Former South Greensburg secretary gets more jail time in borough theft case

Convicted in the theft of more than $110,000 in public money, South Greensburg’s former borough secretary was ordered to serve an additional year in jail on Thursday.

Dennis Lee Kunkle Jr., 55, originally pleaded guilty in October 2018 to six counts for embezzling government funds for his personal use and tampering with public records to cover-up the crime committed over a five-year period. He avoided jail at that time when he repaid the borough $101,000 and was ordered to serve five years on probation and one year on house arrest.

After his guilty plea, Kunkle was again arrested after police discovered the money he used to repay the borough was stolen from his elderly, wheelchair-bound father. In December, Kunkle pleaded guilty to theft and perjury charges in connection with the money stolen from his father and was sentenced by Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani to serve about a year in jail.

The perjury count related to testimony Kunkle gave in court in which he denied the repayment money belonged to his 79-year-old father. Kunkle claimed the money was taken from his own pension account.

In court Thursday, Judge Rita Hathaway, who presided over the original theft case, revoked Kunkle’s probation and ordered him to serve a sentence of roughly one to two years in jail, plus an additional five years on probation. That sentence will begin after Kunkle is paroled in June from his sentence for the theft from his father.

“This whole thing is a disgrace,” Hathaway said.

Kunkle, along with his teenage son, his sister and a friend, pleaded for leniency, saying he needed to be freed to help prepare a family-owned home for sale to raise money needed to pay back his father and remaining restitution owed to South Greensburg.

“I just cannot sell my house from inside jail. I want to repay my father and settle things with the borough,” Kunkle said.

He told the judge that during the 13 months he’s been in jail, he suffered great loss, including time away from his family and the death his mother-in-law.

Assistant District Attorney Jim Lazar said called Kunkle a “con man” and said he should remain behind bars.

“His father lost his home. Now he’s living at the (Westmoreland) Manor because this man took his money. He first defrauded his community, then he defrauded his father,” Lazar said.

Hathaway said Kunkle’s new sentence was designed to allow him to remain in the county jail rather than be transferred to a state prison. The sentences imposed for both crimes will run consecutively, Hathaway said, meaning Kunkle won’t be eligible for parole until June 2021.