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Stephanie A. Kilhoffer, 609 W. Main St., Ridgway, is charged by Ridgway Borough police with theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property and theft by failing to make the required disposition of funds.
The criminal complaint alleges that in early May 2009, Dave Herzog told Elk County Tax Claim Director John Samick he had paid his delinquent taxes, but still received a notice saying the taxes were not paid. On May 12, the Elk County Commissioners provided a paid receipt from Herzog, which prompted an internal investigation.
Samick told Patrolman Shawn Geci Sr. that only three people could issue a receipt for the tax claim system - Samick and Kilhoffer and Vicki Spencer, who was only used for back-up.
After May 12, Samick and Elk County Chief Clerk Peg Aharrah began printing daily deposit slips and comparing them to receipts issued.
The comparison always balanced, but the computer only shows what is entered into the system. It was then discovered that Herzog did pay and a receipt was issued, but the record was deleted.
On May 29, Kilhoffer was suspended without pay.
Deleted information was recovered from the computers in the tax claim office. The records showed that Herzog and many other had paid and had been deleted from the system and the money was never deposited in the bank account. All the entries made and deleted by Kilhoffer carry her initials for identification.
On June 5, Joe Kim produced a handwritten receipt for payment of taxes with two control numbers on it. The receipt was for cash of $4,310.41 and Kim received notice of past-due taxes. The receipt was issued and signed by Kilhoffer. It was found that $542.35 had not been posted to Kim's account.
At a meeting with the commissioners, Aharrah and the county solicitor, Kilhoffer and her attorney, Tom Coppolo, Kilhoffer was fired.
Some of the computer-generated receipts issued did not contain a signature of the person issuing the receipt. Computer-generated receipts can only be obtained from the tax claim program. Anna Bennett received notice of past due taxes May 12 and responded May 27 that she paid the taxes and her money was returned May 28 by money order in the amount of $1,503.58. This was a cash payment by Bennett and the money orders are believed to have come from the Uni-Mart in Ridgway. They do not contain a signature, only Elk County Tax Bureau.
Spencer's primary job is occupations clerk, but she had been assisting Kilhoffer with tax claim duties since the office was moved to the annex building especially when the office was busy or Kilhoffer was on vacation. When she did perform the tax duties she primarily used the computer at the counter.
Spencer said she kept a log of dates of when she spent time working with tax claim duities. Spencer did issue some hand-written receipts, but only when the computers were down. Spencer was advised by Kilhoffer that if she issued handwritten receipts not to enter them into the computer, that she (Kilhoffer) would enter them into the system later.
In the complaint, Geci said Aug. 21 he spoke with the office of Sharkey and Pccirillo CPA's in DuBois. Hanzley has been working with Samick and Aharrah doing an audit of the Tax Claim Bureau. He confirmed there is a receipt book missing and another receipt book with several handwritten reciepts contained, but missing some pages. There were also wrong time stamps on some deleted receipts.
Oct. 1, a search warrant for Kiloffer's financial records was approved by King. The search warrant was served at National City Bank and CNB Bank.
Geci said Kilhoffer said she wanted it noted that she asked her attorney to try and work something out with the commissioners when it started, but was advised against it. According to the complaint, Kilhoffer said she was going through a rough period in her life, she was depressed and was being medicated.
