New Canaan, Connecticut cafeteria workers and sisters have been charged in what authorities believe to be a scam of nearly $500,000, the Hartford Courant reported Monday.
Joanne Pascarelli and Marie Wilson were charged this past weekend with felony first-degree larceny by defrauding a community, the newspaper said. The Courant said that both women posted their bail of $50,000 each after turning themselves in.
Police charged that Pascarelli, 61, of Stratford, Connecticut, and her big sister Wilson, 67, of Wilton, Connecticut, skimmed the cafeterias they worked in $478,588 over five years of the investigation, but it could have been going on for as long as 15 years, the Courant wrote.
The New Canaan school system started looking the cash deposits the women were handling when it saw substantial increases in daily cash deposits when the women stopped working at their schools, the newspaper noted.
"For the past few years, the school district has been working with its external auditors to develop and implement enhanced financial procedures and controls in various departments," New Canaan Public School superintendent Bryan Luizzi said in a statement posted on the district's website.
"As these enhanced procedures were implemented in the food services department, the district identified irregularities related to the handling of cash at the Saxe Middle School Cafeteria and the New Canaan High School Cafeteria. These irregularities were promptly reviewed and reported to the New Canaan Police Department," he continued.
Wilson had served as the assistant food director at New Canaan High School while Pascarelli directed the food program at Saxe Middle School, authorities told the Courant.
School cafeteria cashiers told police during their investigation that they never counted the money in their drawers before or after their shifts, according to a warrant, the newspaper stated. Wilson and Pascarelli, though, would collect the cash drawers and count the money in their offices, the warrant continued.
School employees claimed that Pascarelli would visit cashiers between lunch periods and take large bills out of their registers, but never said how much she was taking, according to the warrant for her arrest, the Courant stated.
Employees claimed that both Wilson and Pascarelli would have them sign blank deposit slips for the bank and when one questioned Pascarelli about handling the cash, she was assigned the wash dishes for months in retaliation, the Courant wrote.
The Courant wrote that Pascarelli was placed on administrative leave in November 2017 during the investigation and resigned in December. Wilson resigned days later, per the newspaper.
Wilson's attorney told WVIT-TV that the cafeteria worker is not guilty and is "not going to be scapegoated." The station stated that Wilson is expected to appear in court on Aug. 21 while Pascarelli is appear Aug. 24.
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