I haven’t heard anyone mention this, but there are some strange parallels between the recent Jeanne Sweeney Mooney case and a thirty year old case involving Mayor Ted Mann and his secretary.
In 1980, Mayor Ted Mann noticed that some checks in his office hadn’t been deposited and had gone missing. There was an investigation by the police and Mann’s long time secretary Diana Ossinger was then charged with 41 counts of larceny and was fired from her job.
The case went to trial and Ossinger was found guilty. There was an appeal, and she was then acquitted. Ossinger then sued Mayor Mann for unlawful dismissal but lost the case.
The only reason I remembered any of this is that my brother worked on the case. He had just passed the bar and was hired by the firm that was defending Ossinger. After the case was over, the firm hired Ossinger to work as a secretary in their office. As far as I know, no checks ever went missing at their law office.
Jerry
I’ve been saying the same thing.
I personally know the Ossinger family and the emotional and financial damage she suffered at the hands of Mayor Mann was great. I remember the night the verdict of her appeal came down, the celebration was great but the mayor just shrugged it off like it was no big deal. Ruin someones life and go on your merry way.
Hopefully Mrs Mooney will not suffer the same financial fate. Emotionally, I’m sure the damage is already done.
The opposite is if you honestly believe someone is stealing from the city, no matter the amount, you want to set a precedent and not prosecute them. What type of message is that? It’s a shame that Ossinger and Sweeney have to go through this, but if there really is evidence pointing to them they have to do it. What if they were guilty?
Jerry, who is you’re brother? You’re brother isn’t Tom Reilly, is it?
No he’s Mike Reilly who was working for Tom Troy, Ossinger’s lawyer, at the time.
Tom
Are you saying that if there is any shred of thought that a person was stealing that the full weight and power of a city should come down on persons to prove that they are guilty? What if the accusers are in a position to bully or coierce evidence or persons to testify against a person or even get the accused to admit guilt by claiming false accusations of third party investigations?
It’s too bad the City had to deal with these sorts of situations. It costs taxpayers money. It’s also a shame that Ossinger and Mooney had to fight City Hall over these matters in the first place.
I know that the City has been advised between 2008 and 2012 in the Audit Management Letters to create a Financial Policies and Procedure Manual. (See link to audits management letters on the City Comptroller’s site at http://www.newtonma.gov/gov/comptroller/audrep.asp )
The 2012 letter states, “Without formalized written policies and procedures, the City is inherently subject to everyday inconsistencies in its operations. It is also difficult to measure performance and efficiencies without a baseline. The number of such inconsistencies can be minimized by the written codification of policies and procedures and insistence on adherence to them.”
The 2012 City Management response: “Both the Audit Committee and management are in agreement with this recommendation and will continue to work to implement it.”
The 2004 City Management response: “The Comptroller’s Office will begin the process of documenting all accounting and financial reporting policies and procedures in 2005, with the ultimate objective of publishing all such policies and procedures on the City’s intranet site within the next two years.”
The years in between noted basically the same response. When will the Financial Policies and Procedure manual be completed? Has it even been started? Perhaps Mooney and Ossinger would not have been in the unfortunate position of fighting City Hall if the City had implemented clear systems for handling monies. I hope it doesn’t take another 8 years to complete what was agreed to 8 years ago…
The more I learn about the things that Mayor Mann did – the less respect I have for him. This is really outrageous.
Susan – I don’t know the details so I couldn’t say whether Mayor Mann did anything outrageous or not. One jury did find the secretary guilty and it was reversed on appeal.
Whatever happened back then, it doesn’t seem black and white, at least while looking at the case from the outside in.