Former Geauga County Auditor Frank Gliha pleaded guilty to four counts of dereliction of duty June 20. The charges stem from actions by a former employee who is accused of embezzling more than $1.8 million from the county between 2011 and 2018.
“We made a mistake. We didn’t check and we paid for it,” Gliha told visiting judge Robert J. Brown inside Geauga County Common Pleas Court.
Brown sentenced Gliha to a $1,250 fine plus court costs and barred him from running for public office for four years.
Bryan Kostura, the special prosecutor representing the state, said the first two charges – that Gliha failed to secure competitive bids for products or services over $50,000 – occurred well into Gliha’s term as auditor.
“Both of these charges occurred, one in 2013, one in 2014. This is not early on in Mr. Gliha’s elected period of time – he should have known better, your honor,” Kostura said.
Two more charges of dereliction of duty said Gliha approved the purchase of equipment without approval from the Automatic Data Processing Board, and that from 2011 to 2018, Gliha failed to create a system of internal controls to prevent the abuse of public funds.
Geauga County’s former IT director Stephen T. Decatur, and his daughter Stephanie E. Stewart, were charged in February on a 334-count indictment. You can read those details here.
“There is no evidence that we were able to put forward, or to find, that Mr. Gliha profited from any of this activity,” Kostura said.
Gliha’s attorney Todd Petersen told Brown the worst things that could happen to Gliha already have happened.
“One, believing that he let down the people that he served was the hardest part,” Petersen said. “Having to speak to his family was right up there. Resigning his position and withdrawing from the ballot, those are all actions that he took, not under the thumb of the prosecutor, but actions he took because they were the right actions to take.”
Petersen said Gliha’s behavior was not criminal conduct in the way people usually think of it.
“People think of intentional misconduct or harmful, wanting to hurt somebody, wanting to take, wanting to steal,” Petersen said. “That’s not the situation here, but in my mind, dereliction of duty is as close to a straightforward offense that you don’t need any intent to be guilty of it.”
Gliha also pleaded no contest and was found guilty of a fifth charge based on his failure to distribute $28,000 in undivided funds set aside for Housing and Urban Development in 2000. Petersen said the HUD money did not disappear and it has either already been distributed or is in the process of being distributed by the auditor’s office.
All five counts were second-degree misdemeanors punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $750 fine.
Brown said Gliha is not eligible for probation and has 90 days to pay his fines.
