Linda Harris
TRIAL CONTINUES — Former Jefferson County Well being Division administrator Annette Stewart appears to be like over case work Wednesday along with her lawyer, Dennis McNamara.
STEUBENVILLE — The previous Jefferson County well being division administrator who allegedly gave herself a pay elevate after which doctored official data to cowl it up insisted to a Jefferson County Widespread Pleas Court docket jury Wednesday she solely did what she was advised.
Annette Stewart, beneath indictment for theft in workplace, tampering with data, falsification and having an illegal curiosity in a public contract, stated it was her bosses, the late Dr. Frank L. Petrola, longtime chairman of the board, and Dr. Frank J. Petrola, former well being district commissioner, who advised her to amend her minutes of the April 25, 2017, board assembly to say she’d been given a hefty, $12 an hour pay elevate.
Prosecutors contend Stewart was in a position to pocket simply over $63,000 in division funds to which she wasn’t entitled.
In line with the indictment, Stewart “falsified data to extend her wage, with out the data or approval” of the well being board. Prosecutors additionally contend she used her place as an administrator to get her son a job in October 2017.
“I used to be instructed to right the minutes and insert the knowledge in there,” Stewart advised the jury. “I even requested the place to place it.”
Stewart stated she was at that April 25, 2017, board assembly however was nervous and had a toilet emergency so she left the room with out anybody noticing. She stated she was unaware of the elevate till she was getting ready to ship out the assembly minutes simply earlier than the Could board assembly, including, “When the board president tells you to do one thing, you do it.”
“Frank L. …requested me why my (pay elevate) was not in there,” she stated. “I advised him I wasn’t in there and … didn’t find out about it. I don’t suppose folks knew I left the board assembly, I simply obtained up and left.”
There was no point out of a pay elevate for Stewart within the Herald-Star’s protection of the assembly, although Frank J. Petrola’s choice as commissioner was coated in depth.
Frank L. Petrola died in 2020, two years earlier than Stewart’s indictment, and his cousin, Frank J. Petrola, will not be in a position to testify, “so all we have now is your phrase,” Assistant Legal professional Normal Anthony Cillo insisted, getting Stewart to additionally admit she by no means thanked the board members for the pay increase nor had she known as their consideration to the modifications she’d made to the minutes.
Cillo additionally identified discrepancies within the quantity he stated Stewart paid herself, itemizing it as “$40.01” in some memos and “$42.01 in others,” however she recommended the discrepancy was another person’s clerical error, as was her son’s designation as a “registered sanitarian.”
“A $25,000 elevate didn’t make me good, nor wouldn’t it make anybody good,” Stewart replied, and admitted her son had no diploma or expertise within the area and was an unclassified, seasonal worker, although his hours doubled and he acquired paid holidays prosecutors say he shouldn’t have gotten.
“I didn’t approve (it),” Stewart stated.
She additionally stated it wasn’t her concept to ban different workers accustomed to being out there at board conferences from attending, telling jurors she despatched that memo out “as I used to be instructed to by Dr. Petrola.”
Protection Legal professional Dennis McNamara requested Stewart if she’d ever knowingly taken cash (you) weren’t entitled to or falsified data, to which she answered, “No.” She additionally insisted she’d “by no means employed my son, by no means requested anybody to rent my son,” telling the jury it was Frank J. Petrola who made that call earlier than she was even conscious it was being thought-about.
Earlier within the day, McNamara had requested Registered Sanitarian Carla Gampola about unrest inside the workers after Stewart gained energy, and questioned if she’d simply been upset as a result of she came upon different staffers had been being handled to a convention out-of-state however she was advised she couldn’t go as a result of “somebody has to remain behind.”
“You do what the boss tells you to do,” Gampola replied, telling jurors Stewart “was not my day-to-day supervisor, but when she advised me to do one thing, I did it.”
After reviewing time sheets, the division’s payroll and different paperwork, Auditor Melissa Barnett advised jurors there was no document of Jesse Prepare dinner, her son, even making use of for a job.
“They don’t have any (paperwork) to indicate he ever interviewed or made utility” for a job on the well being division, she stated. “The one factor we (discovered) is a letter submitted to the auditor” asserting he was becoming a member of the workers.
“That was (from) Annette Stewart, that was her job,” stated Barnett, who testified by Zoom attributable to sickness.
Prosecutors questioned Stewart’s husband, Carl, concerning the {couples}’ indebtedness earlier than his spouse’s pay elevate. Stewart, a SVRTA bus driver earlier than being recognized with superior COPD, advised them, “We had a standard life. I don’t know what you imply by a variety of debt.”
“We had bank cards we made fee to,” he stated, conceding he needed to go away his job due to his well being and had no well being advantages or private revenue till his incapacity was granted a yr later. He additionally admitted his stepson, who died two years in the past on the age of 35, had a substance abuse dysfunction, however advised jurors no medicine had been present in his system.
