CHATHAM — Former Chatham village clerk-treasurer Barbara Henry was arrested Wednesday and faces multiple felony charges in connection with her tenure as a village employee, according to a statement from the state Comptroller’s office.
Henry was arraigned in Chatham Town Court on Wednesday following a joint investigation by the Comptroller’s office, state police and the Columbia County District Attorney’s office and is accused of unlawfully waiving her own health insurance premiums.
Henry was charged with tampering with public records, a class D felony; third-degree grand larceny, a class D felony; offering a false instrument for filing, a class E felony; and official misconduct, a class A misdemeanor.
She is also accused of scamming $4,182 in village health insurance premiums, according to the state Comptroller’s office.
“Henry was entrusted to protect the village’s funds, instead she allegedly used that position for her personal benefit,” state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a statement Wednesday. “This behavior is unacceptable and now Henry is being held accountable for her actions.”
Henry was responsible for paying 50% of her health insurance while the village was responsible for the other 50%, DiNapoli said. The joint investigation found that from April 2017 to August 2018, Henry used her position to unlawfully waive her own health insurance premiums, causing the village to pay more than $4,000 to fund Henry’s health insurance, DiNapoli said.
The state Comptroller’s office also reported that during her tenure as Chatham village clerk-treasurer, Henry allegedly stole more than $8,420 from Cadmus Lifesharing Association, a Massachusetts nonprofit organization that cares for individuals with disabilities, where she held a second job as the director of the organization, DiNapoli said.
“I want to thank the New York State Comptroller’s Office, the New York State Police, and the Columbia County District Attorney’s office for all the hard work they put in for bringing this to a conclusion,” Chatham Mayor John Howe said Wednesday.
In January 2019, state police executed search warrants at Henry’s Brookside Avenue home and at Tracy Memorial Village Hall as part of a probe into the village’s finances, according to authorities.
Investigators carried out the search warrants on behalf of state police, the state Department of Taxation and Finance and the state Comptroller’s Office, which headed up the investigation.
“Columbia County taxpayers have reason to be very grateful for Comptroller DiNapoli’s team of investigators, as well as the investigators of the New York State Police, Livingston, for their hard work and diligence in resolving this very complicated investigation,” Columbia County District Attorney Paul Czajka said in a statement.
Henry is scheduled to reappear in court April 28.
This is the second arrest of a Chatham village official stemming from the joint investigation. Last month former of Chatham village police chief Peter Volkmann pleaded guilty to illegally collecting over $92,000 from the village of Chatham and the state pension system.