Financial Aid sec'y arrested

Hines accused of stealing more than $50,000

A College administrative assistant pled not guilty to charges that she stole $52,000 over the past three years by altering her time cards. Andrea Hines, who worked in the office of financial aid, was arrested Friday and charged with 30 counts of forgery, four counts of theft and one count of tampering with records at her Friday arraignment.

Hines waived a pre-trial hearing Wednesday, and her case will now move to the Lorain County Court grand jury which will decide whether to indict her.

Hines, who is currently out on bond, could face up to six months for each of the 35 felony charges.

Hines� arrest came only a week after the resignation of Director of Financial Aid Howard Thomas. According to administrative sources Thomas�s resignation was related to the arrest, but was not the only reason he left the College. Thomas declined to comment on the situation.

The problem was first called to the attention of Controller Ron Watts by an employee within the Office of Financial Aid. According to Watts, an internal investigation began in November when he started monitoring time cards coming out of the office. Watts noticed differences between cards approved by Howard and cards received in the payroll office. After this discovery Hines was suspended pending further investigation.

Watts then did a full pay roll audit of the financial aid office to determine whether this was an isolated incident. In the course of the investigation no collusion was found between Hines and any other employees in the office.

�Yes, this was isolated, thank goodness,� Watts said.

In late January, Watts notified police of the problem. Police investigators agreed with Watts� assessment that there were no other people involved. �It seems she was the only one involved,� Detective David Jasinski said.

During the time between July 1995 and December 1998, investigators found 30 forged time cards and several with other alterations. Police found many different ways in which time cards were altered; in some cases, hours were added after approval in ink. In other cases there were forgeries.

�It was very obvious that they were altered,� Jasinski said.

There is indication that Howard may have been negligent in his duties as director for not catching the theft sooner. �The department head gave approved cards back to the employee which is breaking an internal control guideline. That�s a real problem when you have that,� Watts said.

Watts, who has been at Oberlin for over 20 years, has never seen anything of this magnitude. �There were a lot of things lined up during this time that exacerbate the situation. It was the fraudulent, premeditated process that was quite pervasive,� he said.

The College will be reimbursed for the stolen money by insurance.