Former Plymouth superintendent pleads guilty to larceny - The Bristol Press: Bristol Press

Former Plymouth superintendent pleads guilty to larceny - The Bristol Press: Bristol Press

Add another to the superintendents gone bad list.   Over sight of superintendents is a must.  There is too much blind trust in superintendents.  The following piece appears full on the Bristol Press website. Be sure to click the link to see pictures associated with the story.

Cathy

PLYMOUTH — Former Superintendent Eleanor Cruz
pleaded guilty to stealing about $15,000 from her previous employer, the
Hebron school district.

Cruz, 64, of Essex, entered her plea to the
single felony charge of first-degree larceny in Superior Court in
Rockville Thursday.

She was accused of using a Hebron school system
credit card at high-end restaurants and online retailers, as well as to
buy groceries, gasoline and gardening supplies. She left Hebron in
December of 2012 to become superintendent in Plymouth.

Tolland County State’s Attorney Matthew Gedansky says he’s seeking a three-year sentence suspended after one year.

Cruz’s lawyer John Gesmonde says he’s confident
she would have been exonerated, but that the financial cost and possible
imprisonment of up to 20 years were too risky.

She is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, Dec. 3.

Cruz started as Plymouth’s superintendent Dec.
17, 2012. She was arrested Aug. 7, 2014, on a charge of first-degree
larceny for alleged misappropriation of funds in connection with her
previous job at K-6 superintendent in Hebron.

After her arrest, she was on administrative leave with pay, which totaled $162,000 in salary and benefits.

The Board of Education paid for an independent
forensic accountant to review school expenditures from the time Cruz was
hired, which ultimately found nothing improper during her short time
heading Plymouth schools.

She officially resigned Sept. 11, 2014, after reaching a severance agreement that cost the district over $70,000 more.

Cruz had taken over as Plymouth superintendent
three days after Anthony Distasio officially ended his 11 year tenure in
the job. After her arrest, former district business manager Michael
Santogatta was acting superintendent until her resignation, when Mark
Winzler took over as interim superintendent. Martin Semmel was named to
the position as of last March.

Before coming to Plymouth, for almost eight years
Cruz headed Hebron’s K-6 portion of the RHAM regional school district,
which also covers Andover and Marlboro.

In 2012, state police received a complaint from
Hebron officials about some $15,000 in possible misappropriated town
funds after Cruz left the job.

The Hebron Board of Education reviewed both
Cruz’s use of the district credit card and some payments made to her
throughout 2012. The review concluded at least $5,905 in charges or
payments were personal in nature and/or made by Cruz in error, and
$9,113 in charges were unauthorized, lacked supporting documentation,
and/or not for district-related purposes.

For many of the charges, receipts were either not
provided, lacked details of the items purchased or were cut to
eliminate the details, the review said.

The Hebron board alleged:
∎ An overpayment of $100 for Cruz’s insurance expenses, with no reimbursement to board for the overpayment identified.

∎ She received a $2,400 travel advance in July
2012, which her new employment agreement negotiated weeks later and
applied retroactively did not cover, but she did not reimburse the board
for the advance.

∎ Cruz used the district credit card to make 10
fuel purchases totaling some $390, although her contract did not contain
any provisions allowing fuel to be charged to board.

∎ She charged two personal purchases at Nordstrom
Rack department store and Wegmans supermarket in Maryland, in November
2012, for about $352.

∎ In the fall of 2012, she used Hebron funds to
pay $2,375 in consulting fees to Kim M. Bennett, of Northeast
Consulting, for interpreting data and information about the Plymouth
school district.

∎ The district credit card was used for two
Federal Express home deliveries, totaling $198.07, which appeared to be
domestic home deliveries.

∎ Cruz authorized 23 charges at Ted’s Foods, a
supermarket in Hebron, totaling about $960. The charges were made to a
house account at Ted’s in the name of Gilead Hill School and include a
charge of $89.72 on Dec. 15, 2012, the day after Cruz’s last day of
employment.

∎ She used the district credit card 23 times to pay gardening and landscaping vendors, totaling about $1,406.

∎ The district credit card was used 12 times at Colonial Supermarket in Essex, where Cruz lives, totaling $790.

Additional charges were made, totaling $6,066, at
restaurants, gift and/or jewelry shops or boutiques, pharmacies, food
stores, farm markets, florists, online retailers, a toy store and a car
wash.

Susan Corica can be reached at 860-584-0501 ext. 1802 or scorica@bristolpress.com.

Another Superintendent Arrested

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." Lord Acton

“Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.” Lord Acton

We must not put blind faith in our Superintendents.

The following story appears in full on NBCDFW.com website.  

