CHARDON, Ohio — Former Highland Heights Mayor Scott Coleman admitted in court Thursday that he embezzled $160,000 from U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce’s campaign when he worked as the Northeast Ohio congressman’s campaign treasurer.
Coleman, 58, pleaded guilty to a grand theft charge, a fourth-degree felony that carries a penalty of up to 1 1/2 years in prison. Geauga County Prosecutor James Flaiz said the former eastern suburban mayor stole the money from the Bainbridge Township Republican’s re-election operation over a three-year period.
The disgraced campaign official’s wife and four adult children looked on Coleman listened and answered a series of questions posed by Common Pleas Judge David Ondrey during the hearing.
Prior to his plea, Coleman gave Flaiz a check made out to Joyce’s campaign for $341,983.06 for the amount he stole as well as the cost Joyce’s campaign bore in investigative fees and actions it took to correct campaign filings.
His attorney Ian Friedman also said Coleman has participated in a private electronic monitoring program, wearing a bracelet around his ankle to show that he can be adequately punished through a form of house arrest.
Ondrey will sentence Coleman at a later date. He allowed Coleman to remain free on a personal bond, though ordered him to continue with the monitoring program.
Following the hearing, Coleman went to Geauga County’s jail for booking and fingerprinting.
Coleman served as Highland Heights’ mayor from 2004 until he resigned in February. Joyce hired him as his campaign treasurer during his congressional run in 2012.
The investigation and subsequent plea negotiations have been ongoing for several months. Flaiz said after Thursday’s hearing that his investigators did not find that anybody else was involved in the money Joyce’s campaign lost.
Joyce’s attorneys sent a letter to the Federal Election Commission in February that said Coleman embezzled from the campaign between 2015 through 2018.
The letter said an investigator from Flaiz’s office used bank camera footage to confirm that Coleman used the campaign’s ATM card to make more than $80,000 in unauthorized withdrawals over three years.
Coleman received cash back when depositing Joyce’s campaign checks and signed for about $4,000 in bank withdrawal slips at the counter, according to the letter. Coleman delayed turning over the records when Joyce and a new treasurer asked several times to see the campaign’s books. He cited reasons that included health issues and chest pains, the letter states.
The former mayor was also the longtime treasurer for the campaign of Joyce’s predecessor, Rep. Steve LaTourette, and worked as treasurer for the late congressman’s daughter Sarah when she ran for state representative.
Flaiz said he was told Coleman had no control over Sarah LaTourette’s accounts and that he was treasurer in name only, and that there were no irregularities for her father’s accounts.
“The campaign is pleased that this unfortunate matter has been fully investigated and resolved by law enforcement and that Mr. Coleman will make complete restitution as part of this agreement," Joyce campaign attorney Megan Sowards Newton said in a statement Thursday. “As soon as the campaign discovered the financial malfeasance, it immediately began a thorough audit of its records and worked with law enforcement and the Federal Election Commission.”
Joyce’s campaign also sent a letter to the FEC on Thursday to address inaccuracies with its reports from 2015 to 2018.
The letter says Coleman withdrew $88,679 from the campaign’s bank account without authorization between January 2015 and November of last year. He also racked up more than $87,000 in unauthorized expenses during the same time period.
Coleman also did not report $45,520 in contributions during the same time period and omitted them from campaign filings, according to the letter. There were also more than $22,000 in refunds from vendors which were not reported as offsets to operating expenses, the letter states.
Friedman said in a statement that his client “is doing everything humanly possible to right the wrong.”
“Those who know him best all agree that this conduct is not reflective of his otherwise full life of positive deeds and support for others,” Friedman’s statement said. “He is very sorry for the harm this has caused his family, friends and Congressman Joyce.”
He said he plans to explain at sentencing what may have caused his client to embezzle the money.
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