Memo: Employee who stole $90K lied, confessed
Sentencingmay include community control if restitution ‘fullymade.’
TheformerMontgomeryCounty Prosecutor’sOfficeemployeewho stole nearly $90,000 from the county lied about his involvement and only fully confessed wheninvestigators looked deeper, according to a sentencingmemorandum filedMonday by the special prosecutor.
“Mr. Bruns only came clean when his fraud became known,” prosecutors wrote. ‘Therewas a paper trail to him, and he had to know once the trail was investigated he would be discovered.”
David Bruns, 48, is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday by visiting Judge Linton D. Lewis, who retired fromPerry County. Bruns pleaded guilty in December to theft in office and tampering with government records, both felonies.
Bruns worked in the delinquent tax assessment unit and legally made about $36,000 per year. Bruns is the husband of Julie Bruns, who is the head of Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr.’s juvenile division and also Heck’s second cousin.
The sentencing memo written by Franklin County Prosecutor Ronald O’Brien and assistant Jeffrey Blake disputes that the case was self-reported. The thefts began in December 2011, according to court documents.
“The discovery of the above crimes came about only because an outside individual was questioning an allocation of $40,116 to Skyfall Properties in a foreclosure matter,” prosecutors wrote, adding that Buns advised his supervisor the week of Aug. 8, 2016, that he spoke to the company and was told it was an error.
“Only later on Aug. 15, 2016, did Mr. Bruns confess he was