Thomas MacMillan File Photo
Four years after Gary Holder-Winfield won his first election to the state legislature, the state Friday arrested his treasurer for allegedly pilfering thousands of dollars from his campaign.
Sandra McKinnie (pictured), 49, of Fountain Street, was arrested Friday and charged with stealing $4,270 from Holder-Winfield’s 2008 campaign for state representative, according to Chief State’s Attorney spokesman Mark Dupuis.
She was charged with one count of “first-degree larceny by defrauding a public community” and two counts of violating campaign finance laws, Dupuis said. She surrendered Friday afternoon to inspectors from the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney at the North Haven Police Department, he said.
Click here to read the arrest warrant application.
The arrest came as the result of an audit by the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC), according to Dupuis.
Dupuis said the audit found “$4,270 in cash transactions that were not accounted for.”
The 43 transactions took place between August 12, 2008 and October 28, 2008, Dupuis said. Ms. McKinnie was “the only signatory on the account,” he said.
Paul Bass File Photo
Holder-Winfield and McKinnie at a 2009 aldermanic campaign event.
Reached Friday, Holder-Winfield said he had at the time been unaware of the problem and has worked with the SEEC over the last three years to try to clear it up.
The campaign received about $25,000 from the state’s public campaign financing program in July 2008, according to Dupuis.
Larceny in the First Degree by Defrauding a Public Community is a felony carrying a maximum prison term of 20 years. The campaign finance law violations are felonies punishable by up to five years in prison on each count.
The SEEC eventually took the case to the chief state’s attorney’s office. Inspectors from the Financial Crimes Bureau in the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney arrested her Friday and released her on a promise to appear in state Superior Court on Elm Street on Oct. 2, according to Dupuis.
McKinnie could not be reached for this story. The arrest warrant quotes her as admitting “I wasn’t diligent” about the treasurer job, and as saying she hadn’t read the government manual outlining her responsibilities. She described herself as the campaign “piss girl.”
McKinnie told investigators she had kept the financial records from the campaign for a “length of time,” but she was unable to find them. When confronted with information about $4,270 in missing ATM withdrawals, McKinnie told an investigator she did not use the funds for personal reasons or for any reason other than the campaign. However, she refused to issue a written statement attesting to that claim, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
Paul Bass contributed reporting.