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On October 20th, 2009, just after 2 PM in the afternoon at the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse in Baltimore City, R. Yaakov Wagner, who was previously indicted for theft of over $13,000 from Yeshivat Rambam between January 2007 and May 2009, plead guilty to the charges brought against him.  In exchange for his plea, R. Wagner was given a suspended 2 year prison sentence with unsupervised probation (meaning, he does not have to serve jail time).  R. Wagner can appeal to the court in one year’s time to receive probation before judgement, which would mean that all record of the case would be expunged from the system within a few years time.  As a prerequisite, R. Wagner made complete restitution of the missing funds, in part to PNC Bank and in part to Yeshivat Rambam directly.

R. Wagner was sworn in and asked if he was of sound mind to make a guilty plea.  Judge Timothy Doory asked R. Wagner if he understood that by pleading guilty, he was waiving his right to a trial, and to his right to be considered innocent until proven guilty, to which R. Wagner acknowledged.  The State’s Attorney then presented evidence in support of R. Wagner’s guilty plea.  The State’s Attorney noted that Yeshivat Rambam’s bookkeeper, in the process of normal financial reviews, noticed a unusual number of checks made out to the defendant.  This lead to an investigation with the State’s Attorney (BaltimoreJewish had previously reported that the school was not involved in the indictment proceedings, which was incorrect; the school was listed as the complainant on the original indictment - copy of the indictment).

The evidence presented consisted of seven checks, the first in January of 2007, the final six from March, April and May of this year.  The checks ranged in value from $1300 to close to $5000.  Some of the checks were made out to “Cash,” others were made out to R. Wagner directly, with forged signatures.  In addition to copies of the checks, the State presented photographic evidence of R. Wagner in various banks cashing or depositing the checks; the photos clearly show R. Wagner at the bank at the time the checks were deposited.  The State’s Attorney stated that if called, representatives from Yeshivat Rambam would testify that R. Wagner did not have authorization to cash or write checks on behalf of the school, and that R. Wagner was not authorized access to the school checkbook.  R. Wagner was paid an annual salary of $80,000.  The judge heard this evidence and agreed to accept the guilty plea, and asked R. Wagner if there were any community service or therapy programs that he would like to be ordered by the court to undertake as part of his probation; R. Wagner declined.

In a brief interview after the trial, R. Wagner told BaltimoreJewish that despite his guilty plea, he maintains his innocence, and that he plead guilty to avoid a trial to diminish the pain to his family, and that he had not been treated fairly by the justice system by being held longer than required upon his initial arrest.  In a subsequent letter sent to friends and other members of the community, R. Wagner made similar statements.  R. Wagner had no comment at this time regarding the evidence presented in court.

For additional information, see the press release issued by the State’s Attorney’s office.

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