Ex-cop steps up to plate, pleads to stealing $12G from Chichester Little League


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.