Woman charged in theft of funds for reunion

Staff report

Canfield

A city woman is charged with theft, accused of using money collected for a high-school class reunion for personal purposes.

Sharon Samolyk, 50, of Hickory Hollow Drive in Canfield, was charged Monday with felony theft. Police said Samolyk is accused of taking $3,430 collected for the class reunion and using it for medical bills and other personal expenses.

She’ll be arraigned today in Mahoning County Area Court in Canfield.

In August 2011, Samolyk and four other individuals in the Canfield High School Class of 1980 began planning a class reunion and put Samolyk, an accountant, in charge of collecting money for the event, according to a police report. She opened an account at Huntington Bank in Canfield, where she deposited money for the reunion — $50 per individual or $95 per couple.

The money was to be used for a disc jockey, desserts, a banquet hall and other supplies.

On June 30, when the classmates and their guests arrived for the event at the Holiday Inn Boardman, they discovered that Samolyk never paid for the services she was expected to provide, according to the police report.

Samolyk texted one of the other reunion committee members, telling him that she wouldn’t be attending the event and requesting that he pay for the hotel banquet room in her absence.

The victim charged $1,482 to his credit card so those in attendance could stay, police said.

When questioned by police, Samolyk said she deposited most of the money collected into the Huntington account, but kept several hundred dollars in cash. Of that cash, $250 was spent on unknown items, $50 on a wicker chair, $65 for a reunion committee member meeting at Inner Circle and $10 for name tags and supplies, according to the report.

Samolyk told police that in September 2011 she made arrangements with a local DJ service to play music at the reunion and sent it a $100 deposit. The total contract amount was for $800. She said the check was never cashed, and when she called the company a week before the event, they told her the check was never received.

She eventually admitted to police that she used most of the money for personal expenses, primarily her daughter’s medical bills, and that only a few hundred dollars remained in the account.

Police said bank records indicate a consistent flow of money in and out of the account leading up to the reunion.