Benefits November 26, 2007

Former PA Court Clerk Sues over Retirement Payments

November 26, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A former local court clerk in Pennsylvania who was convicted in a scheme to erase criminal history records has sued over her early retirement benefits.
Reported by

A news report in the Wilkes-Barre (PA) Citizens’ Voice said Dolores Seacrist, a longtime clerk at the Luzerne County court, claimed in her suit that she is being denied $39,000 in retirement payments.

According to the report, Seacrist was convicted in June 2006 of securing execution of documents by deception and related counts in connection with a scheme to erase the criminal history of a co-worker’s husband. Another clerk, Tonia Donahue, forged a motion in 2004 to get her husband’s criminal record expunged and gave the phony document to Seacrist to get Senior Judge Gifford S. Cappellini to sign it, the Citizens’ Voice report said.


Only a governor’s pardon can expunge criminal convictions, according to the state attorney general’s office.

Seacrist and Donahue were sentenced to two to 30 days in jail to be followed by a year of probation, with some of the time to be spent under house arrest.

Seacrist, 60, retired December 31, 2005, and was denied early retirement incentive payments, according to the news report.

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