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Ex-Smithfield mayor found guilty

ON THE STAND — Patricia Freeland, a former Smithfield mayor, took the stand in her own defense on Wednesday in a Jefferson County Common Pleas courtroom. A jury deliberated about two hours before finding her guilty of theft in office, insurance fraud and failure to remit wage taxes to the state. Visiting Judge John Mark Solovan said he will sentence Freeland in several weeks after a presentence investigation is completed. - Mark Law

STEUBENVILLE — A Jefferson County Common Pleas Court jury deliberated about two hours on Wednesday evening before finding former Smithfield Mayor Patricia Freeland guilty of forging an insurance document and failing to turn wage tax money collected from village employees over to the state.

Freeland, 74, faces up to four years in prison.

Visiting Judge John Mark Solovan said he will schedule sentencing in several weeks after a presentence investigation is completed by the county’s adult probation department.

Two of the charges stemmed from a break-in at the village’s wastewater building in July 2009. Pumps were reported stolen but a state auditor’s office investigator said the pumps were damaged and not taken. The village submitted an insurance claim, with testimony showing Freeland handling the paperwork on the claim. Testimony showed an invoice for pumps installed in 2008 was combined with an August 2009 quote for pumps, which weren’t purchased, onto one document. The forged document was submitted and an insurance company made partial payment for the pumps that were never installed. The money was deposited into the village’s general fund.

State law requires municipal officials to collect and remit wage taxes of employees. Solovan told the jury ignorance of the requirement is not a defense.

Both federal and state wage taxes weren’t remitted from 2001 through 2014.

Chris Rudy, a state auditor’s investigator, said the IRS took $25,000 from a village’s bank account for the federal taxes.

Freeland, who took the stand on Wednesday in her own defense, said she assumed the taxes were being paid because her pay stub showed the taxes being withheld. She testified she didn’t know she was responsible for remitting the taxes collected.

Two former village clerks in Smithfield pleaded guilty on March 22 to an amended charge that they failed to remit employees’ wage taxes to the state.

Deborah Coconougher, 51, 218 W. Warren St., Cadiz, and Janice McCoy, 55, 240 Hill St., Rayland, pleaded guilty to the charge when it was amended from a felony to a misdemeanor.

After the insurance claim process had begun, McCoy said Freeland came to her and wanted McCoy to write a check on the village’s account, saying “I’m going to tell a little white lie.” McCoy wrote the check out to a pump supplier and put the amount in the check stub. McCoy said Freeland took the check, saying, “This is going to Dick’s burn barrel,” referring to her husband.

The check stub was submitted in the insurance claim in an attempt to show proof the pumps were purchased, according to testimony.

Stephanie Anderson, a special prosecutor with the state auditor’s office, showed the jury, while Freeland was on the stand, how the invoice for the pumps purchased in 2008 could be cut and the invoice for the pumps never purchased could be taped together. Anderson said the forged invoice could have been copied and faxed with the insurance claim documents.

Anderson said Freeland wrote “insurance” on top of the forged invoice.

Freeland denied making the comments about the “little white lie” and the check being destroyed in her husband’s burn barrel. Freeland said she only submitted documents given to her by village workers as part of the insurance claim.

Defense attorney Francesca Carinci told the jury in closing arguments that Freeland had no reason to submit a false insurance claim.

“This woman did everything for the village of Smithfield. She loved Smithfield,” Carinci said.

(Law can be contacted at mlaw@heraldstaronline.com.)

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