South Texas Superintendent Arrested, Faces Bribery Charges

The superintendent of a South Texas school district faces charges on accusations he and another official paid the school police chief to drop an investigation into theft and insurance fraud.

The Monitor reports that Donna school district Superintendent Jesus Rene Reyna was arrested Thursday and is charged with bribery and obstruction. He was arraigned in a Pharr courtroom, where a judge set his bond at $25,000.

Reyna and a school board member are accused of paying nearly $500 to the police chief in April in exchange for the department to drop an investigation against Reyna and his family.

Attempts to reach a district official for comment by The Associated Press were unsuccessful Thursday morning.

It wasn't immediately known if Reyna has an attorney.

Published at 1:49 PM CDT on May 28, 2015

Cathy

School Check Books Should be Online

The following piece appeared on the Hartford Courant.com.   Another reason why blind faith should not be placed on government employees or school superintendents.  School checkbooks should be online for anyone to view.  An honest government agency has nothing to hide.  A former superintendent made 147,000 dollars a year, used the school district credit card to pay for her personal expenses.  See full story below.

Cathy

Former Hebron School Official Seeks Special Probation

By Steven Goode and David Owens contact the reporters

A former Hebron schools superintendent arrested by state police for allegedly misappropriating thousands of dollars from the district has applied for a special form of probation.
Notice of the application prompted the Hebron Board of Education to hold a special meeting Thursday to discuss a response.

The board voted 4 to 1 to oppose Eleanor Cruz's application and also instructed its chairwoman, Maryanne Leichter, to attend the May 8 hearing in Rockville Superior Court and make a public statement to that effect.

Leichter said Friday that although one board member felt the district had spent enough money pursuing the case against Cruz, the majority felt that it would send the wrong message to walk away now.

"We wanted to be consistent that what she did was not in the best interests of our community," Leichter said.

Cruz has applied for accelerated rehabilitation, a special form of probation for first-time offenders who are not accused of violent crimes.

Victims must be notified of the application and can oppose it. A prosecutor can oppose it as well.

If a judge finds the defendant's offense is not of a serious nature and the person isnot likely to break the law again, he or she can grant the program.

After a specified period of probation, the charge is dismissed and the defendant's criminal record is purged.

Cruz, 64, was arrested by state police last August and charged with first-degree larceny following an investigation that began in February 2013.

State police began the investigation after Cruz left Hebron after 71/2 years to become superintendent of Plymouth schools, and more than $15,000 in questionable credit card charges and personal reimbursements in Hebron came to light.

Hebron school officials ordered a forensic audit of Cruz's district credit card over a one-year period, which found that about $5,900 had been improperly paid to Cruz or spent on her behalf. The auditor also raised questions about another $9,100 spent by Cruz or on her behalf.

The audit commissioned by Hebron alleged that Cruz, who made $147,000 in the last year of her contract and carried a district credit card with a $50,000 balance during her final 14 months in the district, made improper personal purchases. According to a summary of the audit, they included:

* $2,400 for the use of her car on school business. Her contract called for her to be reimbursed for actual mileage driven at the Internal Revenue Service mileage rate. Her previous contract had provided for $400 a month in reimbursement for the use of her car. She did not turn in an itemized accounting of mileage.

* $390 on her school credit card for fuel, although she was to be reimbursed for actual mileage.

* $352 on the school credit card in personal purchases at stores such as Nordstrom Rack and a Wegmans grocery store in Maryland.

* $2,375 for a consultant to analyze data from the Plymouth school system. The auditor described the contract as personal, because Plymouth is where Cruz was going to work next, and said it had nothing to do with Hebron.

* $960 on a school charge account at Ted's grocery store in Hebron for items including $89.72 for baking supplies, on Dec. 15, 2012, the day after her last day of employment with Hebron. The board could not determine whether most purchases were for legitimate school business because receipts were not provided.

* $1,406 on the same school charge card for gardening and landscaping supplies at two businesses, although no receipts were provided.

* $790 on the district credit card for purchases at a grocery store in Essex. Because no receipts were provided to the board, the legitimacy of the purchases could not be determined.

* $6,066 at area food stores, farm markets, restaurants, online retailers, florists, a toy store and a car wash. Receipts lacked details or the receipt was cut, eliminating the detail.

Following the state police investigation, Cruz was charged with first-degree larceny by defrauding a public community, which alleges the theft of $2,000 or more from a government entity.

Following her arrest, Cruz, who was making $175,000 a year in Plymouth, was placed on paid administrative leave by the school board and agreed to resign in September. The agreement cost Plymouth about $70,000.

Hebron has spent more than $60,000 on legal fees, according to district officials.
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