Treasurer Employee, Other

Charged With $25,000 Theft

COOPERSTOWN – A former county employee and his accomplice have been arrested and charged with stealing $25,000 in tax proceeds from the Otsego County Treasurer’s Office.

Lawrence Woodards, 34, Cooperstown, and Kevin Williamson, 34, New York City, are accused of working together to steal from taxpayers and the office.

Woodards, a former account clerk typist, is alleged to have accepted late tax penalties from taxpayers, pocketed a portion of the cash payments, believed to total $14,000, and then internally reported that lesser amounts had been received.  He was employed in the office for approximately two years before resigning in November 2015.

Woodards is also accused of issuing three fraudulent tax refund checks totaling more than $11,000 to Williamson, an acquaintance with no ties to Otsego County. Williamson is accused of depositing the checks into his bank account and then mailing approximately half of the money back to Woodards.

“There isn’t one taxpayer who’s payments were taken and then marked as overdue,” said County Treasurer Dan Crowell.  “He was taking money out of different payments.  It feels like a violation in so many ways, but we fortunately have several layers of documentation, processes in place that alert us to fraud occurring and staff members who were vigilant.”

“These defendants cynically abused a position of public trust to fraudulently enrich themselves at the expense of Otsego County taxpayers,” said state Financial Services  Superintendent Maria Vullo. “DFS appreciates the opportunity to have worked with District Attorney John Muehl and commends him for aggressively pursuing this investigation and bringing these defendants to justice.”

An investigation was opened when  Crowell contacted District Attorney John Muehl last fall to report that that Treasurer’s Office employees had discovered instances of money that appeared to be missing when the day’s receipts were counted.

Woodards is charged with two counts of grand larceny in the third degree, Class D felonies. Williamson is charged with one count of grand larceny in the third degree, a Class D felony. They could each be sentenced to up to seven years in prison if found guilty.The defendants were arraigned on the changes before Town of Otsego Judge Gary M. Kuch and were both released on their own recognizance pending a November 16 hearing.

U.S. Postal Service inspectors assisted DFS investigators in the investigation when investigators found that checks had been exchanged by mail between the two defendants.  Deputies from the Office of Otsego County Sheriff Richard J. Devlin, Jr. assisted in the arrests.