Gerald D. Pawling will be sentenced at later date on about 100 charges
By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times
Gerald D. Pawling
Slightly more than a week after a former Coatesville detective waived his third preliminary hearing on theft and fraud charges that prosecutors say total more than $70,000, he was back in court.
On Wednesday, April 9, Gerald D. Pawling, 43, of Caln Township, appeared before Chester County Court Judge David F. Bortner and entered an open guilty plea to 102 offenses. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.
With about a dozen Coatesville Police officers and county detectives listening, Deputy District Attorney Carlos Barraza gave a lengthy recitation of the facts that supported the guilty plea. An open plea means that the sentence will be determined by the judge rather than negotiated between the prosecution and defense.
After the hearing, defense attorney Daniel R. Bush stressed that Pawling has made significant contributions to the community over the years. “Today’s plea is Gerald Pawling’s acceptance of responsibility for his acts, and his acknowledgement that he has done wrong and let a large group of people down,” Bush said. “Mr. Pawling’s lifetime of good acts for the people of Coatesville are not erased by the events leading to today’s plea. The good far outweighs the bad.”
Coatesville Police Chief Jack Laufer said he felt it was important that the department have a strong presence to ensure that the community understands that such criminal behavior will not be tolerated, no matter who the defendant is. Coatesville Police Lt. James Audette said five other officers were prevented from attending because they had district-court hearings at the same time. Laufer said he would reserve further comment until the sentencing.
Pawling, who worked for the Coatesville Police Department for 17 years before retiring in 2012, was arrested three times over the course of seven months. Referencing the first criminal complaint in August, Barraza said Pawling stole nearly $47,000 from the Coatesville Police Benevolent Association (CPBA) when he was its treasurer and the Coatesville Police Athletic League (CPAL), where he served as executive director.
From the second complaint, Pawling admitted stealing an additional $10,445 from the CPBA through payments on a Staples store account, an additional $2,745 from CPAL to repave the driveway of his house, and over $12,000 from the Coatesville Police Department’s evidence room, Barraza said. Pawling also acknowledged forging signatures of other police officers on several occasions, Barraza said.
The use of the Staples account, which funded a Nikon D40 camera, led to the third set of charges, involving an $1,875.16 fraudulent claim to Travellers Insurance Company in 2009, Barraza said. After falsely reporting that a Nikon D40 camera, a Nikon 12-24mm lens, a GPS unit, and cash had been stolen from a vehicle on April 21, 2009, Pawling continued to use the camera as well as a $899 lens, which Pawling stole from the police department, Barraza said. In addition, investigators found another $3,674.51 in cash stolen from evidence envelopes, Barraza said.
Barraza said the dozens of felony charges Pawling faces carry a standard sentencing guideline range of probation to nine months in prison; the misdemeanor charges, probation to one month. Barraza declined to comment on whether he would be recommending a sentence that includes prison time. Bush also declined comment on what sentence he would be seeking.
