WEST CHESTER The Delaware County automobile dealership that had sought payment for an SUV used by the Chester County Sheriffs Office K-9 unit it maintained had been improperly transferred to the department has lost its bid to recover the money it says it was owed.
Chester County Common Pleas Judge Edward Griffith has ruled against Videon Chrysler Dodge Jeep in the lawsuit it filed to recover the $30,000 price of the 2014 Dodge Durango and almost $23,000 on repairs and upfits to the vehicle, although he did so on narrow technical grounds and not specifically on the claims of the suit.
Videon, and owner Steve Videon, had simply failed to charge the correct entity when it filed the lawsuit seeking repayment in 2016. It named as the defendant the Sheriffs Office, when as a matter of law it should have sued the county, Griffith ruled in dismissing the case.
The dealership has sued the wrong entity, Griffith wrote in his three-page decision, issued Thursday. The Chester County Office of the Sheriff is merely a department of Chester County and not a separate municipal entity that can be sued. The dealership was required to bring its claim against Chester County, but has failed to do so.
The dismissal came after a one-day, non-jury trial in which both sides argued mostly about whether the Durango, which is still in use by the Sheriffs Office, had meant to have been paid for by the office, or whether it was, as former Lt. Harry McKinney, the hand-picked supervisor of the K-9 Unit, maintained, a gift.
But attorney Guy Donatelli of the West Chester law firm of Lamb McErlane represented the Sheriffs Office, had argued the issue of whether the suit had been filed against the wrong party in pre-trial briefs. In a comment after the ruling, Donatelli expressed satisfaction with the decision, and said that it vindicated the office.
We are delighted that the court recognized that the Sheriffs Office and Mr. McKinney are blameless, he said Friday.
West Chester attorney Michael OHayer, who represented Videon, could not be reached for comment last week.
Interestingly, it was not OHayer who had filed the lawsuit on behalf of Videon. The suit had been filed by attorney Thomas Schindler of Kennett Square in June 2016, who was the attorney that participated in a series of negotiations between the two parties trying to recover the cost of the vehicle and its upgrades from the county over the years. But Schindler was disbarred by the state Supreme Court in July, and the case fell of OHayer.
Although Griffiths decision was based on who the suit should have been filed against, he did find that the transfer from the dealership to the Sheriffs Office was not without problems.
In his findings of fact, Griffith wrote that the title to the Durango was transferred to the county in March 2014 after discussions between McKinney who is the longtime live-in boyfriend of former Sheriff Carolyn Bunny Welsh and was her appointed representative for the K-9 unit and the dealerships general sales manager, Michael McVeigh.
Griffith found that McVeigh arranged for the transfer as a charitable donation to the office. But, the judge ruled, McVeigh lacked the authority with the dealership to make these charitable donations, unbeknownst to McKinney. That authority rested solely with Steve Videon, who was unaware of the donation to the Sheriffs Office and was misled by (McVeigh) as to the nature of the transaction."
When Videon found out what McVeigh had done, he demanded payment, which the office, under McKinney, refused, leading to the suit.
McVeigh did testify at the trial on Dec. 8 but largely declined to answer questions about the transaction, citing his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. McKinney, who was terminated from his position with the Sheriffs Office in January when new Sheriff Fredda Maddox took over, also testified.
The longtime face of the county Sheriffs Office, Welsh was not a named defendant in the lawsuit. She and McKinney still face other legal challenges in relation to their handling of the K-9 Unit, however.
They were charged late last month with misdemeanor theft counts connected to how they used county sheriff employees as volunteer labor at fundraising events for the private Friends of the Chester County Sheriffs K-9 Unit organization, and McKinneys use of some of those funds for his own pet canine.
Bunny Welsh used her position of power for her and her partner Harry McKinneys own personal gain instead of serving her community as she was elected to do, said state Attorney General Josh Shapiro in filing the criminal complaints against the pair. Welsh and McKinney allegedly used public employees to perform work for private charity events both on and off-duty at the expense of Chester County, and McKinney then used those fundraised dollars to cover his own personal expenses. This blatant misappropriation of funds is unacceptable.
Preliminary hearings for the pair on the charges have been scheduled for Friday.
There is also a separate legal action against Welsh by the county Controllers Office still in the works, seeking repayment of more than $60,000 in overtime payments that Welsh approved for McKinney during his last years of employment by the county. Controller Margaret Reif contends that McKinney had improperly been classified as a low-level department deputy, even though he was given supervisory powers by Welsh that normally would have made him ineligible for overtime payments.
The overtime, Reif claims, was paid to pad McKinneys annual income in order to boost his county pension. She is asking Welsh to repay the money herself. Welsh has denied the accusations and said that McKinney was due overtime for the hours he spent caring for K-9 officers in his command.
Read the rest here:
Wrong party sued in K-9 car case, judge rules - The Phoenix