A former Carbon County Clerk of Courts stole $43,000 from the office, mostly bail money and prison booking/fingerprint fees, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.

William C. McGinley, 60, of Jim Thorpe was charged Friday with theft by unlawful taking-movable property, receiving stolen property, theft by failure to make required disposition of funds, tampering with public records or information, obstruction of the administration of law or other government function, and restricted activities-conflict of interest.

He was arraigned Friday morning at Magisterial District Judge Eric Schrantz’s office in Jim Thorpe.

Schrantz set bail at $50,000, unsecured.

According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by Special Agent Jeffrey Wright, there were 169 instances between September 2013 and March 2018 when fingerprint/booking fees were collected at the Carbon County Correctional Facility and turned over to the county Clerk of Courts office, but the money, totaling $12,955, was never deposited in the bank or noted in the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts computer system. The Clerk of Courts office normally receives cash from the prison the next business day after a person is fingerprinted and/or booked following a criminal arrest, or when bail is paid with cash to the prison after business hours.

Wright said there were also 69 cases, from August 2014 to April 2018, where bail was posted in cash and turned over to the county Clerk of Courts office, but was never deposited or accounted for in the AOPC system.

“As a result,” Wright wrote, “the associated court dockets for those cases were never updated to reflect those defendants ever posted bail, and the money could not be refunded to them at the conclusion of their case.”

McGinley met with representatives from the Attorney General’s office on Dec. 3 and admitted he took money from the office during the time he was elected. He told agents he used the money to gamble on poker machines at casinos or Molly Maguires Pub and Steakhouse, located next to the courthouse.

Asked how much money he thought he took from the office, McGinley estimated around $20,000. When told it was near $45,000, McGinley said he was “surprised it was that much, but he was willing to pay it back.”

Agents said McGinley obstructed the Carbon County Court System by taking money intended to be entered into the AOPC system and credited to defendants in criminal cases, which backlogged hundreds of Carbon County criminal cases in which defendants were entitled to receive their bail money back at the conclusion of their case.

McGinley is scheduled for a Jan. 2 preliminary hearing in front of Schrantz at 2:30 p.m.

Missing money

In September 2016, Carbon County Controller Robert Crampsie noticed McGinley had failed to provide monthly accounting for the Clerk of Courts office, Wright said. After repeated demands, Crampsie received the accounting and found $2,400 was listed as being received by the Clerk of Courts office on Sept. 12, 2016, as bail payment for five different criminal dockets. The money was never deposited in the Clerk of Courts bank account at Jim Thorpe Neighborhood Bank.

A deposit of $2,400 was made on Jan. 13, 2017.

“McGinley’s response to the controller was that he didn’t know how he missed accounting for this money,” Wright wrote.

Carbon County officials again contacted the Attorney General’s Office in April when it learned McGinley was planning to retire on May 1 in the middle of his term.

Last row officer charged

Former Carbon County Prothonotary Patrick E. Gallagher was the last county row officer to face criminal charges.

Gallagher faced 11 criminal charges stemming from missing funds discovered through an audit. According to archived reports, Gallagher stole $12,500.

He was released on $10,000 recognizance bail and served eight months in prison.

Background

McGinley retired after 28 years in the position on May 1, leaving the office what county officials dubbed, “a mess.”

He was re-elected without opposition last November and was only four months into his new term at the time.

County officials confirmed in July that the Attorney General’s Office was investigating McGinley.

The county’s insurance carrier, the Pennsylvania Counties Risk Pool, also conducted an audit of the office.

Commissioners said problems included positions in the office being left open for more than a year, something only the clerk of courts could rectify; a hostile work environment; people’s driving suspensions being delayed indefinitely because of paperwork not being filed with the state in a timely manner; inmates sentenced to state prison not being transferred because paperwork is held up; and warrants not being issued.

The county entered into two agreements with Lehigh County to use five staff members, Jill Herschman, Jordan Kocher, Tony Remer, Dena Dalmas and Carmen Serrano to help the office catch up with its extreme backlog of cases.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein estimated in July that more than $1 million in court-related fees are sitting in paperwork that has yet to be filed.

Francine Heaney of Nesquehoning was sworn in by senior District Judge Edward Lewis in October to fill the vacancy that had existed since McGinley’s retirement.