Update: Aug. 3, 10 a.m.
Dr. Sekela Coles has resigned from her post as director of parking enforcement in Upper Darby. The announcement came at Wednesday’s council meeting.
Original story follows:
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Upper Darby director of parking enforcement is facing charges after allegedly stealing parking meter money and spending it on staff expenses. Dr. Sekela Coles is facing charges of theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception and receiving stolen property.
“All of us working in government have a sacred trust to act in the best interest of our communities,” said Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said Monday. “The defendant was entrusted with one of the basic functions of government: collecting parking meter money and depositing the cash.”
However, instead of following those basic functions, the DA’s office says Coles took a portion of the parking meter cash and used it to buy food and birthday cakes, and to pay for office parties and restaurant trips for both her and her staff.
They say Coles instructed other staff members to hand over all coin bags collected from meters to Nakita Barnes, an Upper Darby parking enforcement administrative assistant. This, as the DA says, was not protocol.
In February, the DA said two citizen informants reported they had seen Barnes take six of the bags and place them in her personal car. The informants also saw a receipt on Barnes’ desk from the Police and Fire Federal Credit Union for a $2,290 deposit that had been converted to paper currency. A $1,730 envelope of cash and a second receipt from PFFCU for $581 was also found on Barnes’ desk.
The DA says, at the time, standard procedure was to deposit funds collected from the meters at Santander Bank.
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“This kind of behavior erodes public trust and must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Stollsteimer said.
A search warrant was issued for both Barnes and her husband, Gregory’s, bank records. They say Barnes took six bags of coins to PFFCU on Jan. 14. and converted them to paper bills. Then, on April 28, Barnes admitted that she did all of this per Coles’ instructions. She said after collecting the money, she would bring it to Coles, who would count it, then Barnes would store it in her desk.
After previously denying allegations, Coles also came forward on April 28, admitting to using the meter funds to pay for food, birthday cakes, office parties and restaurant trips for her and her staff, saying she elected to keep the money as a “petty cash” fund for her office.
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According to the DA, more than $4,300 was stolen — a little over $2,000 was returned. They say Coles also voided eight parking tickets that had been issued to relatives.
Coles is facing charges for theft by unlawful taking and deception, receiving stolen property, and arise of the defendant’s diversion of funds collected from parking meters.