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Former School Head Sentenced for Stealing District Money

SCRANTON — A former school superintendent was sentenced Thursday morning for stealing thousands of dollars from a district in Lackawanna County. At the se...
tallerico mv super

SCRANTON -- A former school superintendent was sentenced Thursday morning for stealing thousands of dollars from a district in Lackawanna County.

At the sentencing hearing, both Tallarico's attorney and prosecutors asked for Tallarico to be sentenced to house arrest for the theft that happened while Tallarico was superintendent of Mid Valley School District in 2014 and 2015.

But the judge said because of the violation of public trust, Tallarico had to start his sentence with seven days behind bars.

James Tallarico of Dunmore was charged last summer with theft.

At his sentencing months later, he told the judge that when he was superintendent of the Mid Valley School District, he was under a lot of stress at home.

It caused him to make bad decision, he said, that included taking close to $12,000 in district funds.

It was an apology, Mid Valley School Board members who attended the hearing say, they've heard before.

"It's hollow to us right now because it's something we've heard over and over again, throughout the process, before the process, and I wouldn't have expected anything else," said school board vice president Paul Macknosky.

The district alerted authorities when officials realized Tallarico was taking the money.

The judge gave him a stricter sentence than the attorney general's office asked for: a week behind bars, followed by six months of house arrest, and five years on probation.

"Unfortunately, thefts, in part, were from student activities funds. As I said to the judges, that's involves kids who go out and they have the car washes and the bake sales and that sort of thing, and that money goes in to a box and that's, among other places, where money was stolen from," said Deputy Attorney General Barney Anderson.

Mid Valley officials say procedures put in place to catch thieves worked. An independent business manager caught fraudulent credit card charges and forgery.

But the board members say their experience with Tallarico forever changed the way the district looks at new hires.

"We believed that he was a good person that was doing the right thing. There were a lot of people who stood up for what he was trying to accomplish in our school district. It was a betrayal to us that hurt a lot," said Macknosky.

Along with the time in the Lackawanna County Prison, and the six months of house arrest, the judge also ordered Tallarico serve 150 hours of community service to help the Mid Valley School District.

Tallarico has paid back all of the money he took from the district.

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