Thea Tafner is in the final month of her federal prison term, but it doesn’t appear she’ll have any local properties to come back to when she’s freed.
Tafner’s Rush Township property, once occupied by her brother, was sold through a sheriff’s sale last week for a tenth of its fair market value, while a double home and a vacant lot she owns in Atlas are set for “upset sale” by the Northumberland County tax bureau in September.
Tafner, former ambulance committee chairwoman for American Hose Chemical and Fire Company, Mount Carmel, was sentenced in May 2011 to 30 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to embezzlement for opening a fraudulent bank account where investigators said she directed $3,712,203 in Medicare payments.
She was ordered to pay more than $1.8 million in restitution, although terms established by the court require a minimum of just $250 a month. Also, the sale of the properties might impact American Hose’s effort to recoup losses.
Tafner was in Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, W.Va., from June 20, 2011 until May 28, at which time she was transferred to a halfway house until July 11. Since then, she’s been in home confinement under the supervision of CCM New Orleans Community Corrections Office. She’s to be released Aug. 23, said Chris Burke, Federal Bureau of Prison (FBP) spokesman.
Burke said the halfway house and home confinement programs are common practice to help inmates “back into a life of freedom.
Tafner’s Rush Township property, 498 Elysburg Road, Danville, was sold to First National Bank of Pennsylvania through the Northumberland County Sheriff’s Office. According to county documents dated July 18, the property, located along Route 54 between Elysburg and Danville, was transferred to the bank for $10,603.77, the amount owed in back taxes from 2010 to 2012, plus associated costs. Tafner was not paying the mortgage on the property and the bank filed with the court to determine a judgment of $133,551.44.
The sheriff’s office set a sale date for June 20, and when no one bid on the property, the bank paid the back taxes and costs and assumed ownership. The property is now up for sale.
The house has a fair market value of $110,000 said county chief assessor Albert Bressi.
County records show the 2,300-square-foot, six-room, one-story house was built in 1931, completely remodeled in 1990 and had other renovations in the last 21 years. The 2.35 acre property was purchased by Tafner in 2000 for $170,000 from Charles Gustafson.
The address was the location of Creations by Carter, a nursery and gift shop owned by Tafner’s brother, Carter Tafner, who died last year.
Thea Tafner also owns 100-102 W. Saylor St., Atlas, and a 6,350-square-foot empty lot on the same street.
According to county records, she owes $2,667.19 in taxes from 2010, 2011 and 2012 on those two properties. As a result, both are on the list for the county’s next upset sale. At an upset sale, properties are sold with payment of all liens, back taxes and mortgage required.
Sentenced to 30 months, Thea Tafner, who was also principal for Line Mountain elementary schools at the time of her arrest, must serve 85 percent, which would be about 25 months, of her imprisonment. At that time, she can be released on good behavior. If she is released Aug. 23 as expected, she will have served 26 months and three days, counting the time in the halfway house and in home confinement.
At the minimum $250 requirement on the restitution, it would take some 600 years to satisfy the $1.8 million, a fact that has drawn scorn from American Hose officials and borough residents.
Tafner had signed an agreement not to appeal her sentencing conditions, because the government agreed not to force Tafner to use money from her Pennsylvania Public School Employee Retirement System plan to pay restitution. But a later ruling that she’d have to make a lump sum payment of $124,869 to American Hose essentially forced her to use the pension money, Tafner argued in an appeal to the court in 2011.
The court ruled on May 29, 2012, that it was legal to require the payment.
Even so, American Hose only received about $80,000 (64 percent) of the money because Tafner had already spent part of it, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported in May.
That drew accusations of contempt of court from American Hose officials, who expressed frustration at the situation.
The court restitution order is still in effect, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in May it would continue to seek funds and or property from Tafner.
American Hose filed a writ of summons against Thea Tafner in March 2011 and Carter Tafner and his business in October 2011. Despite the brother’s death, American Hose officials said since that they reserve the right to take any further action against his estate, but that property now belongs to the bank.