Middletown GOP: Pat Walsh needs to get her own house in order

Allege serious legal and ethical breaches of conduct while serving on the Middletown Board of Education

Scharfenberger: "Walsh needs to take a serious look in the mirror, at her actions and votes while on the school board, and reconsider her run for township committee."

By JJ Sullivan III
Correspondent

Middletown Republicans have taken issue with the financial dealings of Democratic committee candidate Patricia Walsh.

Court documents produced by GOP officials detailed Walsh's failure to disclose over $30,000 in gifts on both her annual tax return and her personal financial statement in 1998 and 1999, filed in April 1999 and March 2000, respectively.

"I find it uncanny that someone who lectures others on governance and ethics doesn't appear to have her own house in order, not to mention that her record on the school board has been a disaster." said Mayor Gerard Scharfenberger. "I think Walsh needs to take a serious look in the mirror, at her actions and votes while on the school board, and reconsider her run for township committee."

According to a February 2000 letter sent to the Lakewood law firm of Bathgate, Wegener & Wolf, Walsh was the recipient of a check for $20,000, dated Nov 2, 1998.

The letter, from the Red Bank law firm of McKenna, DuPont, Higgins & Byrnes, described the two checks from John L. and Cathy Sullivan, Leonardo.

GOP officials also provided a copy of a check for $10,000. It was dated Feb 2 1999, signed by Cathy Sullivan and endorsed by Walsh. The copy of the check had the word "legal" scrawled on the bottom left.

"Walsh wanted the school board to pay her legal bills," Scharfenberger said Friday, Oct. 3. "The school district would not, which is why Walsh took the gifts."

"No disclosures were made, as required by the School Ethics Act," Scharfenberger said. "Walsh never had any written loan agreement, there was no term of repayment, there was no interest charged, there was no security, and no indication that Cathy Sullivan has ever been paid back for her gift to Walsh."

Numerous attempts to reach Walsh before the daily deadline were unsuccessful. Attempts to obtain responses through phone and email went unanswered.

Calls to Cathy Sullivan were not answered.

Deposition…

Walsh's statements during a January 2000 deposition substantiated many areas of the issue.

"[Walsh] was subpoenaed to provide testimony in a civil action filed on behalf of Thomas Stokes, who initiated the litigation after the dismissal of Walsh's municipal action against him," the mayor said.

Walsh filed sexual harassment charges against Stokes during their time serving together on the BOE, after a verbal exchange at a board meeting. The dismissal of Walsh's municipal action prompted Stokes to file a civil action, resulting in her subsequent involuntary deposition.

During questioning, Walsh admitted under oath to both taking out a loan and discussing her mounting legal bills with Cathy Sullivan. The longtime BOE member denied introducing the topic to Cathy Sullivan, who would ultimately give Walsh over $30,000.

According to the court records, Cathy Sullivan already knew about Walsh's need for money. Walsh never specified how much the size of the loan had been. She also denied having any record of evidencing the sizable amount of cash, possessing no documents that could verify that the money was, in fact, used for legal bills, as was asserted.

While giving testimony, the committee candidate failed to recall whether she deposited the checks into her personal bank account

"The only money I received relating to coverage of my legal fees involved in the civil action with Mr. Stokes is two checks from Miss Sullivan and the money collected by Mrs. Fenton," Walsh said in the judicial transcript. Mrs. Fenton is deceased former BOE member Karen Fenton.

When asked whether money collected by Fenton was raised at a "pool party" located at the residence of the Sullivan family, Walsh could not recall the specifics. "I don't know how Mrs. Fenton collected the money, so I cannot answer that."

According to the records, Walsh said she accompanied Fenton to the bank, where her name was added to an existing account containing between $500 and $700.

With respect to undisclosed funds gathered by Fenton, officials asserted Walsh directly wrote checks out to herself from the account.

Under questioning, she admitted to withdrawing funds from the account, but could not recall how the money was spent. Walsh could not recall whether the money from that account went toward legal bills or not.

The money given to Walsh by Fenton and Sullivan was never reported to the proper channels, the former BOE president conceded during testimony.

"I did not know it has to be reported on [a BOE financial disclosure form]," she said to the attorney questioning her.

Walsh testified that the gifts were not reported on state or federal income tax returns either.

Misdeed or misunderstanding?

On October 15, 1999, Cathy Sullivan sued the school board for violations of Open Public Meetings Act, according to official documents; apparently claiming proper notice was not provided for a meeting.

"Walsh therefore took money from someone who was soon thereafter adverse to the school district in litigation," said Scharfenberger.

Scharfenberger said Cathy Sullivan's husband was a former school board president, while Fenton was another friend of Walsh's who was formerly on the board and frequently appeared with Cathy Sullivan on various matters before the school board.

The mayor said Walsh championed whatever Fenton and Sullivan wanted during BOE meetings without ever disclosing they were paying her.

More conflicts of interest and waste of taxpayers dollars

Scharfenberger said that Walsh has a history of conflicts of interest and a disregard for taxpayers.

"Notably, her frivolous complaint against Mr. Stokes also resulted in the school board having to pay his legal bills," he said. "On August 27, 1997, Walsh spoke against paying Stoke's legal bills even though she had a direct personal involvement in the matter, which is an obvious conflict in violation of the School Ethics Act."

Even after receiving advice on September 23, 1997, of the improper nature of her involvement, Scharfenberger said Walsh still voted against the payment of Stoke's legal bills.