Of all the work she has ever done covering Bay St Louis, yesterday’s story by Cassandra Favre on the latest in the Denardo payroll fraud saga may be her best work yet. And when you couple it with the piece Robin Fitzgerald wrote for the Sun Herald a picture is painted that is both interesting and curious. First a snippet from Cassandra:
Favre said that someone from within the city anonymously reported the fraud to the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office. After the report, the sheriff’s office in conjunction with the FBI conducted an investigation, he said.
“During this period of time, we were asked to basically stand down and let them conduct their investigation,” Favre said. “About a month ago, two months ago, we were contacted by the FBI and asked to attend a meeting. They advised us that they had concluded this investigation. Their findings were that fraud had occurred, that the fraud was committed by Chief De Nardo through the processes of payroll to his personal account. They cleared Patricia De Nardo in their investigation, she was not complicit in the fraud. They determined that there was no other person involved in the fraud. He was approving payroll for Mrs. DeNardo, though she had not worked.”
It’s almost as if the payroll transactions were completed by a magical process that only Chief Denardo controlled yet someone else in the City clearly knew what Chief was doing thus the dime drop. How about a snippet from Robin’s story:
“The FBI determined he and he alone did the payroll fraud and gun sales,” Favre said.
The term “heresay” comes to mind as Robin also snagged a quote from Mayor Favre:
The Sun Herald requested a copy of the report from the city. Favre said city officials did not receive a copy but were notified in a meeting.
“The FBI has not released the report, to my knowledge, and may not release it,” Favre said.
The stories about Monday’s Council meeting raises way more questions than it answers in my opinion. Slabbed has reached out to Patricia Denardo for comment but was unsuccessful at the time of this publication. If we should hear from her I’ll update this post.
Things that seem to not make sense (a continuing series of opinions, factoids, observations and ponderings):
NUMBER ONE: Favre said he has sent a subpoena to FEMA to obtain Patricia DeNardo’s work records but “can’t get her work records without her consent.” Source- http://www.seacoastecho.com/article_11512.shtml
So what is the proceeding under which the subpeona has been issued?
Just so NUMBER ONE is clear-
If the subpoena is valid and issued within the bounds of a formal legal action, then why wouldn’t non compliance be taken up with the judge in charge of the proceedings?
As far as I know a proper subpoena does not require (nor countenance) consent on the part of the recipient. It can be disputed by the usual legal means, but if valid, compliance is not optional.
(It just occurred to me that I should have considered issuing a subpoena to Santa requesting his appearance at my childhood chimney, accompanied with the desired presents for confiscation…)
It is interesting that the city waits until Christmas to come out with this story that they have had for some time. Are they hoping people are too busy with the holidays to take the time to read it? That would be my guess.
And, on the other hand, the notion that Mrs. DeNardo’s two year absence went unnoticed by anyone in the administration, where payroll is approved for presentation to Council for release of the funds, kind of fits in with Christmas too. It makes me think it would be easier for me, at 73, to start believing in Santa again, than to believe no one in authority over employees knew this woman was gone!?Come on, people!!
Where was her patrol car or the one she was assigned to?
Thank goodness someone in the city had the decency to drop the dime. The ones responsible for keeping track of these procedures sure dropped the ball.
Wonder if the bonding company will fight this because of the city’s negligence and bad practices?
I know they are contracted to pay the bonds, but does this kind of negligence void the contract? Some of you legal minds out there weigh in on this. We’ll have a nice little lesson on surety bonds.
Think about it folks and you too will conclude the Chief did it all by his lonesome….. and not like the so-called sole nut job,Lee Harvey Oswald
You are married and there is pressure for more $$$$$ …. you start to wonder what can I do as a public servant, who thinks he is underpaid……. (I’m thinking this way because a old high school friend working for a local university also thought he was underpaid and as a result justified embezzlement.. he went justly to jail)
So the Chief got his wife a job but then she hated the work and applied more pressure for the Chief to make more money….. so he probably told her she could quit that he had gotten a raise …
So the Chief arranged for straight deposit “into his account..” of her payroll check… as per FBI account…… so she never saw or signed any of the checks
Now I could be way off like the Warren Commisssion Report and the Mrs. may have said I’ll go along with the fraud as long as you can perfectly insulate me so I can claim I’m Mrs. Sgt Schultz… ‘ me see not ting and know not ting’…..
What I can’t believe is the fact the FBI would let her off with such a definitive comment as to her possible involvement….. the FBI is still an honorable group at lower levels but not at the higher Wash.D.C. politicized levels where there is no equal, blind justice
Lockie you were sucked in by the Board Attorney’s sophistry. The Denardos were divorced. Patricia Denardo was working for FEMA on the East Coast after Super Storm Sandy. If the money went into a bank account that Chief exclusively controlled it is entirely possible she would have known nothing.
