Pottsville city official faces felony theft charge
POTTSVILLE — The executive director of the Greater Pottsville Area Sewer Authority has been suspended from his job and was removed from several city boards and the Humane Fire Company amid a felony theft charge, authorities confirmed Thursday.
Joe Spotts, 65, has been charged with felony theft by unlawful taking, and receiving stolen property, according to Pottsville Police. Spotts told police he borrowed the money and intended to pay it back, according to the police report.
Reached Thursday, Spotts said via text message that he had no comment.
AJ Alves, president of the Humane Fire Company No. 1, said the police were notified Tuesday about an incident involving Spotts. He did not elaborate.
'He's no longer a member,' Alves said, referring to a motion taken by the fire company to remove Spotts as a member, which he had been for 48 years.
In all, $2,100 was stolen from the Humane Fire Company from a skills machine money box over a span of three weeks, according to police. Spotts was seen on camera taking the money, according to the police report. He then paid back the money on March 22, police said.
Police said Spotts told officers that he returned the money to the fire company after applying for a loan. He didn't have a response to why he didn't apply for a loan in the first place, police said.
Pottsville Mayor Mark Atkinson, who is a member of the Phoenix Fire Company, confirmed that Spotts was interviewed by the police.
Atkinson said he is 'disappointed' with the recent developments.
'The city took very swift action to remove him from all positions,' the mayor said.
Spotts was the director of emergency management and a member of the Pottsville Redevelopment Authority. Dan Kelly Jr. is the acting director of the emergency management until he can be officially appointed at Monday's city council meeting, Atkinson said.
City council will also need to fill Atkinson's spot on the redevelopment authority, he said.
Dorothy 'Dottie' Botto confirmed Thursday that Spotts has resigned as head of the city Democratic party. She said he wrote a letter to Thomas Campion, treasurer of the city Democratic party.
A meeting will be held to see who is interested in being the next head of the party, Botto said.
Barry DeWitt, chairman of the sewer authority, said Spotts was suspended with pay earlier this week. A special meeting was scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the sewer authority headquarters in city hall for personnel matters.
'We were told a police report will be forthcoming,' DeWitt said, adding, 'We are trying to be very transparent to the public.'
Spotts had been the executive director of the Greater Pottsville Sewer Authority since Oct. 30, 2024, when he was unanimously hired at a salary of $110,000 per year, plus benefits. Prior to being named executive director, Spotts was a project manager earning $105,000 a year.
The Pottsville resident has extensive experience in the industry, having worked nine years for D.G. Yuengling & Son as an environmental health and safety manager, and before that, as an operations manager with Miller Environmental in Reading. In that role, he oversaw 11 projects in Berks and Lehigh counties with a staff of 20 people.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘Morning Joe': Chris Murphy Says Alex Padilla Incident Is Proof Trump Is Trying to ‘Intimidate This Country'
During his Friday appearance on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy warned that America has reached 'a point of no return,' following California Senator Alex Padilla's forceful removal from a Thursday press conference with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. Padilla's brutal treatment made waves the moment footage of the incident began circulating online Thursday afternoon, prompting incredulous, incendiary responses from other Democratic politicians. Murphy, for his part, echoed the sentiment of his fellow public officials. 'What a world we live in today, if simply because you raise a voice in service of your constituents, you are going to be met with violence,' Murphy lamented. 'That's what happens in dictatorships, in authoritarian regimes,' the Democratic senator noted. 'We are in a really perilous moment in this country. We're at a point of no return.' You can watch Murphy's full 'Morning Joe' interview yourself in the video below. Murphy also refuted the Trump administration's claims that Padilla was detained because he did not identify himself. 'Senator Padilla identified himself. You can hear it clearly on that video. He apparently was wearing a pullover that said United States Senate on it. And, maybe most importantly, he didn't burst into that room,' Murphy observed. 'He was there with an FBI agent and a member of the National Guard, so members of the administration brought him into that room.' The Connecticut senator conceded that Padilla may have spoken at the press conference without being called upon by Noem, but quickly explained, 'That's not illegal. That is not an excuse for that kind of brutal treatment.' Murphy then took a moment to slam Trump and his administration for their treatment of Padilla. 'What the president is trying to do is to intimidate this country, to try to intimidate members of Congress,' he said. 'I don't think it's going to work.' The Connecticut official concluded his statement moments later by calling out his Republican counterparts who have defended the Trump administration's treatment of Padilla, warning, 'Republicans shouldn't think that they will be protected from violence in the future if they excuse it when Donald Trump uses it on his behalf.' You can watch the full 'Morning Joe' clip in the video above. The post 'Morning Joe': Chris Murphy Says Alex Padilla Incident Is Proof Trump Is Trying to 'Intimidate This Country' | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
