EMBEZZLING PROBLEM STRIKES RESA AGAIN

(08/30/2008)

Another money problem has flared with the state's Regional Education Service Agency (RESA). This time it is only $31,100. A 50-year-old Hagerstown, Maryland man allegedly embezzled nearly $31,100 from Regional Education Service Agencies VIII, according to magistrate court records. Marc Allen Porreca, of 479 Links View Drive, was charged with obtaining money by false pretense. According to a criminal complaint filed by Sgt. D.E. Boober, the alleged embezzlement took place between June 2004 and September 2005. Porreca started work with RESA VIII in August 2003, providing transportation for special needs students within the Berkeley County, West Virginia, schools system. Deborah Mitchell, 58, the former executive secretary for RESA I, was sentenced to four years and four months in federal prison in September 2006 for embezzling more than $1.3 million and filing a false tax return. She had plead guilty, admitting to embezzling the money from her 29-year employer from 1998 to 2006. The complaint says Porreca utilized RESA VIII's tax-free identification number to open up unauthorized accounts (including) personal cellular phone accounts, a clothing merchandise account and vehicle service accounts. It said there was strong evidence that Porreca had used gasoline credit card accounts on the RESA VIII account for personal use.

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