THE COMMONWEALTH'S ATTORNEY ANTHONY 8. MARTIN TELEPHONE (494) 282-7010 JONAH. BUCKLEY PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FROM: Anthony Martin, Special Prosecutor for the City of Charlottesville DATE: January 28, 2015 RE: Former Charlottesville Registrar & Former Electoral Board Member plead guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from cellphone use This morning in the General District Court for the City of Charlottesville, former Charlottesville Registrar Sherri lachetta, and former Electoral Board Member and Attorney, B. Stephanie Commander, both pleaded guilty to four (4) misdemeanor charges after an investigation headed by the Charlottesville Police Department in August 2014 concerning unauthorized cellphone usage. Both of these cases centered on the City of Charlottesville paying for cellphones issued to the Registrar's Office headed by Sheri lachetta. One of lachetta’s employees voiced her concerns about the Payment by the City ofa cellphone that was previously issued to Stephanie Commander while she was an Electoral Board Member but was still being paid after Commander's term expired in 2011; and a cellphone issued to lachetta’s husband, Pat Owens. Stephanie Commander's Cellphone Stephanie Commander, an attorney in Charlottesville, was on the Electoral Board for many years. Commander received a Blackberry smartphone that was paid for with funds from the Registrar’s budget. lachetta’s employee went to the City Manager, Maurice Jones in March 2014 because the City kept paying Stephanie Commander's cell phone bill from 2011 when she her term expired all the way to 2014, | 2008, the City allotted $4,000.00 to the Registrar for cell phones. Commander was the only Electoral Board member who obtained a cell phone from the Registrar's Office. After Commander's term expired in 2011, the City continued to pay the bill for her cellphone each month from 2011 until August 2014 when law enforcement began their investigation. Records obtained from Verizon show ‘Commander's phone was used from 2011 until 2014. lachetta’s co-worker told police that she voiced her concerns about the City paying for ‘Commander's phone, but was told by lachetta just to submit the bill to the City for payment since Commander would probably be back on the Electoral Board eventually, (Electoral Board members, bothDemocrat and Republican, change every 4 years depending on which political party is in power). Commander was never put back on the Electoral Board, From 2011 until August 2014, the City paid $2,532.22 in charges for Commander's phone services, ued payment of Commander's cellphone, the City was also paying for a cellphone for lachetta’s husband, Pat Owens. In 2003, Mr. Owens was hired by the Electoral Board to be a part-time Closing Technician and was to serve at the pleasure of the Electoral Board. Mr. Owens’s duties were to assist precincts in the Preparation of interim and final statements of election results. Mr. Owens’s hiring and duties were Contained in the Electoral Board minutes on October 31, 2003. Mr. Owens was to be paid an hourly rate that was the same as what a Voting Technician would receive. Just like Commander, Owens had a cell phone paid for by the City under the Registrar's budget. Owens’s cellphone usage was brought to law enforcement’s attention because his employment with the Electoral Board ended in late 2009 and early 2010. Yet the City continued to make his cell phone payments, From 2010 until August 2014, the City p ‘$4,663.84 for Owens's phone services. ‘The Investigation These concerns were addressed first to Maurice Jones, the City Manager, in March 2014. Then after the same employee who voiced her concerns to Jones voiced them again in August 2014 to Joan Schatzman, then Chair of the Electoral Board, Schatzman filed a report with the Charlottesville Police Department, Immediately after receiving the report from Schatzman, Sgt. David Harris and Detective Lisa Best began interviewing dozens of witnesses and reviewed documents ranging from telephone bills to electoral board minutes. Because Dave Chapman, Commonwealth's Attorney for the City of Charlottesville had a conflict of interest, | was appointed Special Prosecutor by Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Jay T. Swett by order dated August 29, 2014, to handle the investigation into the possible misuse of cellular phones from 2011 until the present by Charlottesville’s Registrar Sheri lachetta and B. Stephanie Commander, a former Electoral Board member. After reviewing this matter with the Charlottesville Police Department, Charlottesville Registrar Sheri lachetta was charged with 4 felony counts of misuse of public funds (ie. the City’s paying for Commanders and Owens’s phone services , one for each calendar year from 2011 until the present, in violation of Section 18.2-112 of the Code of Virginia; and 2 felony counts of misuse of public assets (the ‘two cellphones themselves), each in violation of Section 18.2-112.1 of the Code of Virginia,B, Stephanie Commander was charged with 4 felony counts of embezzlement of a Blackberry smartphone and telephone services, one for each calendar year from 2011 until the present, in violation of Section 18.2-111 of the Code of Virginia, Resolution of the Charges While Mr. Owens's use of a City-paid cellphone was not right, Mr. Owen was not charged with ‘any criminal offense because when questioned by authorities, he thought his wife Ms. lachetta was paying his phone every month, It turned, however, that Ms. lachetta was not making payments on his phone and he seemed genuinely surprised when he found out the City was paying for it. There was simply no evidence that we could find that he acted with any fraudulent intent. Sheri lachetta was questioned by authorities and admitted to messing up. On August 20, 2014, Ms. lachetta paid the City $4,663.84 which represented the total amount for services on her husband's cellphone. lachetta had to be charged because she allowed the City to pay for two phones out of her department's budget that the City shouldn’t have had to pay because the phones belonged to two people who no longer had business with the Registrar's office or the Electoral Board. Ms. lachetta also resigned from being the Registrar on December 31, 2015, a job she held for 15 years. Up until now, she had no arrests or criminal history. The Commonwealth took these factors into account in reaching a resolution in lachetta’s case. (On August 26, 2014, Stephanie Commander paid the City $2,532.22 which represented cellphone charges from 2011 until 2014. Commander had to be charged because she knew or should have known from being at the Board meetings that cellphones were only to be used while she was a member of the board. Yet she continued to use the phone for several years. Uke lachetta, Commander also had no arrests or criminal history until now and has been an attorney in good standing in Virginia for many years. The Commonwealth took these factors into account in reaching a resolution in Commander's case, Just like all cases that are brought to court, a prosecutor must strike a balance between Punishing offenders for breaking the law, and being fair to those who have no prior record, who made full restitution before the case goes to court, and who admit responsibility. In addition, there was no attempts by either defendant to conceal these cellphones or the use of them. In reviewing the phone bills submitted to the City each month for the last 4 years, both Stephanie Commander and Pat Owens's names and phone numbers were on each bill For all of these reasons, the Commonwealth chose not to pursue these charges as felonies. Both defendants pleaded guilty to four counts of misdemeanor damage to and removal of City property in violation of Section 18.2-137 (B) of the Code of Virginia which is a Class 1 misdemeanor. Both defendants received 90 days in jail on each charge all suspended on the condition that they Perform 0 hours of community service for each misdemeanor conviction for a total of 200 hours. They must also be of good behavior for 2 years on each charge and pay the court costs.