Sep 21, 2017 3 min read

Charges filed Thursday by a detective in the Washington County district attorney’s office revealed Capt. Michael R. Hilderbrand, 49, of Washington, as the corrections officer accused of stealing $2,161 from the inmate money account over a five-month period earlier this year.

County Controller Michael Namie, a member of the prison board, made public an audit of the account in July but he did not name the suspect, saying only that the person was no longer employed by the county. The county terminated the employment of Hilderbrand, who was a shift commander, on April 11. He had worked for the county since 2004 and his salary was $53,531.

In his audit, Namie stated, “We found numerous missing deposits from the inmate money account totaling $1,907.” The missing deposits had totaled $2,161 before the account was reimbursed with $254.

The affidavit of probable cause states that Hilderbrand admitted to taking the deposits and on several occasions promised to return the money and “make it right,” but that the money was not repaid before the controller’s office performed its forensic audit.

Charges of theft, receiving stolen property and failure to make required disposition of funds were filed against Hilderbrand, who was arraigned before District Judge Robert Redlinger.

Hilderbrand was released on $10,000 unsecured bond, and he has a preliminary hearing scheduled for next month.

When a person arrives at the jail for incarceration, any cash he or she is carrying is taken for safekeeping, and the jail issues a receipt. This cash is to be deposited promptly in a bank, but in the case of the missing money, the procedure wasn’t followed.

The controller also took the jail to task for inadequate bookkeeping because deposits to the inmate money account were not made daily and sometimes, not made at all. Lapses were from two to 34 days.

Namie also noted that existing accounting procedures identified the deposit discrepancies, but the information was not communicated to the jail administration until after the controller’s office notified the jail it was performing an audit.

He recommended that deposits be made daily and that timely bank reconciliations be part of the procedure, with errors or discrepancies by staff be brought immediately to the attention of management, which should review and sign off on all bank reconciliations.

He had pointed out this deficiency in audits performed on the jail’s 2013 and 2014 financial records.

When learning of the audit’s findings, Warden Edward Strawn said in July he had met with jail staff about the issue.

“They understand I need those deposits to be made every shift,” he said.