By Alex Rose, Delaware County
Daily Times
MEDIA COURTHOUSE — A former
police officer and treasurer of the Chichester Baseball League pleaded no
contest to one count of theft by unlawful taking Tuesday for stealing more than
$12,000 from the league between 2009 and 2011.
John Rapp, 44, of Concord, was
arrested in February for making more than $5,000 worth of unauthorized
purchases with the league’s debit card at Harrah’s, the Renaissance Faire, Wawa
and Giant Food Stores, as well as $7,000 in thefts from checks intended to go
to umpire fees.
All told, Rapp stole $12,480.23
from the league between October 2009 and October 2011, according to an
affidavit of probable cause. He was found out after James Cassidy took over as
treasurer in late 2011 and quickly discovered some bookkeeping irregularities.
After some internal
investigation, Rapp was brought before members of the CBL executive committee
in February 2012, where he allegedly admitted to making unauthorized debit card
transactions. He paid $5,387.74 back the league at that time.
The Delaware County District
Attorney’s office launched its own investigation and discovered an additional
$7,092.50 in missing funds. That money concerned payments to umpires, which had
previously been made by check.
Investigators found that after
taking over the treasurer position, Rapp began writing checks out to “cash,”
then paying umpires from those transactions while taking a cut for himself.
Rapp, who worked as an Aston
police officer for 19 years, as well as a part-time Bethel officer and a
corrections officer at the county prison, claimed in February that he did not
know about the additional missing funds until one week before his arraignment
in Linwood.
Defense attorney Russell
Carmichael said Tuesday that his client simply wanted to put the incident
behind him and that he did not expect to ever see Rapp on the wrong side of the
law again.
“He’s already made restitution
in excess of $5,000 when he realized there was something wrong with the books
at the CBL while under his supervision,” said Carmichael. “This is an anomaly
in his life. I don’t think anything like it is likely to reoccur.”
Both Carmichael and Assistant
District Attorney Brian Dougherty asked the judge to sentence within the
standard range. Dougherty noted some members of the league were present, but
did not wish to speak.
“My gut says seven years in
prison,” Judge John Capuzzi told Rapp before handing down his sentence. “But I
know legally I can’t do that, and I also know it’s not going to benefit society
and I know it’s not going to help the little league recover the additional
monies that are owed.”
Instead, Rapp was sentenced to
two years of intermediate punishment, with the first 90 days to be served on
electronic home monitoring. He was also given three years of consecutive probation,
and ordered to perform 80 hours of community service and to pay $3,000 in
restitution.
Capuzzi, a former president of
a little league, said he understands what the loss of money or equipment can
mean to a team and that raising funds in this economic climate is not easy.
The judge added that while such
clubs often do not have sufficient safeguards in place to prevent fraud, that
does not excuse those who would exploit them.
Capuzzi also warned Rapp that
if he violated any element of the sentence, he would be hauled back before the
court and likely face a much harsher sentence. Rapp assured the judge that
would not happen.
