Steuben County village clerk loses pension in first use of anti-corruption laws

A village clerk in Steuben County who allegedly stole more than $1 million from village coffers agreed Thursday to give up her pension — the first time the state's anti-corruption laws have resulted in a lost pension.

Ursula Stone, who was the clerk for the Village of Addison for 19 years, agreed in a Steuben County court Thursday to forfeit her pension of $1,920 a month. She admitted to stealing more than $100,000 but contests the "$1 million+" math by prosecutors.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli highlighted the case at a news conference in Bath on Thursday as the state's first pension forfeiture under New York's anti-corruption measures.

Under a 2011 state law and a 2017 constitutional amendment vote, approved overwhelmingly by New York residents, public officials who commit job-related crimes can lose part or all of their pensions. But, as the USA TODAY Network-New York reported earlier this year, the law has never been wielded in court, even though state lawmakers previously boasted of it as a means to curb corruption.

Theft was like a year of village expenses, officials say

Steuben County District Attorney Brooks Baker said Thursday that the case was tailor-made for pension forfeiture: The crimes extended over much of Stone's career, her theft from village funds was job-related, and village residents suffered because of her offenses.

Her estimated thievery — she is challenging the prosecution's push for $1.1 million in restitution — was similar to a year of village expenses. She pleaded guilty in May to first-degree corrupting the government and admitted to stealing more than $100,000.

"This was a particularly pernicious crime," Baker said.

Village residents suffered

Stone's crimes were first spotted by a comptroller's 2022 audit of village finances. Stone, now 56, was responsible for a wide array of finances, preparing payroll and processing health insurance and employee leave payouts with apparently no oversight.

During her career she gave herself unauthorized pay raises, wrote herself checks for unapproved health insurance buyouts and diverted school deposits for her own use. The audit triggered an investigation by the State Police and the Steuben County District Attorney's Office.

Stone resigned in March 2023, writing herself an unauthorized check of nearly $27,000 beforehand. The village board was able to block the check before it was cashed.

Her crimes affected the public coffers and "impacted that village on a day-to-day basis," Baker said.

What happened to pension forfeiture?

As the USA TODAY Network-New York reported in its investigation into the pension forfeiture laws, the statutes themselves can be confusing. There can be a lack of clarity as to who falls under the laws — educators and police, for instance, appear largely immune — and the forfeiture process is separate from a criminal prosecution.

Forfeiture is a civil process that district attorneys can pursue; however, it appeared some (if not many) prosecutors were unfamiliar with the nuances and requirements of the statutes. Also, it's possible some prosecutors have used the threat of a pension loss to leverage plea deals.

"A smart DA will know how to use this," DiNapoli said of the forfeiture laws.

Baker said it's important that the loss of a pension fit the scope of the crime. "You've got to have a perfect case," he said. "... It's not the right thing to take a pension for a (crime of) a couple hundred dollars."

How much Stone will lose with the pension forfeiture is an uncertainty but, were she to live to 90, she would have lost more than $780,000, not considering interest earned or cost-of-living increases with the pension money.

DiNapoli told Baker that he should be prepared for calls from other New York prosecutors asking, "How did you do it?"

Stone's criminal sentencing was postponed Thursday for about a week because the presiding judge was unavailable. Her plea calls for a state prison sentence of three to nine years. She was originally charged with nearly 200 criminal counts.

Utica City School District corruption

In another criminal case this year, the former superintendent of the Utica City School District agreed to a partial pension forfeiture as part of a plea to corruption.

The superintendent, Bruce Karam, admitted that, among offenses, he'd used school district money to help fund a school board political campaign and to pay for a fundraiser that had nothing to do with the schools.

However, the plea encountered bureaucratic hurdles because of the question of whether the laws covered Karam. Instead, Karam agreed to a lump-sum restitution payment of $150,000.

— Gary Craig is a veteran reporter with the Democrat and Chronicle, covering courts and crime and more. You can reach Craig at gcraig@rocheste.gannett.com . He is the author of two books, including "Seven Million: A Cop, a Priest, a Soldier for the IRA, and the Still-Unsolved Rochester Brink's Heist. "

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Steuben County village clerk loses pension in first use of anti-corruption laws