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Grand jury indicts Wittkugle on 3 felony theft counts
HUBBARD
A Trumbull County grand jury indicted a former Eagle Joint Fire District treasurer this week in the misappropriation of at least $10,000 in department funds, according to court records.
The indictment for Richard Wittkugle contains three felony counts: theft in office, tampering with records and grand theft.
Wittkugle was formerly the fire district’s treasurer. Firefighters are paid per call, so Wittkugle was in charge of logging the amount of calls each firefighter responded to.
Investigations by the Eagle Joint Fire District and Hubbard police found that Wittkugle had logged extra hours for himself and certain other firefighters, which in turn increased the amount of money they made, according to a police report.
From Nov. 1, 2015, to Oct. 31, 2017, police said Wittkugle had misappropriated at least $10,000.
The police report into the investigation revealed Wittkugle received at least an extra $2,000 from calls he didn’t respond to.
Wittkugle’s pre-trial hearing is set for 8:30 a.m. Nov. 21 in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.