City council seeks audit of missing court money

A councilman wants to recover any stolen money and the cost of the audit.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- City council will be asked to appropriate $80,000 to pay the state auditor's office for a special audit related to the disappearance of more than $25,000 from the municipal court clerk's office.
City Councilman Alford Novak, D-2nd, chairman of council's finance committee, is the sponsor of the ordinance to be introduced Wednesday. The money would come from the city's special projects fund.
Novak said the special audit was triggered by the reported theft from the civil division of the clerk's office of more than $25,000.
Judith M. DeJacimo, 49, of Glen Drive Northeast, a former deputy clerk in the court's civil division who had been with the court since 1993, was fired from her job.
DeJacimo pleaded innocent to two counts of theft in office and one count of tampering with records.
Recovering money
Novak said he hopes the city can recover, either from DeJacimo or the city's bonding company, all stolen money and the cost of the special audit. All city employees are covered under a bond that pays up to $25,000 per crime loss, with a $10,000 deductible, according to the city auditor's office.
In January, Judge Thomas P. Gysegem, the court's presiding and administrative judge, said two state forensic auditors were expected to be visiting the court over the next year to review multiple years of records.
In response to a civil suit by the municipal court, Judge Peter Kontos of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court issued a restraining order to prevent DeJacimo from spending any money that may have been embezzled from the municipal court.
A grand jury indictment charges DeJacimo with stealing by "taking cash paid to the court for filing fees, costs and other obligations and by shorting the amount of money paid by the court to recipients of garnished wages" between January and November 2005.
The indictment also charges her with falsifying computer records concerning amounts received from garnishment checks, entering fake check numbers for false amounts and deleting records of receipts to conceal her theft from the court and from recipients of garnished wages.
milliken@vindy.com