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Commission finds poor bookkeeping in Corfu court making it impossible to account for all the funds

By Howard B. Owens

It's likely the taxpayers of Corfu may never know just how much money went missing from the Village Court during the years that Judge Robert Alexander sat on the bench and his daughter, Brandi Watts, was his court clerk.

Watts has already reimbursed the village $10,128 as part of her agreement to plead guilty last week to a single count of tampering with government records, a Class D felony.

A report issued yesterday by the NYS Judicial Review Commission says its investigation found more than $14,000 went undeposited in the court's bank acount from Jan. 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010.

That's one of the problems with the case, said Special Prosecutor Donald O'Geen -- nobody can agree how much money is missing. The comptroller came up with a different figure and Pam Yasses, the current court clerk, did her own audit and came up with a completely different figure.

At the heart of the judicial commission's review, as it was with the comptroller's original audit, is that the bookkeeping was apparently just plain sloppy during Alexander's administration of the court.

For example, there's more than $51,000 in funds received by the court during the period reviewed by the commission that aren't properly recorded. The commission said there is simply no record of where the money came from.

In 39 out of 50 cash deposits during the time period, the court records and bank documents don't reconcile.

Watts allegedly failed to issue receipts for payments on fines in 379 traffic ticket cases during the review period.

O'Geen said the easiest part of the case to prove against Watts, and what eventually led to her guilty plea, was the paper trail indicating the Watts would charge people paying a traffic ticket by check more than the fine imposed by Alexander. O'Geen said he believes Watts was using that higher charge to back fill for funds she was taking from cash fine payments.

The possibility of more missing money from the same time period isn't likely to lead to new charges against either Alexander nor Watts, O'Geen said. In the case of Watts, it would constitute double jeopardy to charge her for essentially the same crime twice, and for Alexander, there's no indication he ever actually took any money himself.

Alexander is legally liable for any missing funds in the court during his time in office. However, it would be up to the Village of Corfu to decide what it could prove is missing beyond the $10,128 already paid back and any potential higher amount believed missing.

"One of the biggest problems with this case," O'Geen said, "is the records are simply in disarray."

The judicial commission's report also complains that Alexander was reducing the fine amount on traffic tickets and waiving surcharges so that the state wasn't getting its share of the revenue.

More than 2,300 traffic tickets during the review period should have resulted in fines being remitted to the state, but did not, the report states.

O'Geen noted that in just about every jurisdiction in the state, judges routinely reduce traffic violations to a parking ticket with a fine that goes entirely to the local jurisdiction.

To fix that, the state recently added a surcharge to parking tickets, O'Geen said.

The commission also criticized Alexander for hiring his daughter without proper judicial commission approval.

During our conversation, O'Geen also referenced a comptroller's audit in October of the court in the Town of Alexander that found the court failed to maintain good accounting records, with nearly 1,900 traffic tickets still pending that should have been resolved.

The local municipal justice system is broken, O'Geen said.

"They're (Corfu) are not unique and that's part of the problem," O'Geen said. "There's a larger conversation to have that the system is bigger than part-time judges and part-time clerks can handle."

In calling for Alexander's removal from the bench -- Alexander resigned from his remaining court position in Pembroke last week -- the commission used harsh language to criticize the former justice.

The commission said Alexander "failed to uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary by failing to maintain high standards of conduct," that he "failed to avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety," that he "failed to respect and comply with the law and failed to act in a manner that protects public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary."

T.J. McAllister

So, Mr, Alexander gets to resign his position and ride off into the sunset, The state agrees to not persue any of his injustices and the people of Corfu and Genesee County are left wondering, "What in hell happened to $50,000?" It's politics as usual.

Nov 6, 2013, 12:55pm Permalink
Lori Silvernail

Re: "O'Geen said the easiest part of the case to prove against Watts, and what eventually lead to her guilty plea, was the paper trail indicating the Watts would charge people paying a traffic ticket by check more than the fine imposed by Alexander. O'Geen said he believes Watts was using that higher charge to back fill for funds she was taking from cash fine payments."

This commission calls it "SLOPPY BOOKKEEPING?" I'd call it a well thought out crime. She just either got lazy and messed up her own set of books or she thought her father was more important than he was so she could get away with it forever. What a couple of creeps

Nov 6, 2013, 1:00pm Permalink
Donna Flowers

Here's my question. My son paid a traffic violation to Corfu twice. Once in cash, and again with a credit card. Yet the the Drivers Abstract still shows it being owed. So what is someone in that situation to do? What about all the people who paid fines but the record does not show that they were paid?

Nov 6, 2013, 1:32pm Permalink
tom hunt

I would call this embezzelment of public funds......a crimial offense. They are getting off with a slap to the wrist.

Nov 6, 2013, 1:47pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Note: The story doesn't say there's $50,000 missing. It says $50,000 came in, but from where, what the source is, nobody knows.

Does that mean $50K went out another way? There's no way of knowing, apparently.

Also commission doesn't say it's "sloppy bookkeeping." That's a descriptive summary of what the report details.

H.

Nov 6, 2013, 1:58pm Permalink
Al Graham

The issue with not knowing how much is missing is because the records are missing. The auditors said that they believe a lot more money could be missing but could not prove it because the paperwork is gone too. Some one comes in and says I paid my ticket, There is no paperwork to prove or disprove if they did. So if you don't have any paperwork of your own you my be out of luck.

Nov 6, 2013, 2:32pm Permalink
Raymond Richardson

I was pulled over in Indian Falls in 2010 for speeding, though the deputy wrote the ticket for not wearing a seat belt. I was able to get it reduced to a parking ticket with a $90 fine.

Anyway, I sent a check in for the $90 and it was sent back with a letter stating they are charging me an additional $30 to process the check as a debit from our account.

I drove to the courthouse and paid the fine in cash.

Nov 7, 2013, 8:51am Permalink

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