MOUNT VERNON — Former Mount Vernon Municipal Court Clerk Stephanie Hardman pleaded guilty Thursday to felony counts of theft in office and tampering with evidence.
The plea deal stemmed from an investigation by the Ohio Auditor of State’s Office in 2019, which alleged she had stolen over $7,000 from the court the year prior and had attempted to tamper with records related to the theft.
Hardman, 45, pleaded guilty to the two charges, both fourth-degree felonies that carry a maximum penalty of six to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. She will be sentenced in the Knox County Court of Common Pleas on Nov. 4 at 9 a.m.
Hardman will also be required to pay $7,476.50 in restitution that day, which is the amount she admitted to stealing from the court.
Hardman was indicted on eight felony counts by a Knox County grand jury in August 2020. They were theft-in-office, telecommunications fraud, three counts of tampering with records and three counts of money laundering. All were listed as third-degree felonies.
Hardman pleaded not guilty shortly thereafter, and she was issued a personal recognizance bond by Judge Richard Wetzel. Five scheduled jury trials were postponed over the next year, until Aug. 31, when both parties filed a joint motion to change the upcoming jury trial date to a plea date.
Thomas Anger, who prosecuted the case on behalf of the Special Investigations Unit within the Ohio Auditor of State’s Office, told Knox Pages on Thursday that both parties were able to reach a plea agreement in an effort to “preserve judicial resources.”
Hardman agreed to plead guilty to lesser versions of two felony counts (lowered from F3s to F4s), and in return, Anger agreed to drop the other six.
“The reason that this case reached a plea agreement was the same reason that all of them do – to preserve judicial resources and give everyone an opportunity to air their grievances or give the victims a time to talk, the defendant a time to talk – but conserve judicial resources (and) get to the same place we probably would have been at after a trial,” Anger said.
Bradley Koffel, a Columbus-based attorney representing Hardman, declined comment after Thursday’s hearing.
Hardman became the city’s clerk of courts on Nov. 25, 2015. Mount Vernon Municipal Court Judge John Thatcher told the Mount Vernon News in November 2019 that he became aware of allegations of theft within the court on Dec. 17, 2018, when they were brought to his attention by City Law Director Rob Broeren and then-Police Chief Roger Monroe.
Broeren and Monroe reported a court employee had made allegations that another employee was stealing from the clerk’s office.
Thatcher said he called the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation that day to report the allegations and request an independent investigation. The BCI turned its investigation over to the state auditor’s office in February 2019, and it remained active for several months, as records were seized and evidence was collected.
A city audit, completed by the accounting firm Wilson, Shannon & Snow, discovered $7,749.05 was unaccounted for during 2018.
Thatcher terminated Hardman’s employment on Feb. 7, 2020. He declined to explain why at the time, although Koffel told the Mount Vernon News that Thatcher “told (Hardman) that it has been 14 months and she cannot tell him where the missing money is … and he lost confidence in the fiscal management of the clerk’s office.”
She pleaded guilty Thursday to having deposited the exact amount of money missing from the court in 2018 into a personal bank account. Anger said this money, which the court collected through fines, bonds and fees, was used to help pay off Hardman’s mortgage.
Hardman also pleaded guilty to having tampered with electronic records that showed how money came in and out of the court “several days after money went missing,” Anger said.
Mount Vernon Municipal Court Deputy Clerk Pam Fuller spoke during Thursday’s hearing about what it was like to work in the clerk’s office during Hardman’s tenure. She described the workplace as disorganized and chaotic, and said Hardman kept her employees in “a constant state of fear.”
“The office that I worked in for 15 years turned into a nightmare,” Fuller told the court.
Fuller called Hardman “a bully, a liar and a thief,” and called her actions premeditated. She said Hardman told employees to lie to defendants, which “turned the trust of the public against us.”
“Stephanie Hardman knew what she was doing from the day she got here,” Fuller told the court. “She changed everything in our office.”
Wetzel ordered a pre-sentence investigation to be completed by Nov. 4. He warned Hardman that other theft-in-office cases in the Knox County Court of Common Pleas have resulted in prison sentences, and that “you need to be prepared for some jail time if the court finds it necessary.”
Anger seemed skeptical afterwards that Hardman would receive prison time, but added that if she did, the sentences for each count would likely run concurrently.
“If she is sentenced, which I don’t think it’s gonna happen, but if she is, those would probably run concurrently, which means she’d serve six months for both crimes at the same time,” he said. “So, if she was sentenced to six months for Crime 1 and six months for Crime 2, she would still just do six months. Typically, that’s how it works.”
Hardman, who is listed as living in Lewis Center, began working at Delaware Municipal Court after her termination in Mount Vernon. She was serving as the deputy clerk of courts on the day of her indictment, according to ABC6.
The next day, she requested a three-month unpaid leave of absence, Delaware Clerk of Courts Cindy Dinovo told Knox Pages on Thursday.
“(Hardman) did not return to work,” Dinovo said, “and is no longer employed by this office.”
Thatcher brought on Mary Jo Hawkins as the interim clerk of courts following Hardman’s dismissal. Hawkins had spent 20 years as the county’s clerk of courts, having retired Aug. 31, 2019.
Lisa Mazza was later selected to be Hardman’s permanent replacement, and currently serves as the clerk of Mount Vernon Municipal Court.
