Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Former Erie County Deputy Clerk Alexander McDougall will spend the next one-and-a-third-to-four years behind bars in a state prison after admitting to stealing more than $300,000 from Erie County taxpayers over a four-year period.
Erie County District Attorney Michael Keane says McDougall was sentenced for Grand Larceny in the Second Degree and Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree. He will, at least, serve more than a year in state prison with the chance of parole shortly after.
Between on or about April 2, 2019, and on or about June 30, 2023, McDougall, while working as a Deputy Clerk in the Registrar’s Division of the Erie County Clerk’s Office, stole a sum of cash in excess of $50,000. The defendant attempted to conceal the crime by altering cashier reports and submitting fraudulent bank deposit tickets. The total amount stolen is believed to be $320,159.33.
The defendant used the stolen money to pay his rent and other personal expenses.
In the summer of 2023, the Erie County District Attorney's Office became involved in the investigation following an audit by the Erie County Comptroller’s Office. McDougall was suspended from his position at the Clerk’s Office in mid-September 2023. He was later fired from his position.
During the investigation, it was determined that the defendant failed to report the stolen money, considered to be personal income, on his tax returns. As a result, it was determined that the defendant owed $11,847.00 in state income taxes.
Keane says this was a difficult case, especially given how McDougall was stealing money that partly went toward the care of his special needs daughter, as well as his disabled wife. However, he says McDougall stole thousands of dollars from the people of Erie County.
Keane echoed the words of Judge Sheila DiTullio on Friday, saying, "Public service equals public trust."
McDougall was prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and pleaded to the highest provable counts against him.
Keane does give McDougall credit for stepping up and took responsibility for what he did, and accepting the sentence handed down to him on Friday.