Former Ansonia club treasurer pleads guilty to embezzlement

ANSONIA — The former treasurer of an Ansonia social club faces up to three years behind bars after pleading guilty Thursday to embezzling roughly $80,000 from the organization.

Joseph Ferla, 60, pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree larceny and seconddegree forgery before Judge Peter Brown at Superior Court in Milford.

A plea deal in the case calls for a 10-year prison sentence to be suspended after Ferla serves up to three years behind bars, with five years of probation.

Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Howard Stein said the theft, from the St. Sebastian Club on Father Salemi Drive, was first reported to police by club officials in February 2020.

The prosecutor said the prior summer some of the group’s checks bounced and club leaders confronted Ferla regarding the money, who initially said he was “on top of it.”

“As they began to dig deeper into the finances of the club, they began to notice that Mr. Ferla had been writing checks to himself over a seven-year period of time,” Stein said.

The prosecutor said club officials said signatures of other club officials on the checks in question were forgeries.

A CPA determined Ferla had cashed 415 checks he had written to himself totaling $84,380.72 from January 2013 to September 2019.

Stein said Ferla ultimately admitted taking the money as a way of compensating himself because he was “fed up with doing a job nobody else wanted to do.”

The prosecutor said that during discussions of the case, Ferla’s lawyer, Keith Murray, had “identified some aspects of alleged taking that Mr. Ferla may have been entitled to with some type of stipend,” but that “ultimately, the overwhelming evidence is that the (amount stolen) was closer to $80,000.”

“You heard the facts as they were put on the record by the state,” the judge asked Ferla after Stein spoke. “Do you agree with those facts as they were stated by the prosecutor?”

“Yes, your honor,” Ferla replied.

Though probation officials will look into the matter of restitution prior to Ferla’s sentencing, scheduled for April 7, the prosecutor said the issue would likely be “ultimately moot” since Ferla appears to lack an income significant enough to pay the club back.

“Attempts through the pretrial process to try to make advance restitution did not bode favorably,” Stein said.

If Ferla provides an affidavit at sentencing that he can’t make any payments to repay what he stole, the prosecutor said he would seek a civil order of restitution with a “windfall” provision calling on him to pay the club back if he comes into any large sums of money while on probation.