State Teacher Pension System won't release Helms funds

By BECKY BROOKS

Enter­prise Editor

clydenews@bizwoh.rr.com

A court hear­ing held Mon­day could aid the Clyde-Green Springs school dis­trict in recov­er­ing its nearly $300,000 embez­zled by for­mer school super­in­ten­dent Todd Helms — but the San­dusky County Pros­e­cu­tor said a state agency is refus­ing to release the money and he is not see­ing any light at the end of the tunnel.

Cur­rent Clyde-Green Springs super­in­ten­dent Gregg Elchert com­mented at a school board meet­ing Mon­day that the dis­trict is no closer to get­ting the money back than school offi­cials were on Aug. 23, 2010 when Com­mon Pleas Court Judge Bar­bara Ansted ordered Helms to make resti­tu­tion before send­ing him to prison for eight years.

The result of Monday’s hear­ing is that Judge Ansted will reis­sue her court order that Helms’ State Teacher Retire­ment Sys­tem pen­sion be turned over to the vic­tims of his crimes – nearly $295,801 less $7,000 which is to go to his ex-wife, Rose­mary Kreiger Helms.

The defen­dant did not appear at the hear­ing Mon­day, but met with his attor­ney Dean Henry in the cour­t­house just prior to the hear­ing and waived his right to appear. Henry then told the judge that Helms had pre­vi­ously agreed to sur­ren­der the school pen­sion and the defense sup­ported the judge’s pre­vi­ous court-order using the money to make restitution.

Judge Ansted now will be reis­su­ing her pre­vi­ous court order and include a dead­line of June 30, 2011 for STRS to turn the funds over to the San­dusky County Clerk of Court. If the dead­line is ignored, write of man­damus could be issued and con­tempt hear­ing held for STRS offi­cials ignor­ing the order, offi­cials reported Monday.

San­dusky County Pros­e­cu­tor Tom Steir­walt admit­ted after the hear­ing in the Fre­mont Cour­t­house, he does not expect STRS to com­ply with the judge’s court order. He said he has been han­dling the case since the change of admin­is­tra­tions in Colum­bus as the spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor who han­dled the case is no longer with the State Auditor’s Office, which was pre­vi­ously headed by Mary Tay­lor – now the Ohio Lt. Governor.

IN a sec­ond floor con­fer­ence room after the hear­ing, the pros­e­cu­tor out­line the slurry of e-mails and com­mu­ni­ca­tions he has received from both the STRS and the Ohio Attor­ney General’s Office this year.

“Yes, it will be paid.….but it will be paid when Todd is enti­tled to with­draw it,” the pros­e­cu­tor said not­ing he was frus­trated with the AG’s office and STRS. “We wait until Todd retires or dies…”

The county pros­e­cu­tor reported that STRS wants Helms to sign a roll-over doc­u­ment, but the defense attor­ney is advis­ing his client against that.

Dur­ing the hear­ing, Henry told the judge that his client sur­ren­dered all rights to the pen­sion funds and he would not advise him to sign any doc­u­ments that would be a vio­la­tion to the judge’s first court order.

“We think you order is clear,” Henry com­mented in court.

Later Steir­walt said that he also has run into a con­flict within the Ohio Attor­ney General’s office with one branch rep­re­sent­ing victim’s assis­tance con­tact­ing him to deter­mine why resti­tu­tion has not been made to the vic­tims in the Helms case and another branch advis­ing the STRS not to release funds to the San­dusky County Clerk of Courts per the judge’s court order.

In meet­ing with Steir­walt and media after the hear­ing Mon­day, Clyde-Green Springs Super­in­ten­dent Gregg Elchert also showed his frus­tra­tion. “He’s been con­victed; there’s a court order and we still don’t have the money.’

Elchert said the dis­trict has already paid the spe­cial audit bill to the Audi­tor of State for its inves­ti­ga­tion and now its another state agency that will not release the pen­sion funds back to the school district.

Both Elchert and school board mem­ber Nancy Greenslade, who attended the hear­ing, could not under­stand why there was no issue with the court order to sell Helm’s motor­cy­cle and trailer and trans­fer funds back to the vic­tims but yet another state agency could ignore the judge’s order.

Posted by Becky Brooks on May 25 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.