Crime & Courts

September 27, 2008

Police charge elected official with theft

Black Creek Township supervisor allegedly used materials bought with township funds at his home.

BLACK CREEK TWP. – A township supervisor was charged Friday with taking more than $3,000 from township funds for his personal use, police said.

Rickie D. Whitebread, 56, of 515 Whitebread Lane, is accused of purchasing $3,294 worth of merchandise on township credit cards and accounts for home improvement, printer ink, gasoline and asphalt, state police at Hazleton said.

The purchases were made between Sept. 30, 2006, and Aug. 1, 2008, with vendors throughout Luzerne and Columbia counties, police said.

Whitebread surrendered at the office of District Judge Daniel O’Donnell in Sugarloaf where he was arraigned on third-degree felony theft and access device fraud charges. He was released on $20,000 unsecured bail.

According to an affidavit of probable cause: Black Creek Township Supervisor Bonnie Adams reported residents at a recent township meeting questioned the use of township equipment to pave a driveway at Whitebread’s home. Those concerns prompted Adams to review purchases made on township accounts, police said.

Whitebread, who also serves as township roadmaster, regularly makes purchases for the township using township-issued credit cards and accounts, Adams told police. But she said the invoices for these purchases weren’t being reviewed.

Adams reviewed the invoices and found several personal purchases made by Whitebread at Lowes, Home Depot and Staples.

The bulk of those purchases are: bi-fold doors and paint, 30 bundles of shingles, deck parts, a stove board, solar landscape lights, a fireplace set, a log tote and supplies, and an eight-inch sliding board.

Invoices were found for more than 22 tons of asphalt from HRI, Inc., an asphalt supplier in Hemlock Township, Columbia County, on Aug. 1 – the same date residents told of paving at the supervisor’s home. The township was billed $1,688.78 for the asphalt, police said.

Trooper Corey D. Wetzel of the Hazleton barracks interviewed Whitebread on Sept. 15. Whitebread admitted to the allegations of asphalt purchases, in addition to making 13 other unauthorized purchases, most of which were for improvements to his home, the affidavit states.

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