Published: Saturday, April 14, 2007
Judge sentences ex-UW worker for stealing from the organization
YOUNGSTOWN — A former employee of the Youngstown-Mahoning Valley United Way has been sentenced to a six-month jail term, all of it suspended, placed on three years' probation and ordered to make $3,000 in restitution after she pleaded no contest to stealing from United Way.
Deborah S. Freudenberg, 48, of Virginia Trail, New Waterford, entered her plea Friday before Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
In an agreement with the prosecution, she pleaded no contest to a first-degree misdemeanor theft charge, which was reduced from a fourth-degree felony theft charge.
Freudenberg, who worked for United Way for nearly 25 years before being fired in August 2004, was accused of stealing $29,700 from the organization, which raises money in an annual campaign for local nonprofit community service agencies.
The restitution order applies to the portion of the theft not covered by insurance, said Meghan Brundege, assistant county prosecutor. "This is the agreement that we made with victim consent. This is what it took to make United Way whole," she said.
"We're glad that the issue has been resolved and no donor dollars have been lost," said JoAnn Stock, United Way's director of marketing and resource development.
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