GCHQ intern who stole ‘top secret' data risked lives of 17 agents
A GCHQ intern endangered national security, risked exposing 17 colleagues, and 'threw away' thousands of hours of work when he took top secret data home, a court has heard. Hasaan Arshad, 25, a Manchester University computer science student, was in 'flagrant breach' of security rules when he used his mobile phone to remove material from a computer system and transfer it to his private computer on Aug 24 2022. Arshad, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, pleaded guilty to an offence under the Computer Misuse Act, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. He also admitted two charges of making an indecent photograph of a child in relation to 40 category A images and four category B images found on his phone following his arrest. The court was told that part of the hearing – including a detailed assessment of the harm caused – would be outlined behind closed doors. Arshad was jailed for seven-and-a-half years at the Old Bailey on Friday. Sentencing, Mrs Justice Maura McGowan told him that the 'risk created by this conduct was at the highest level'. 'The risk was obvious', she added, 'and the actual damage that might have followed is incalculable.' The court was told that Arshad's actions 'lost a tool' being developed at GCHQ, risked exposing the identities of 17 GCHQ colleagues, and undermined the trust of partners. Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC said: 'His actions created a significant risk of damage to national security for reasons that can only be fully explained in a private hearing. 'In short, however, his actions compromised the security and utility of the material and the role it played in the national interest, and he also in the process put the safety of intelligence agency personnel at risk.' GCHQ is the UK's intelligence, security and cyber agency. The highest levels of security are needed for GCHQ to carry out its work to gain information about threats to the UK from 'hostile states or terrorists' by using lawful covert tools and techniques, the court was told. Mr Atkinson said: 'Put bluntly, if hostile states or terrorists were aware of how GCHQ was able to gather intelligence about their plans, they would be able to prevent the intelligence community in the UK from learning of those plans at a stage and to an extent that allows the intelligence community to thwart them.' At the time of the offence, Arshad was coming to the end of an industry year placement with a technical development team that required him to work at a secure GCHQ site near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and use computer systems. The court heard he was part of a team that worked on the development of 'tools and techniques' to obtain information about threats to the UK. Arshad had undergone GCHQ induction and was required to sign the Official Secrets Act. It was made 'abundantly clear' to Arshad that his access to top secret material had to be in controlled circumstances at 'an extremely secure location', Mr Atkinson said. He went on: 'In flagrant breach of those obvious and necessary restrictions, the defendant used a mobile handset provided for his use whilst on his work placement but with strictly confined scope as to its permitted use, to remove top secret material from the top secret network of the technical development team to which he had been attached. 'He then transported that material from the secure location where he had been working to his home, risking it falling into the wrong hands or being lost, and downloaded it onto a removable hard drive which formed part of IT system that he used at his home address. 'This home computer system wholly failed to match the necessarily exacting security requirements of GCHQ's systems, and therefore exposed this top secret material to the vagaries and risks of an unsecure computer system connected to the internet at an insecure location. 'This significant security breach compromised lawful intelligence-related activity that was being undertaken in the national interest. In doing so, he threw away many thousands of hours of work, and significant sums of taxpayers' money.' Mr Atkinson said Arshad's actions had damaged 'confidence in UK security' because the data included the identities of a 'significant number' of GCHQ colleagues and put others' safety at 'direct risk'. Following his arrest, the defendant admitted removing data without authorisation 'out of curiosity'. He said in a statement that he had no intention to hand over the data to anyone else. He told police: 'I would like to apologise for my actions. I removed the data simply out of curiosity. 'I'm sorry for my actions and I understand the stupidity of what I have done.' Arshad said he 'went out of my way' to ensure the data was stored locally and not in the cloud. Asked if he had breached the level of trust and confidence by removing the sensitive data without authority, he replied: 'No comment.' Mitigating, Arshad's lawyer Nina Grahame KC said the defendant had been 'reckless', 'thoughtless and naive'. His internship had involved working on a 'specific project', which he had been unable to complete before the end of the placement, she added. He took the data home because he wanted to 'continue and complete the most exciting and challenging work the defendant had ever undertaken' in the hope of gaining future employment at GCHQ, Ms Grahame said. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
Ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan arrives at federal court for sentencing in corruption case
Former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan arrived Friday at the federal courthouse in downtown Chicago for his historic sentencing in a long-running corruption case that shook the state's political world to the core. Madigan, 83, who for years was widely hailed as the most powerful politician in the state, gave a slight smile as he strode past a horde of television news cameras with his lawyers and family members without comment. Carrying a briefcase and umbrella, he then headed to the 12th floor courtroom of U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey, who is scheduled to begin the hearing at 1 p.m. The hearing is expected to last two hours or more. With seating limited in Blakey's courtroom, an overflow courtroom has been set up on the courthouse's 17th floor. Before hearing arguments, Blakey must first determine the sentencing guidelines in the case, though it's no longer mandatory for him to follow them. It's unclear whether Madigan's team intends to call live witnesses on his behalf, but before the judge imposes the sentence, the famously taciturn former speaker will be given a chance to make a statement of his own. It's the most highly anticipated sentencing in a Chicago public corruption case since former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich more than a decade ago, and U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey has a wide range of options at his disposal. The difference between the recommendations of the two sides is stark. Prosecutors have asked for 12 ½ years in prison, while the ex-speaker's team requested five years of probation, with the first year on home confinement. One big question is whether the letters Blakey received on Madigan's behalf will help persuade him to go easy on the longest-serving speaker in American history. Under the federal rules, the judge must also balance the seriousness of the crime and the need for deterrence, both for Madigan and others who might be tempted to commit similar acts, with the ex-speaker's background, personal traits, family history and other good works. In justifying a lengthy prison sentence, prosecutors have argued Madigan used his public office to increase his power, line his own pockets and enrich a small circle of his most loyal associates. Madigan's legal team, meanwhile, have stressed his age and lifetime of public service, saying that he is a good man whose name was dragged through the mud and will forever be branded as a felon. After a trial that stretched nearly four months, Madigan was convicted by a jury Feb. 12 on bribery conspiracy and other corruption charges The jury found him guilty on 10 of 23 counts, including one count of conspiracy related to a multipronged scheme to accept and solicit bribes from utility giant Commonwealth Edison. Jurors also convicted him on two counts of bribery and one Travel Act violation related to payments funneled to Madigan associates for do-nothing ComEd subcontracts. Madigan also was convicted on six out of seven counts — including wire fraud and Travel Act violations — regarding a plan to get ex-Ald. Daniel Solis, a key FBI mole who testified at length in the trial, appointed to a state board. But after 11 days of deliberation, the jury's final verdict was mixed, deadlocking on several counts — including the marquee racketeering conspiracy charge — and acquitting Madigan on numerous others. Jurors also deadlocked on all six counts related to Madigan's co-defendant, Michael McClain. The verdict capped one of the most significant political corruption investigations in Chicago's sordid history. It also cemented an extraordinary personal fall for Madigan, the longest-serving state legislative leader in the nation's history, who for decades held an iron-tight grip on the House as well as the state Democratic Party. It was a case many thought would never be made. Madigan, a savvy lawyer and old-school practitioner of Democratic machine politics, famously eschewed cell phones and email, and stayed largely above the fray while dozens of his colleagues were hauled off to prison over the years. Ultimately, it took Solis's extraordinary cooperation, including wearing a hidden wire in meetings with Madigan, along with an FBI wiretap on Madigan's longtime confidant, Michael McClain, to break the case open, leading to a series of indictments and pay-to-play allegations against two major utilities, Commonwealth Edison and AT&T Illinois, and more than a dozen other individuals. Madigan held the speakership for all but two years from 1983 until 2021. Along with ruling the House, Madigan chaired the Illinois Democratic Party from 1998 until 2021, resigning both his House seat and the party post after he lost the speakership. Madigan's hold on the House Democratic caucus started loosening in the wake of a series of explosive sexual harassment cases involving misbehaving aides in 2018, including longtime chief of staff Tim Mapes. But the momentum picked up speed in July 2020 when the U.S. attorney's office reached a deferred prosecution agreement with ComEd, which acknowledged trying to influence Madigan by showering his pals and associates with do-nothing contracts, legal work and a seat on the ComEd board of directors. While ComEd agreed to pay a $200 million fine, the biggest political marker in the agreement was that Madigan was referenced clearly when the court document called the speaker of the House 'Public Official A.' McClain and three others were indicted in the separate ComEd Four case four months later. Sentencings in that case, which have been delayed for more than a year due to fallout from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the federal bribery statute, are now expected to unfold in July and August.
