Wife of W. Pa. state Sen. LaValle charged with stealing from charity

Darla LaValle’s husband, Sen. Gerald LaValle, D-Beaver, announced he’ll retire at the end of the year.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The wife of a western Pennsylvania state senator was charged with stealing thousands of dollars from a nonprofit she headed by inflating her salary and denying retirement benefits to two employees — including her sister — to pad her own pension.

Darla LaValle, 68, of Rochester, was arraigned Thursday on 11 charges of stealing or misappropriating funds related to the Voluntary Action Center between 1987 and March 2007, when she resigned as executive director amid questions about the agency’s spending.

She later repaid more than $47,000 in salary that the group’s board says she shouldn’t have received. Investigators believe LaValle still owes the agency money but would not disclose how much, said attorney general spokesman Kevin Harley.

In January, her husband, Sen. Gerald LaValle, D-Beaver, announced he would retire when his term expires at the end of the year. Sen. LaValle, an 18-year veteran, is minority chairman of the Senate appropriations committee.

The LaValles’ home telephone number is unlisted and it was not immediately clear if Darla LaValle had an attorney. The senator and his wife did not immediately return calls to legislative offices in his district and in Harrisburg, where a staffer who refused to be identified said only, “That’s a family matter.”

According to the grand jury, the Voluntary Action Center refers low-income residents in Beaver County to various agencies for housing, employment and other needs. Its grant-based funding was used almost exclusively for rent, office expenses and salaries, with LaValle controlling all expenditures, authorities said.

The local United Way chapter became concerned and cut its annual funding to the agency from $40,000 to about $20,000 when officials learned LaValle’s salary was $78,000 in 2001. A United Way executive told the grand jury LaValle’s salary should have been about $40,000 given the agency’s size.

But LaValle hid the United Way’s concerns and instead persuaded the center’s board to withdraw from United Way funding. “This act would ultimately clear the way for Darla LaValle to pay herself as she saw fit,” the grand jury presentment said.

The agency began relying on a line of credit obtained by former state Rep. Michael Veon, D-Beaver, who was recently charged in a separate state grand jury investigation.

Veon, who lost his 2006 re-election bid, and 11 others connected to the state House Democratic caucus were charged last month in an alleged scheme to use taxpayer funds for political purposes.

Veon’s attorney, Robert Del Greco Jr., has said he is innocent. Del Greco did not return a call for comment Thursday on Veon’s role in helping LaValle’s agency get the credit line. Veon is not accused of a crime in connection with LaValle’s agency.

Using the credit line Veon obtained — and freed from United Way oversight — LaValle paid herself more than $102,000 in salary in 2005, more than $122,000 in 2006, and more than $23,000 by the time she resigned in March 2007, the grand jury found.

LaValle also paid more than she was authorized into her pension fund. She did that by not paying into the pensions of the agency’s two employees, including her sister, Judy Berresford, who worked as a secretary.

The other worker, Lucy Mathlage, testified that LaValle falsely told her that no one at the agency was entitled to pension benefits.

“When I walk out of this door, I’m like you. I’m walking out with nothing,” Mathlage, in her grand jury testimony, recalled LaValle as saying.