The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
No jail time in IT fraud case
Akron woman gets community control for her role in embezzlement scheme
“We can all agree we wish that Mr. Decatur would have come forward, taken responsibility.”
There was a time in her life that Stephanie Stewart’s father was her best friend.
But, she said, her biggest mistake was trusting him.
Stewart on Jan. 4 avoided jail time for her role in an embezzlement scheme in Geauga County believed to have been masterminded by her father, Stephen Decatur, who was the county’s former IT director.
In January 2018, the 36-yearold Stewart of Akron, along with Decatur, were indicted on 334 counts alleging that they embezzled more than $1.8 million from the county. Decatur was believed to be the main beneficiary of the scheme, allegedly receiving about $1 million over a roughly nine-year period.
— Judge Robert J. Brown
Decatur died in October as the case was still pending.
Stewart received $481,304 over that nineyear frame. She said she believed that she was doing honest work.
“I believe for years I was doing work,” she said. “I got up early, I would stay up late with Windstream, talking to dispatchers when they couldn’t make phone calls or receive calls. Like, I really believed I was doing it. And I’m not a bad person. I just wouldn’t have ever done that to my kids. I would not have put them in a position that I would better myself over their own self worth.
“I would not have left them to deal with some stuff that started if I was my father, which I’m not.”
Stewart pleaded guilty in October to one count of second-degree felony engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
According to the Geauga County Prosecutor’s Office, an investigation began when it was discovered there were irregularities in the Geauga County Auditor’s Office. It was learned that Decatur was using Stewart’s company, SMCS Tech, for county information technology work.
While looking into SMCS Tech, it was discovered that the company had been receiving significant wire transfers from Woodlands, Texas-based IT company ITERSource.
It was then learned that Decatur, who had previously done work for ITERSource before being employed by Geauga County, approached ITERSource in 2009 to supply IT services to Geauga County.
An arrangement was then made in which ITERSource would bill the county for IT services, keep a percentage of the money and use Decatur’s daughter’s company as a subcontractor.
ITERSource is a vendor that was used by the Geauga County Auditor’s Office from 2009 through 2017. The company along with its president, 63-yearold Eugene Krus Jr., and vice president, 73-year-old William Kelly Jr., were indicted earlier this year on charges of complicity to aggravated theft of $1.5 million or more, complicity to commit having an unlawful interest in a public contract and complicity to commit theft in office.
ITERSource and Krus have jury trial dates scheduled for April. Charges against Kelly have been dropped. Flaiz previously said that Kelly joined the company after the embezzlement began and he did not have knowledge that made him culpable.
Stewart’s attorney, Kimberly Corral, said that her client was not using the funds to live an extravagant lifestyle. She lived in a modest home and drove a 15-year-old car. The $481,304 came in over a nearly decade-long period. The money Stewart spent was on daily living expenses for her and her five kids.
That’s backed up by a forensic accountant hired by the Prosecutor’s Office found.
Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz said there is a sympathetic factor in the case.
“It’s hard on some fronts not to feel some sympathy for her,” he said. “Stephen Decatur did deceive his family — his wife and his kids — convinced them he had terminal cancer, convinced them he was employed by Homeland Security.”
Flaiz that they are waiting for the final autopsy reports, but the preliminary investigation into his death is that he killed himself to avoid the consequences of the case.
But Flaiz believes that Stewart was knowingly involved in the scheme.
“Stephen Decatur’s first jail phone call after he was arrested was to his wife to tell Ms. Stewart, ‘tell her not to log in.’”
He also believes there are text messages that the prosecution would classify as “incriminating,” that she knew what she was doing was not right. She also went by what Flaiz categorized as a pseudonym: “Elaine.”
Flaiz asked Judge Robert J. Brown to sentence Stewart to four years in prison.
Corral countered the pseudonym is her middle name. Both Corral and Stewart said that she used that name (after she got married) to earn her own professional reputation away from her father.
She also disagreed that the text messages showed culpability. Those text messages were about an investigation that had already begun, she said. Stewart had no prior criminal history and claimed the money she received on her taxes.
Brown ultimately sentenced Stewart to four years of community control. She will be under house arrest for one year and will be responsible for the cost of the home monitoring equipment. She is also required to pay court costs.
She is also required to do 400 hours of community service.
The judge did not order her to pay any amount of restitution at this time, though he said that could change at a future date. If she violates the terms of her probation, she could receive up to four years in prison.
“We can all agree we wish that Mr. Decatur would have come forward, taken responsibility,” Brown said. “He was the principal beneficiary of this scheme, of this fraud, and I can see where Ms. Stewart — and I know that the state disagrees with this — but I can see where (she) thought she was doing was legitimate.”
Frank Gliha resigned from his position as county auditor in the wake of the scandal. He was sentenced in June on five-counts of dereliction of duty. Four of the five charges stemmed from the IT case. He pleaded guilty to those four charges and no-contest to the fifth.
On the first two charges, Gliha admitted to failing to secure competitive bids for products or services over $50,000. These incidents occurred in 2013 and 2014, said Special Prosecutor Bryan Kostura.
The two other dereliction of duty charges dealt with Gliha approving the purchase of equipment without approval from the Automatic Data Processing Board, and his failure to create a system of internal controls to prevent the abuse of public funds from 2011 to 2018.
He was fined $1,250 and ordered him to pay court costs. The judge also forbid Gliha from running for public office for four years. A 90-day jail term was suspended.
The prosecutor’s office said there was no evidence Gliha benefited from any of Decatur’s and Stewart’s alleged wrongdoing.
Flaiz said there are proceedings in Cuyahoga County to try to get restitution from Decatur’s estate.
“It’s hard on some fronts not to feel some sympathy for her. Stephen Decatur did deceive his family — his wife and his kids — convinced them he had terminal cancer, convinced them he was employed by Homeland Security.” Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz