Elizabeth Wilk pleads guilty to theft of $115,000 from Friends of Chicopee Library
By Buffy Spencer, The Republican
SPRINGFIELD - Elizabeth Wilk, former treasurer of the Chicopee Friends of the Public Library, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to stealing $115,198 from that group.
Wilk, 57, was also vice president of mortgage lending for Chicopee Savings Bank at the time, a position she no longer holds.
Jack St. Clair, Wilk's lawyer, said Wilk is a gambling addict, using the stolen money for scratch tickets and gambling at Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut.
Sentencing of Wilk is set for April 21 at 2 p.m. before Hampden Superior Court Judge C. Jeffrey Kinder.
Wilk, of 81 Orchard St., Chicopee, pleaded guilty to larceny over $250 by a single scheme and making false entries into corporate books (the books of the Friends group).
In an agreement with Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni's office, Wilk agreed to plead guilty to a district attorney's complaint taken out Tuesday, which is a way of being charged without a grand jury indictment.
Assistant District Attorney James C. Orenstein told Kinder the crimes took place between Dec. 22, 2007, and Sept. 16, 2010.
The Chicopee Friends of the Public Library is a nonprofit organization formed in 1996 to raise money to support the library. Its main role is to assist librarians with funding requests and it often purchases equipment and helps fund programming.
The group, which has more than 200 members, pledged to raise $1.5 million to help build the new $9.3 million library, which opened on Front Street in 2004. Its “Raise the Roof” campaign far exceeded the goal, collecting nearly $2 million in donations.
Orenstein said the prosecution has agreed not to seek a longer sentence than 2 1/2 years to a county house of corrections on the larceny charge.
The prosecution is recommending probation on the false entries charge, with a condition of probation paying restitution for the embezzled money.
He said he may reduce the sentence recommendation for jail time, depending on how much restitution is paid before the sentencing.
Orenstein said Wilk maintained the books for the Friends group which had an operating account, savings acount and certificate of deposit. He said the bank became aware of irregularities in the Friends accounts in September. When the Friends board of directors asked Wilk she said she knew nothing about it, and the next day hired a lawyer.
Wilk had taken out cash in relatively small withdrawals, Orenstein said, and as sole signatory on the accounts and also vice president at the bank she was not questioned about the number of withdrawals.
She would submit false reports to the board stating an amount of money in accounts that was not there, he said.
On Jan. 25 Wilk and St. Clair went to the District Attorney'soOffice and she admitted to the thefts, Orenstein said. He said Wilk said she planned to pay back the money when she won big, but ironically when she hit a scratch ticket for $140,000 she did not use the money to pay back the account because to do so would have revealed her embezzlement.
Wilk is free on her own recognizance awaiting sentence.
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