POTTSVILLE - A lawyer who served as Schuylkill County custody conciliator was arrested Friday for allegedly billing the county for work she did not do over nearly four years.
Lynne G. Bressi, 63, is accused of falsely billing the county a $125 fee on 48 occasions, totaling $6,000, Pottsville police said.
She is charged with six felonies - theft by deception, receiving stolen property, tampering with public records, solicitation to tamper with public records, tampering with records or identification and solicitation to tamper with records or identification - and one misdemeanor, intimidation of a witness.
Bressi, who has operated a law office in Kulpmont, was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge James K. Reiley and is free on $50,000 unsecured bail pending further court action. Police said Bressi's bail is conditioned on her having no contact with any witness in the case. A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Feb. 28 before Reiley.
Joshua D. Lock, Harrisburg, Bressi's lawyer, said his client has done nothing wrong.
"Mrs. Bressi is a woman with an unblemished reputation for integrity and we look forward to her vindication," Lock said.
Acting Attorney General Bill Ryan, whose office is prosecuting the case at the request of county District Attorney James P. Goodman, took a far different view of the matter.
"This was a clear and calculated scheme to charge the taxpayers of Schuylkill County for work that was not being performed," he said. "Using an official position for personal gain is an inexcusable breach of the public trust."
The charges resulted from a criminal investigation and subsequent state Grand Jury presentment.
Police allege that between Jan. 5, 2006, and Oct. 2, 2009, Bressi stole $6,000 from the county by filing false claims for work she did not actually perform as custody conciliator.
Conciliators help the parties in a custody case to try to reach a settlement before the matter goes before a judge.
The false billings started shortly after county President Judge William E. Baldwin appointed two additional Pottsville lawyers, Mark A. Barket and Michael J. Fiorillo, as custody conciliators to join Bressi due to an increasing caseload, police said. Neither Barket nor Fiorillo are accused in the case.
Baldwin also raised the conciliator's fee from $100 to $125 but adopted a new rule under which the conciliator would receive no fee if the parties settle the case, police said.
According to police, Bressi called her conciliation office on Sept. 28, 2009, and told her secretary not to cancel appointments for the following day, after having told her not to cancel appointments for that day, even though she knew she would be out of the office. One of Baldwin's secretaries was in the conciliation office when Bressi made that call and she informed the judge of what had occurred, police said.
Apart from the 48 occasions when Bressi allegedly submitted false bills to the court, police said that she got her secretary to alter records to corroborate her story and that she tried to intimidate her to get her to stick to that story.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Jonelle Harter Eshbach will prosecute the case, Ryan said. In 2009, Goodman asked the Attorney General's office to prosecute the case, because Bressi's husband, Charles A. Bressi Jr., is a former first assistant district attorney.
Lock said the charges against his client do not represent the facts.
"Mrs. Bressi, who is guilty of no criminal misconduct, appears to be the victim of petty and often vindictive accusations against her based on an infinitesimal number of cases," he said.