What is not possible is Chief committing payroll fraud all by himself, which is what Mayor Favre and City Attorney Favre would have everyone believe. For instance was a W-2 issued to Patricia Denardo for these fraudulent wages? If not how were the tax withholdings on the ill gotten wages otherwise accounted for in quarterly tax filings with the IRS and MDES? Was it Chief Denardo’s job responsibility to prepare payroll and the direct deposit file? Was it Chief Denardo’s job to prepare the quarterly payroll tax filings? He was the police chief last time I checked and the City has a payroll clerk named Pat Tice.
It stretches the limits of credulity to ask people to believe that Mike Denardo acted alone here. Per the attorney’s statement at least one other person knew what Denardo was doing was wrong which kinda kills the rest of the proposition that Denardo perpetrated this crime by all by himself.
Unless the person who dropped the dime did so with a promise of autonomy & immunity from the Feds. Maybe …
The dime dropper could not have cut an federal immumity deal with Sheriff Adam.
Doug makes some excellent points here. In addition to those, let us not lose sight of the fact that we are talking about the Bay St. Louis Police Dept. with a payroll of under 30, not New York City for pity’s sake that has tens of thousands of officers. You would have to lose all capacity for reason to think only one person knew the Mrs. was gone, and for 2 years?! I could say maybe 2 weeks an employee could be gone before noticed by the folks who handle and approve the pay. I’ll even stretch it to 2 months (which is ridiculous) but 2 damn years!!??
Additionally, Police Dept. payroll list has to be submitted to and approved by Council at budget time.
It is common knowledge that others in the city knew she had split. I understand the distraught Chief had cried on the shoulder of another city employee who was going through their own similar personal issues at the same time.
Trent made an interesting statement in his report on this issue Mon. evening when he said that the FBI would not share some information with the city. Hmmm?!
Wish Council could drum up the courage to revoke the bonds of some folks who still have a pulse.
OK y’all have me. It’s a simple case of they (& maybe y’all) know it & the taxpayers don’t & never will & are expected to say OK. Like the new City attorney, from comments it appears that most of y’all knew. Is it a rule that you MUST be related to hold a position here? Skippy didn’t move the camera & she used her married name but I’ve attended the Solid Waste meetings. I guess since “The Alliance” has them on their radar she knew …. LOL
Yesterday I submitted a PRR to the City. Mayor Favre and his staff set up an appointment with me next week and did that despite the fact next week the City will be open with a skeleton crew because of the holidays. He has pledged his full cooperation to Slabbed New Media.
This will not be the last post here on Slabbed about this topic.
Aside from the payroll and accounting issues a few more questions as pertain to the most recent BSL “How Did They Do it?!” no show ghost employee.
What’s the BSL policy on employee evaluations?
Annual?
Semi Annual?
Done in a thorough way and records kept on file? Or just punted?
Some places (not necessarily BSL) make sure this is done for all employees on a specified schedule. Sometimes it might even be verified by someone matching employee evaluations with payroll records. Things like titles, job descriptions, pay are sometimes verified, and so on.
Any other mandatory training for all city employees?
Specifically, the type where attendance is taken and people have to sign in, and the training and/or annual reviewing is done either by other than the department head, or in conjunction with the department head. WHere the records are then kept? NEVER MIND!
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No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe; every man
is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine;
and so on…John Donne
Ms Lana, local cop says all officers must ck in with dispatch when going on streets?? Who’s her boss? Gas receipts for her car? Seems lies now on stop of lies.
Must be more to come, who signed the checks, the guns that were stolen, the cops that had to quit, secret bank accounts run by cops, obstruction, ect… I think, that part was expedited, to get a concrete figure to collect from the bonding company. Time has been running and statue of limitations may have kicked in relieving the bonding company of any cost.
Don’t forget the 5 officers that are brining a cause of action against the City for their recent
demotions and terminations.Ya think they will weigh in on any issues??!!
No bad deed ever gets punished in BSL. I guess Les has friends in high, high, high places or maybe Don Raf does. I could have connected the dots in a week. Now that FBI is out of the way, maybe Sheriff can come in to investigate. Glen could have them all in jail by sundown.
Truth is David, this was never a federal case beyond the weapons Denardo pawned and sold. I once heard a Federal Judge ridicule an Assistant US Attorney for bringing payroll fraud charges against a local politician in an amount magnitudes greater than the $47,000 Denardo loss cited by the media covering last board meeting. As for our local DA and Sheriff Adam, this is what they would be focused upon:
Denardo is dead, so proving the “any agreement, combination or conspiracy” element of the crime absent his testimony would be very problematic unless someone else came forward with testimony or documentary evidence.
Outside of a Courtroom it is exactly as you say, a reasonable person can only come to a few inescapable conclusions.
I know who dropped the dime on Mike Denardo. The reality is he had the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head and substantial evidence exists that he figured that out at a point in time well in advance of taking his own life.
So the next post today or tomorrow will examine the payroll fraud itself and then we marry the facts from the Denardo suicide to a timeline.
I’m amazed at the people who want to put the blame on Patricia Denardo here. She wasn’t implicated by the FBI, but these people need to blame her.. her name was used. Period.