The Manchester Enterprise
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Police investigating missing money
By Edward Freundl, Heritage Newspapers
PUBLISHED: April 26, 2007
Members of the Oak Grove Cemetery Association met Monday in a public session to determine the extent of damage to the group's finances allegedly committed by one of their own.
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An investigation by the Michigan State Police has been ongoing for months to try to put a dollar figure on the amount that allegedly had been misappropriated by the board treasurer.
Rumors and conjecture have been rampant for months, and association President John Schaible did his best Monday to explain the situation without "jeopardizing the criminal investigation."
"The last three or four months everybody on this board has been under a lot of pressure," he said.
"There's been a lot of speculation that we're sitting on our hands on this, and that's just not true," he added.
"The State Police are investigating; otherwise we have no comment."
The State Police post in Ypsilanti confirmed that the investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made, but little else.
"We're looking into it, seeing if there was actually a crime committed," Sgt. Jim Bundshuh said when contacted earlier this year. "It appears to have been done over a 10-year period, but it takes time to go back through all those records."
Messages left with the trooper in charge of the investigation were not returned by press time.
Washtenaw County Prosecutor Brian Mackie confirmed no criminal charges have been filed in the case as yet.
Concerns about the group's finances mounted last fall after the treasurer repeatedly failed to provide financial records to the board or attend meetings, Schaible said during the meeting.
In December, the board requested an audit of the books and Jackson certified public accountant Ron Markowski agreed to conduct it.
Schaible said the treasurer came to his home in February and admitted wrongdoing, after which the board voted to remove her from office.
The amount of money in question is said to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but hasn't been confirmed yet.
The amount remaining in the association's bank account is $5,642, less than 2 percent of the $314,000 given on its last profit and loss statement in September 2006.
"It's been quite a mess," Schaible said. "Until we have the forensic audit from the State Police, we just don't know how much money is missing, just that there is money missing."
Discussing the situation at an open meeting appeared painful for Schaible and the other board members, who declined to speak on the record following the meeting.
"We're not a vigilante group; we're not out to fry anybody," Schaible said. "I've got a lot of friends in this town, and I don't want to talk about it anymore. This has been a hard experience for me."
In other business, the board voted to elect Lorraine Dunny and Jim Kensler to fill two vacancies, and Dunny was appointed treasurer.
In addition, Frieda McCullough of the Red Hatters presented to the association a check for $742, proceeds of an auction of late cemetery board member Marilyn LaRock's collection of Red Hat Society paraphernalia, in accordance with her final wishes.
Edward Freundl is a reporter with Heritage Newspapers. He can be reached at efreundl@heritage.com.
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