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After four hours of testimony, judge sends case against Peter Paul Moses to court.
Moses
WILKES-BARRE – It came down to a calendar maintained by a chef at Luzerne County Community College.
Chef Sheldon Owens testified on Thursday that he began marking the days on the calendar whenever associate dean Peter Paul Moses took the cafeteria’s deposits to be delivered at the college’s business office.
Luzerne County assistant district attorneys Michael Melnick and Shannon Crake allege Moses kept several daily deposits from January 2006 to December 2007, stealing more than $17,000.
Prosecutors relied heavily on the calendar and Owens’ testimony during a preliminary hearing before District Judge Fred Pierantoni in Central Court on Thursday.
After nearly four hours of testimony from nine witnesses, Pierantoni determined prosecutors established a case against Moses, sending four counts of theft and two counts of receiving stolen property to county Court of Common Pleas.
Moses, 57, is also accused of stealing two laptop computers from the college.
Moses, of Wilkes-Barre, was associate dean in charge of the college’s cafeteria and food services, security, maintenance and the educational conference center. He was initially placed on paid suspension in February and terminated by the college board of directors in September.
“The calendar is a little shaky to me,” said Moses’ attorney, William Ruzzo, after the hearing. “Someone took that money and Luzerne County Community College was lax in tracing that money.”
Ruzzo said he’s looking forward to a trial.
“We don’t have to prove he’s innocent, (prosecutors) have to prove that he’s guilty,” Ruzzo said. “I’m anticipating going to trial and we’ll have our say.”
Owens testified that he began marking a calendar because he became suspicious that the cafeteria’s deposits weren’t being delivered to the college’s business office, and felt he would be blamed for the missing money.
“The business office called me and complained that they didn’t receive deposits on certain days,” Owens testified. “There were several occasions that we gave the deposits to Peter Moses.”
Owens and associate chef Galina Brusilovski testified that they took turns with Moses in delivering the cafeteria’s deposits to the business office.
College Director of Accounts and Finance Robert Linskey testified he noticed discrepancies in cafeteria money shortly after he began work at the college in April 2006.
Linskey said that when he went to the cafeteria to determine the accounting process, he found that a laptop computer that records sales through two cash registers was missing.
“When the (2006) fall semester started up, that’s when money started not coming down (to business office),” Linskey testified.
Linskey said he used Owens’ calendar to formulate a spreadsheet and learned the missing deposits were on the days when Moses took control of the cafeteria’s deposits.
“There were only about eight that didn’t come to my office,” Linskey said.
David Kozemchak, media specialists at the college, testified that Moses requested three laptop computers to be used at the college’s Educational Conference Center in April.
Kozemchak said Moses took one computer home with him, and the other two computers were secured to tables in conference rooms. Kozemchak testified Moses requested a second computer to take home.
After Moses was suspended, Kozemchak said he was unable to locate the two computers that had been given to Moses.
Melnick said the circumstantial evidence against Moses is similar to “footprints in snow.”