By Chris Foreman
Tribune-Review (Greensburg, PA)
Copyright 2006 Tribune Review Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved
A Uniontown man accused of stealing or misappropriating about $450,000 of an ambulance service’s funds is expected to enter a pretrial diversionary program once he forfeits the property he bought with the stolen money.
David Cunningham, of 66 Byrer Ave., waived his right to a preliminary hearing Tuesday on charges of three counts of theft and one count of forgery. He is a former manager for American Ambulance Inc., which is based in Uniontown.
Fayette County District Attorney Nancy Vernon said she will support Cunningham’s petition to enter the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program.
Between April 2003 and July 2005, Cunningham sold company property, illegally obtained company reimbursement checks and used company funds to buy personal items, city police allege. Cunningham also used company funds to overpay himself, and his wife, Kathy, by almost $96,000, police said.
He also created an employee position for his mother, to whom he paid $24,000 in 2004, and used company cash to pay for his family’s baby sitter, according to police.
Vernon said the arrangement will help American Ambulance’s owners, Concepto and May Flores, because the state does not have a debtor’s prison system.
Cunningham will be required to forfeit titles to a Cadillac Escalade, Harley-Davidson motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles and other property to the ambulance company.
“Ordinarily, I will seek a trial and incarceration, but in this case, it helps the victims so much more,” Vernon said.