Judge: Ex-clerk DeJacimo is off the hook for $112,000
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
With March 22 being the last day of former Warren Municipal Court clerk Judith DeJacimo’s five-year probation for stealing $90,000 from the court, she apparently is through paying restitution for the offense.
During a meeting with Judge John M. Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on Thursday, Judge Stuard said he would not require DeJacimo to sign a promissory note to continue to pay the remaining $112,000 she owes on the cost of the special audit done to determine the total of the thefts, said Gina Buccino Arnaut, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor.
Buccino Arnaut said she asked Judge Stuard to require the promissory note, but Judge Stuard declined.
DeJacimo, 55, of Glen Drive, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in January 2007 after pleading guilty to theft in office. She was released from prison after serving 60 days.
The plea agreement prosecutors reached with DeJacimo said the prosecutor’s office would not oppose her release from prison after 60 days, though David Toepfer, then an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said two months later that the prosecutor’s office would agree to her release as long as she paid the entire $200,000 in restitution, including the $90,000 stolen and the cost of the audit.
Judge Stuard agreed to her release in March 2007, saying, “I’m going along with what you two agreed, but it doesn’t seem right.” Judge Stuard was addressing Toepfer and DeJacimo’s attorney, Michael Rossi, at the time.
“I don’t know how she could pay it all back,” Judge Stuard said.
“It’s a terrible amount of money, but it is something your client caused,” he told Rossi.
In October 2007, Judge Peter Kontos of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court made a ruling in a separate civil case filed in connection with the restitution that said he could not force DeJacimo to pay the cost of the audit.
Rossi pointed to Judge Kontos’ ruling Thursday in saying his client had paid $25,000 of the $137,000 cost of the audit even though Judge Kontos ruled that she was “not responsible for the cost of the audit.”
“I always objected that she should pay the cost of the audit at all,” Rossi added.
DeJacimo has paid the $90,000 that was stolen and $25,000 toward the cost of the audit, Rossi said. In addition to bulk amounts, she also paid $450 per month during her probationary period, Rossi said, noting that she is now “in school” and “doesn’t have the ability to pay” the remaining auditing costs.
“You don’t punish the person who doesn’t have the ability to pay, as opposed to those who won’t pay,” Rossi said.