrants for their prosecution on criminal charges, but the prosecutor’s office opted against pursuing such warrants for unspecified reasons.

“We investigated. We talked to people. We reviewed financial records from the Department of Public Works [DPW]…No warrant or warrants were issued,” he said. The DPW oversees activities at the waste transfer station.

In late January, police started investigating the theft of an unspecified amount of cash from the waste transfer station, focusing their attention on two town employees thought to have stolen the money across a period of time.

At that time, First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal had said it was unclear whether sufficient evidence would be uncovered to form the basis for arrests.

After having discovered that something was amiss in the waste transfer station monetary accounts following a periodic review of town revenue collection, the town conducted an internal investigation. Based on the results of that internal investigation, the town then called in police to investigate the matter in terms of lodging criminal charges.

Waste transfer station employees handle cash when issuing general waste disposal permits to residents, as well as when collecting fees for specific forms of waste dumping.

Chief Kehoe said that police detectives had sought arrest warrants for criminal charges including first-degree larceny, second-degree larceny, and conspiracy to commit larceny. Such charges are felonies.

In the context of a cash theft from a government agency, first-degree larceny involves the theft of more than $2,000, and second-degree larceny involves the theft of less than $2,000.

Chief Kehoe said police investigators submitted all the pertinent information that they had uncovered in their investigation to the prosecutor, after which the prosecutor decided against pursuing warrants. Chief Kehoe did not disclose why warrants were not issued in the case. To obtain a warrant, a prosecutor must receive an endorsement from a judge.

Mr Rosenthal said this week that prosecutors ultimately decide whether to pursue arrest warrants in such cases. “That’s their decision to make, not mine,” Mr Rosenthal said, adding that he would have preferred that the case be prosecuted in court.

“We lost some money,” Mr Rosenthal said, adding that it is unclear exactly how much money was stolen. He said he expects the loss was “in the hundreds [of dollars].”

The first selectman said that the lost money apparently “never passed through the [cash] register” at the waste transfer station.

The two employees suspected of wrongdoing in the case were disciplined, Mr Rosenthal said. He declined to be more specific. “I believe appropriate discipline was taken with each individual,” he said. Stating that such actions are “personnel matters,” he declined to elaborate.

Since the town learned of the cash theft, measures have been taken in seeking to prevent such thefts from occurring again, the first selectman said.

The waste transfer station now has a full-time supervisor on duty to watch over town employees who handle money, he said. Before the cash theft occurred, there was no such full-time supervisor there, he said.

It was decided that a proposal to prohibit cash transactions at the waste transfer station in order to prevent cash thefts by town employees could make transactions there too inconvenient for the public, Mr Rosenthal said.

The theft of public money at the waste transfer station was more difficult to detect than a previous pattern of theft that occurred at the DPW on Turkey Hill Road, Mr Rosenthal said.

In that DPW theft, there were many paper records, such as personal checks, that were used as evidence in the criminal case that was prosecuted in Danbury Superior Court. 

In August 2004, a DPW worker pleaded guilty to first-degree larceny, acknowledging that she had embezzled almost $89,000 in cash and checks from the department’s waste disposal accounts.

The late Trisha Johnson, who was 23 years old when she pleaded guilty to the felony, acknowledged that she embezzled the money across a one-year period to support a drug addiction.

Ms Johnson, who town police had arrested in March 2004, was sentenced by a judge in September 2004 to a suspended eight-year prison term, five years of probation, up to five years of drug counseling, and making approximately $34,000 in monetary restitution to the town, which was the amount of cash that she had stolen.

Ms Johnson, 24, died January 18, in Southbury. State police investigated her death. The Chief State’s Medical Examiner’s Office later ruled that her death stemmed from an accidental heroin overdose.

Following the Johnson case, Mr Rosenthal had said that the town would put financial safeguards in place to prevent monetary theft by town workers.

The first selectman has said it is very difficult for any organization that handles cash to completely control how that cash is handled. If a person is determined to steal cash, it is difficult to guard against such theft, he has said.

Mr Rosenthal said this week that it is “impossible” to eliminate theft. “You hope your employees are honest,” he said.