Letters express betrayal, disgust

Carmody presides over Smith’s sentencing for thefts he committed in the six years of his duties as company treasurer to the Westwood Fire Company

Hower Smith III sat at the defense table in Common Pleas Court Judge Patrick Carmody’s courtroom in the Chester County Justice Center and began to read.

Carmody, presiding over Smith’s sentencing on Tuesday for thefts the longtime member of the Westwood Fire Company had committed in the six years of his duties as company treasurer, had instructed Smith to read the letters that had been sent to the judge’s chambers from other Westwood members.

The judge wanted Smith to understand just what trauma and betrayal those who had written felt in the wake of the thefts, and the months and years that had gone before all leading up to that day. “It is crucial for you, and for me, to consider the effects that your acts have had on other people,” Carmody told the stocky, balding Smith.

For a close-knit organization like Westwood, the thefts he admitted to represented not just the loss of financial resources — as important as those might be for a volunteer fire company — but also a betrayal of the trust that builds in such a setting. The judge wanted Smith to experience the sense of that loss. So he read the letters. From Harvey McDonald, an 83-year-old member of the company who had helped raise money for the volunteers for 41 years, working alongside Smith and Smith’s father at weekly bingo games: “It disgusts me to think

that I spent my time at the fire house two nights a week for more than four decades. All of this for a man who was not to be trusted, to take our hard-earned money for his own personal enjoyment.”

From John Sly, the president of the fire company, who had unwittingly uncovered the evidence of Smith’s thefts and the company’s losses when he opened a credit card bill in 2012 that showed Smith charging a rental car in Hawaii on the company’s dime: “Little did I know that we would son realize that his lavish vacation was funded by the hard work of a team of men and women who selflessly meet at our fire station to raise money … despite their former leader ‘laughing all the way to the bank.’”

From Kathy Amer, former Westwood president, whose signature stamp Smith was alleged to have used on

checks to his business: “I had always considered identity theft to be the loss of a credit card, but little did I know I was a victim myself. As if it is not disgraceful enough to steal from a nonprofit organization, he also ‘stole’ from me personally by using my signature for his personal benefits.”

And from Michael McWilliams, the fire chief of the company, who has volunteered at the company since he was 18: “In these last five years, we have struggled to hold our crew together, as many volunteers simply do not wish to be associated with an organization where theft was taking place. The last thing anyone wants to do is give up their free time to work alongside a criminal.”

In the end, when Smith was finished reading the letters, he stood before Carmody for sentencing on the plea agreement he and his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Kathleen Boyer had worked out with the prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney Alexander

Gosfield.

“It’s hard to read the letters,” Smith said quietly, with Boyer noting that she had seen tears in Smith’s eyes as he read them. “He has lost innumerable friends over this. Some of these people really hate him now,” she said.

“I think it is beyond painful for them,” Carmody said of the Westwood members. “They should be out fighting fires and not worrying about whether Hower Smith got Phillies tickets” — one of the luxuries Smith had used the company credit card to purchase for himself. “Basically, you’ve thrown your life away with these offenses.”

Smith, 60, of Valley, was sentenced Tuesday to three years of probation. He will not be forced to report over that period if he does not commit any further crimes — a provision made so he could use what little money he had coming in to pay back the $44,000 he agreed he stole. He said he thinks he will be able to pay about $100 a month form his earning

at an auto parts store.

According to the facts as laid out by Gosfield, Smith’s thefts took three form: first, the misuse of the credit card he was issued and which he ran up bills of 36,244.98; second, taking $5,500 in company funds to buy bingo tickets that were never delivered; and finally taking $2,625 in cash that was supposed to be kept in a fire company safe.

Gosfield said the decision had been made to offer a lenient sentence for Smith so as to bring the drawn out case to a close.

“This is a fair and just resolution that allows the fire company to move on from here,” he said. “This has been a long time for the victim and a long time for Mr. Smith.”

Although the guilty plea marked a final resolution for the prosecution in the form of a conviction, in the end it was a far cry from the size of the case that District Attorney Tom Hogan announced in a press release in October 2014, exclaiming how “greed drove this defendant.”

Hogan had said that Smith would be charged with stealing in excess of $300,000 from the company, in a multifaceted and complex scheme involving his duties as treasurer and bingo game organizer. In the end, Carmody noted, more than a quarter of a million dollars in alleged thefts had vanished from the resolution, and 99 counts of thefts and forgery had dropped to one.

The prosecution expressed gratitude, however, for the way the fire company had behaved throughout.

“The defendant has accepted responsibility for his crimes by pleading guilty to felony theft,” said First Assistant District Attorney Michael Noone, following the plea. “He betrayed the trust of the men and women of Westwood Fire Company who risk their lives to protect their community.

“Westwood Fire Company has been cooperative throughout this investigation,” Noone said. “This guilty plea ends a difficult time and allows the fire

company to move forward. The dedication and sacrifice of the men and women of Westwood Fire Company is greatly appreciated by the people they serve. The members of Westwood Fire Company should be commended for doing the right thing by reporting this theft to law enforcement and cooperating throughout the investigation.”

In his letter, Sly cited the “frustrations” he and others had felt about the way the case proceeded and the multiple delays that it faced. He called it a “lingering black cloud which has followed over us, but now finally comes to an end.”

Of Smith, Sly said “he has worked to buck the legal system in an effort to reduce his sentencing for these gutless crimes. Not only are the members of the fire company a victim in this case, every member of the community we are tasked to protect is as well.”