THOMAS R. MIHALEK
WESTFIELD – A former city official, arrested in September of 2012 on three charges of counts of larceny of property valued more than $250 by a single scheme and 14 charges of uttering a false check, has been placed on pre-trial probation as part of a plea agreement which requires him to make restitution to his siblings totaling $47,625.
Thomas R. Mihalek, 46, of 94 Falley Drive had been the chair of the city’s License Commission and, according to Mayor Daniel M. Knapik, resigned “shortly after he was down at booking” after his arrest Sept. 25, 2012.
His arrest was the result of a months-long investigation by Det. Todd Edwards which began in April of 2012, when he was contacted by Mihalek’s three siblings who alleged that their brother had unilaterally liquidated a jointly owned investment fund without the knowledge and consent of the other three owners of the fund and deposited all the assets, $69,652.86, into his own accounts.
Edwards, an investigator for the financial crimes unit of the Westfield Police Department’s Detective Bureau, said that he learned that Mihalek had been the liaison between the family and the accountant who handled the account and apparently was in a position to issue instructions about the account.
He reports in a statement filed in Westfield District Court in support of his application for a criminal complaint that he spoke with all three of the victims who told him that the three victims had not known until early in 2012 that a fund established by their father to benefit his four children had been liquidated in 2008 and 2009.
All three siblings told Edwards that they had not received any benefit from the fund and one of them said that her brother had admitted forging his siblings’ names to the checks resulting from the sale of the fund’s assets.
Edwards reports he found that the trust fund had been liquidated and 14 checks had been sent to Mihalek who forged his siblings’ names on the checks and deposited them in his own accounts. Edwards reports “After some fraudulent checks were deposited, significant payments were made to credit card companies.”
Mihalek appeared in Westfield District Court on Monday before Judge Philip A. Contant who was told by the Commonwealth, represented by Assistant District Attorney Mary Partyka, of the plea agreement that had been negotiated.
He was placed on pre-trial probation for one year for two of the three charges of larceny of property valued more than $250 by a single scheme. The third such charge – and all 14 of the charges of uttering a false check- were not prosecuted.
Mihalek agreed pay a total of $45,625, three quarters of the value of the liquidated family trust fund, as restitution to his three siblings.
