Freeport officials mum on missing EMS money and its repayment

Freeport officials won’t say how much money was taken by someone working for the borough’s emergency medical service in early 2020.

But the borough’s lawyer recently issued a statement to clarify what he says is false information circulating by word of mouth about how the borough handled the apparent misappropriation of money.

The statement sent to the Tribune-Review Nov. 18 from Solicitor Matthew Kalina said that, in early 2020, the emergency medical service’s executive director and the board of directors “did uncover misappropriated funds to the EMS” and that “their effort and decisions led to those funds being repaid to the EMS, to the penny.”

The borough did not release the amount of money taken nor who they accused of taking it. They said the person involved has been “banned from office and membership.”

Kalina said it was several thousand dollars but declined to say exactly how much was found to have been missing.

He said the borough sent the statement out to “set the record straight regarding recent falsehoods that have been circulating regarding these organizations.”

He said the need to clarify to the public what transpired is the result of an anonymous letter emailed to members of the media last year that borough officials learned about, he said.

Kalina said the letter specifically accused the mayor, who also is president of the fire department, of interfering in the case by asking that law enforcement not file criminal charges against the person.

The letter gave rise to rumors that the municipality, the fire department and the EMS service were all aware of the misappropriation of money and worked together to seek restitution instead of prosecuting the person who was responsible.

Kalina said local and state police were informed that the EMS service did not want to press charges “in exchange for the funds, including fees and interest, being returned by a certain date.”

“At no point did any borough officials, including mayor and and president of the volunteer fire department, James Swartz, direct, mandate or require that no charges be filed,” the solicitor wrote.

Swartz did not return telephone messages from the Tribune-Review seeking comment about how he became the target of the rumors.

Freeport’s EMS director, Chris O’Leath, declined to comment on the missing money or the borough’s handling of the matter. He referred all questions to Kalina.

Kalina said, while the decision to forgo prosecution in exchange for repayment happened before he became solicitor, he likely would have made the same recommendation.

“When something is taken from you, suggesting that you will not pursue charges is a common and effective means of achieving the most important goal when this occurs: the property being returned and the person or group that the money or item was taken from being made whole,” he wrote. “The funds were repaid in a timely fashion, to the penny, and thus no charges were filed.”

The solicitor said preventing the missing funds from creating a financial burden for the department was the primary goal.

“If you proceed with prosecution, restitution can be part of the sentence if the person is convicted,” he said. “But you will have to wait until after a trial is over to get the money back, it may come in the form of bare-minimum monthly payments that will take a long time.”

He said the borough’s handling of the missing funds allowed the medical service to operate “without any disruption to the critical services these organizations provide.”

The medical services also has instituted “safeguards, checks and balances and redundancies” to create greater security for its finances.

The questions about Freeport’s EMS come as the borough’s police department was leaderless and unstaffed. On Nov. 3, the newly hired police chief — who was also the lone officer — resigned after working one shift.

State police were patrolling and answering calls in the borough until the borough’s police force was reconstituted. At a special meeting on Monday, council hired three new part-time officers, including an officer-in-charge.