OHIO COMPUTER THIEF PLEADS GUILTY Vindy.com Local News Youngstown, Warren, Columbiana Ohio - news, sports and information - Guilty in theft from school:

Published: Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Beeson either sold or used the computers and parts valued at $70,000, an assistant prosecutor said.

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — A North Jackson man has pleaded guilty to theft in office for stealing $70,000 worth of computers and computer parts from the LaBrae School District while working there as technical coordinator between 2005 and 2008.

Joseph W. Beeson, 39, of Duck Creek Road, has agreed to repay the $70,000 to the school system.

Of that amount, $59,000 will come from his Ohio school retirement account, said Lt. Don Bishop of the Warren Township Police Department.

The account was frozen when Beeson was indicted, Bishop said.

Beeson appeared Monday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to enter the plea before Judge Peter Kontos.

Judge Kontos said the restitution must be paid before he sentences Beeson in four to six weeks after a presentence investigation by the Trumbull County Adult Probation Department.

Beeson could get up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000 and three years’ probation on the third-degree felony. A second theft-in- office charge was dismissed.

Beeson worked for the school district as an employee of the Trumbull County Educational Service Center in Niles.

Thomas Rush, the Warren Township police chief, said last year that authorities discovered the thefts after Beeson left the job in early summer 2008 and a new employee did an inventory of computer equipment.

Such a person works alone, Rush said, making it hard to detect theft while it is occurring.

In court, Chris Becker, an assistant county prosecutor, said Beeson stole $70,000 worth of computers and equipment between Jan. 1, 2005, and June 30, 2008, and either sold or used the items.

Becker said Beeson confessed the crimes to Bishop on videotape.