The former director of the Tri-County Action Commission facing criminal charges in connection with the agency’s financial collapse appeared in court Friday and entered not guilty pleas before being released on bond.
|
BIRT |
Denise L. Birt, 60, who now lives in West Union, appeared before Logan County Common Pleas Judge Mark S. O’Connor in a felony orange jumpsuit after spending a night in the Logan County Jail.
She was charged by a grand jury this week with five counts relating to her management of the nonprofit organization that provided social services to residents of Logan, Champaign and Shelby counties.
The five-count indictment against Ms. Birt includes three third-degree felonies — securing writings by deception, theft and falsification — a fourth-degree felony count of theft and a misdemeanor charge of tampering with records.
Her attorney David Thomas, a Columbus-based white collar defense attorney, said he has not yet seen the evidence in the case, but believed serving the indictment as a warrant — a move that required Mrs. Birt be arrested and jailed until her court hearing — was unnecessary.
“We look forward to reviewing the state’s case and preparing for court,” Mr. Thomas said.
“It came as a complete surprise to us because we’ve been in communication with the Logan County Prosecutor’s Office, yet for some reason, they found it necessary to issue a secret indictment and a warrant to arrest a woman who is 60 years old and has no criminal record.
“She’s cooperated with the prosecutor’s office so far and there’s no reason to believe she will not continue to do so.”
He noted that she drove to Logan County on Thursday evening and turned herself in voluntarily at the jail. She was not arrested at her home in Adams County as reported in the Examiner on Friday.
The charges are the culmination of an investigation that began at the local level in 2014 and moved to the state level in 2015 with assistance from the Ohio Auditor’s Office. Meanwhile, the Inspector General’s Office of the U.S. Department of Transportation conducted its own investigation into the case.
The bulk of the charges relate to misrepresentations allegedly made by Ms. Birt to her board members and others that allowed the organization to take out two mortgage loans in 2012 and 2013 with Liberty National Bank totaling $300,000 on the agency’s 315 W. Auburn Ave. transportation hub that was built using federal stimulus money.
The other set of circumstances involve regular salary overpayments for use of an agency-owned vehicle that totaled nearly $75,000 over seven years. That case was previously presented to a grand jury in August 2015, but that grand jury did not return charges.
Judge O’Connor set Ms. Birt’s next court appearance for Aug. 17.