Star witness describes how money was moved

The deputy treasurer said Felasco threatened to fire her if she didn't help steal.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU
FRANKLIN, Pa. -- The star witness in the case against Lawrence County Treasurer Gary Felasco was either a loyal employee or a schemer working to pad her own bank account.
The Venango County jurors hearing testimony in the theft case will have to decide which to believe when they deliberate the case later this week.
Gloria Conti, the county's second deputy treasurer, testified at length Tuesday that Felasco approached her sometime in 2002 or 2003 and asked her to start removing taxpayers' cash from the treasurer's office drawer and vault for his personal use.
"When he asked me to do it, he literally, verbally told me I wouldn't have a job [if she didn't cooperate]. I was afraid for my job. I had two kids and my husband has MS. I needed the insurance," she said.
Conti contends she was taking hundreds of dollars a day and giving it to Felasco in envelopes. He instructed her to cover the theft by substituting checks paid by mail in the daily deposits to cover the missing cash.
Accusations by defense
But the defense paints a picture of a woman padding her own bank account a few hundred dollars each week.
Felasco's attorney Jim Ross went over every cash deposit Conti made in her private bank account over a year's period. In less than 14 months she put over $17,000 in cash into her bank account.
Conti and her husband, Donald, earned just over $42,000 per year from her annual $28,600 salary and her husband's $1,100 monthly Social Security disability benefits.
Conti countered that her two children were in college during that time and would give her cash from their part-time jobs. She would, in turn, write checks from her account to pay their credit card and cellular telephone bills.
Her children, Donald Conti III and Tara Conti, both testified they gave their mother the cash to pay their bills.
Gloria Conti said her mother-in-law, Rose Conti, also deposited money from a medical settlement into her account because Rose Conti also had no checking account. Conti added that her husband's friends also gave them money when he was in the hospital undergoing treatment for his multiple sclerosis.
What husband testified
Donald Conti testified that his wife would come home disgruntled about what Felasco was having her do at work.
"She was real nervous. She wasn't Gloria anymore. She was telling me and my kids what was going on," he said.
Donald Conti testified that he approached Felasco about the problem.
"He said don't worry about it. Nothing is going to happen," Donald Conti said.
Gloria Conti has been granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony.
Conti testified that she used taxpayer cash, at Felasco's direction, to pay his overdue cable bills and make his overdrawn bank statements good, in addition to giving him cash.
Marcia Roselli, head teller at First Commonwealth Bank, testified that she would call the treasurer's office to alert them when Felasco's account was overdrawn. She said Conti or one of the other office workers would bring money to the bank to cover the account.
Conti also testified that Felasco instructed her to get $3,500 from the office and drive him to Matt's Auto Sales in North Jefferson Street. He told her to leave because he was buying a 1990 Chevrolet Conversion Van, she said.
The dealership owner, Matt Passifiume, testified that he sold the van May 8, 2003, for $2,690 in cash. However, under cross-examination, Passifiume said he sold the van to Felasco's wife, Jeanine, and that he had never met the treasurer.
Conti testified that she and her husband loaned Felasco $1,000 to help cover some of the missing money from the treasurer's office shortly after Felasco was fired as county tax claim director in 2004. She then told Felasco she was done removing the cash.
"I said 'I can't do this anymore.' I was on blood pressure pills. I just told him I couldn't handle it anymore," Conti said.
cioffi@vindy.com