Former Employee Charged with Theft says Tax Collector Did Not Watch Books

A former employee of the stole about $117,000 from the  and the —about $88,000 more than was originally believed, according to a forensic audit the agencies conducted and a revised criminal complaint filed with Allegheny County Common Pleas Court. 

The audit, which Zelenkofske Axelrod LLC completed, indicates $29,229.69 is missing from fiscal year 2009 and $87,981.89 is missing from fiscal year 2010, according to the complaint. 

The complaint also details new charges against the employee, Richard Todd Hassinger, 47, of Timberline Drive. Hassinger told police he thought he could get away with stealing the money because the township's elected tax collector, Donna Carey, "did not have an idea of what would be going on in the books," according to the complaint. 

Carey, a retired schoolteacher, held the office of Ross Township Tax Collector for 15 years. , deputizing Jordan Tax Service to handle the collection of about $44.3 million in annual property taxes for the school district and about $3.7 million in property taxes for the township. 

Carey continues to sign checks in her capacity as township treasurer and is ultimately responsible for the work that Jordan Tax Service performs. The township pays her $5,000 annual salary. Her term expires at the end of 2013. 

Reached by phone, Carey said she wasn't aware of the audit's findings. 

"They haven't included me in anything," she said, adding that she didn't want to discuss the issue. 

"This has been a tremendous blow to me, and I don't need any more stress," she said. 

In response to Hassinger's claim that she wasn't keeping a close eye on the books, she said "Well, that's his opinion," before hanging up the phone. 

Ross Township Police arrested Hassinger May 8 at the Pittsburgh International Airport. He is scheduled to appear at a March 2 pre-trial conference, where he will enter a plea on the charges he faces in connection to the missing funds. 

In November Hassinger waived his right to a preliminary hearing and his right to counsel, choosing to act as his own lawyer.

He was released from the Allegheny County Jail in the fall on a $20,000 unsecured bond and has been confined to house arrest since then.

He faces new charges in the case as a result of the audit, including theft by failure to make required deposit of funds, theft by receiving stolen property and two counts of tampering with public records or information.

After he was confronted with the results of the audit, Hassinger admitted to police that he took most of the missing money, according to the complaint. 

"During follow-up interviews, he admitted to taking cash deposits for payments made by township residents and businesses," according to the court document. "Hassinger further explained that when payments came in as cash, they were accepted and put into a box. He basically would then just take the monies." 

"He would create some records showing that the payments were received so the taxpayers would not be hit with tax delinquencies," the complaint continued. "He did not do this for all the thefts, however." 

No record exists to detail which payments were credited to taxpayers and which were not, Hassinger told police according to the complaint.

It is not immediately clear how much of the missing money was owed to the school district and how much was owed to the township. 

Ross Township Manager Wayne Jones did not respond to messages left Tuesday and Wednesday seeking information and posing questions related to the audit.

He declined, through a receptionist, to provide a copy of the Zelenkofske Axelrod LLC audit, citing the court case filed against Hassinger as an exemption to the state's Right to Know law. 

The school district referred public record requests for the audit to the township. 

The district's Director of Finance and Operations, David Hall, said the school expects to recover losses. 

"The district paid for our share of a legally required public official's bond covering the elected tax collector, which we anticipate will cover any finally determined losses to the North Hills School District from this alleged criminal activity," Hall said. 

School Board Director Ed Wielgus, who was president of the board in 2011, said the members received a brief update after the audit was completed in August. 

"Right now, it's a wait and see until the trial is over," Wielgus said. 

Hassinger was Carey's sole employee in the tax office.  and that she has known him since he was very young. She hired him in 2009 after learning he needed work, she said. 

Hassinger told police he disputed the allegations in only two theft cases among those in which he is charged: He said Carey gave him permission to make a $1,120.71 payment using her personal credit card and that Carey also authorized the deposit of a check for $299.91 to test a check-scanning program.

He said he kept the money as payment for other jobs he had performed for Carey on the side.

Police arrested Hassinger after investigating a report from Carey about misuse of her personal credit card. That led to the discovery that about $28,000 in tax collections intended for the  had been deposited into Hassinger's personal account, police said. 

In June, Carey told Patch she had been thinking of retiring before Hassinger’s arrest but “this other put the cap on that.”

When she collected taxes, Carey received an annual salary of $47,650 from fees that the school district and township paid. The salary that Ross Township is to pay her through 2013 is half the annual amount it has paid her in the past. 

Jordan is receiving the school district’s annual payment of $37,650 and $5,000 from Ross Township, representing half of its annual payment, until a new tax collector is elected.