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Charges filed against ex-clerk in Jeannette

0 Comments | Tribune – Review / Pittsburgh Tribune – Review, Jul 23, 2010 | by Richard Gazarik

A former Jeannette city clerk was arrested Thursday by state agents and charged with theft and insurance fraud in what her attorney claims was retaliation to a whistleblower’s lawsuit she filed against the city.

Stella Rebitch, 51, was arraigned before District Judge Joseph DeMarchis in Jeannette and released on her own recognizance. She faces a preliminary hearing Aug. 6.

The criminal complaint claims Rebitch placed her ex-husband on the city’s health care plan while she was city clerk. She claimed in an application that Joseph Rebitch was her husband even though they had been divorced since 1997, the complaint states.

She was fired as city clerk in February and filed a lawsuit against city officials in April, charging her dismissal was the result of her exposing financial misdeeds by city council members, which left the city broke.

Rebitch charged that city council had misspent bond money earmarked for a flood-control project on legal fees and holiday decorations, and to balance the budget, which violated covenants imposed by the bonds.

Attorney David Millstein said Jeannette has provided health care for the spouses of employees and “significant others” as well.

“Stella Rebitch asked the insurance agent if he was allowed to be on the policy and she was told yes
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