School District of Lancaster board member faces trial
Staff
A School District of Lancaster board member accused by state police of stealing a $100 bill dropped onto a casino floor is expected to stand trial.
Janelle Simms, 63, of Lancaster, waived her preliminary hearing Wednesday morning at a Dauphin County district judge's office.
Simms can either stand trial on the misdemeanor theft charge or plead guilty to picking up the money, which police allege was dropped by another patron at the Grantville casino on July 28.
According to police and court documents, Catherine Fritz of Hummelstown dropped the $100 bill inside Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course. Simms knew Fritz had dropped the bill but picked it up and placed it in her purse, according to an affidavit filed in the case.
After reviewing surveillance tapes that captured the incident, state police charged Simms with theft of property mislaid or lost.
Simms declined comment Wednesday evening.
In previous reports, Simms said she thought the bill was hers. She thought she had dropped it soon after making a withdrawal from an ATM at the casino, according to those reports. An affidavit filed by state Trooper Steven Heidel says Simms made eye contact with Fritz immediately after the bill was dropped and again after picking it up. Simms stared at Fritz as she placed the bill in her own purse, Heidel says in the affidavit.
E-mail: bhambright@lnpnews.com
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I'd like to see it too; although I still think she should be given the benefit of the doubt.
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If she put her foot on the bill and counted the money she had just taken from the ATM, then she would have known whether or not it were her own money. Then that is what the the video would have shown her doing.
If she knew it was not her own money and kept it, anyway, then she was stealing someone else's money and the charges fit.
Usually, people complicate their own lives by not making rules.
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If she put her foot on the bill and counted the money she had just taken from the ATM, then she would have known whether or not it were her own money. Then that is what the the video would have shown her doing.
If she knew it was not her own money and kept it, anyway, then she was stealing someone else's money and the charges fit.
Usually, people complicate their own lives by not making rules.
Maybe she didn't follow your "rules" but with the information that we were given, her assumption that the money was hers was quite reasonable. I can honestly say that I would not put my foot on the bill I would pick it up, check my money and then if I realized it wasn't mine I'd give it to someone who works there.
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