ERIE – Attorney General Tom Corbett announced the arrest of a clerk for Erie County Magisterial District Judge Thomas Robie in connection with an investigation of almost $7,500 in missing funds.
Corbett said that Kelly Kudlak, 32, Erie, is charged with stealing almost $1,500 from Robie’s office and later lying about it in front of a grand jury.
According to the grand jury, in October 2006, Demitta More, another one of Robie’s clerks, discovered that there was $7,478 missing from the District Court’s bank account. This money included cash and checks from fines, costs and payments made to the District Court. The missing checks were never cashed.
The grand jury found that there were missing bank deposits for 10 dates in September and October of 2006. On three of those dates, Kudlak was the only person available to take the deposit envelope to the bank. On all three of those dates, cash was missing from the deposits.
According to the grand jury, those dates were Oct. 6, 11 and 20 of 2006. On those dates, the deposits were missing amounts of $424, $280 and $560.
Corbett said that, on Sept. 15, 2006, while alone in the office, Kudlak also allegedly received a cash payment in the amount of $235 from a man named Joseph Bliss and gave him a receipt for the payment. This payment was never given to the proper recipient.
According to the grand jury, about a month later, Robie sent a constable to Bliss’ house to collect what he thought was an unpaid debt. When asked for his payment, Bliss provided the receipt that Kudlak gave to him.
The grand jury found that when asked about the payment, Kudlak said that she put it in an envelope and put it in her desk drawer, but that the money and the receipt disappeared.
According to the grand jury, Kudlak testified that she did not take any money from the district court. She also testified that Constable Greg Kindle received payment from Bliss in the office, and that Kindle, Robie and Moore were all there when she generated Bliss’ receipt.
According to the grand jury, Robie was not in the office on Sept. 15, 2006, and when he asked Kudlak if Bliss made a payment, she said no.
Kudlak has been charged with one count of perjury, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine; one count each of theft by unlawful taking or disposition and theft by deception, both carry a maximum of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine; and one count of false swearing, which carries a maximum of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Kudlak is scheduled to be preliminarily arraigned today before Erie County Magisterial District Judge Mark Krahe. She will be prosecuted by Deputy Attorney General Laurel Brandstetter of the Attorney General’s Pittsburgh Office.