By Steve Marroni
The Evening Sun
ADAMS COUNTY, Pa. — The former fire company treasurer accused of stealing $44,000 from the company was sentenced last week in Adams County court to seven years of probation.
Brenda J. Warner, 50, was sentenced by Judge Thomas R. Campbell to a term identical to the one that resulted from a guilty plea entered by her husband and co-conspirator, Robert E. Warner, formerly the chief of Midway Fire Co.
The Warners each pleaded guilty July 25 to theft by unlawful taking.
Their sentences follow a plea agreement with the Adams County District Attorney’s office.
The crime to which they pleaded occurred between January 2008 and January 2010. Court documents indicate the Warners failed to deposit proceeds from bingo games, and wrote out personal checks from the fire company.
When fire company officials discovered a missing sum of $35,000 from bingo games in March 2010, they told police.
It was soon also discovered that Robert Warner had charged $1,816 on the fire company’s gas card, which is normally used for company vehicles, court documents state.
Also, 26 checks, totaling about $26,000, had been written for cash or to Robert Warner, court documents state.
When Pennsylvania State Police at Gettysburg interviewed Brenda Warner in January, she admitted to taking cash from bingo, and putting it in the safe, but not depositing it, according to court documents. She said her husband then took the cash from the safe for personal use.
In Robert Warner’s interview with police the following day, he said he and his wife were both responsible for taking the money without permission.
The two were originally charged with three counts of theft, and two counts of criminal conspiracy.
Robert Warner was sentenced Aug. 18.
Warner and her husband are to pay $44,483.66 in restitution. She was fined $500.
The Midway Fire Co. is located in Conewago Township. Though it has been denied responder status in McSherrystown and Conewago Township, it still runs bingo games, and maintains a fleet.
The company was invited to join Southeastern Adams Volunteer Emergency Services, or SAVES, when it formed in 2005, but declined to do so.
Copyright 2011 MediaNews Group, Inc.
All Rights Reserved