NEW JERSEY DOCTOR ACCUSED OF COMPUTER THEFT North Jersey Media Group providing local news, sports & classifieds for Northern New Jersey!

Tuesday, January 31, 2006 By CAROLYN SALAZARSTAFF WRITER

WESTWOOD -- A prominent borough gynecologist and River Vale school board member is scheduled for a court appearance Wednesday on charges of stealing computer equipment from Pascack Valley Hospital.

Dr. Thomas Golin, 54, will plead not guilty because he didn't steal anything, his lawyer, Ray Flood, said Monday.

Authorities said Golin walked into a physicians' lounge at the hospital shortly before 6 a.m. Jan. 16 carrying an empty black bag. Security cameras show him walking out of the room with an overstuffed bag nine minutes later, said Westwood Police Chief Frank Regino.

Later that morning, hospital security notified police that two monitors and a CPU worth a combined $1,700 were missing from the lounge.

They also determined through the hospital's card-swipe access system that Golin was the last person who had entered the room, using his personal ID card, Regino said.

Golin was charged with theft two days later.

Flood promised a "rigorous defense."

"When all the facts and circumstances are known, my client will be exonerated," the lawyer said Monday.

Golin has been an obstetrician-gynecologist for more than 20 years and is a former Little League coach.

He was elected in 2000 to a three-year term on the Pascack Valley Regional Board of Education, which oversees high schools for Montvale, Hillsdale, Woodcliff Lake and River Vale. He was reelected in 2003.

Contacted Monday, Schools Superintendent Benedict Tantillo and several school board members said they were unaware of Golin's arrest and would not comment on the case.

Flood said Golin has no intention of resigning from the school board because he is innocent.

E-mail: salazar@northjersey.com