Credit: Middletown Township
The man accused of stealing more than $24,000 from the Middletown Athletic Association (MAA) advised the Middletown Township Board of Supervisor on financial matters, documents and the township manager confirm.
Robert Butts, 53, of Homestead Road in the Levittown section of Middletown, was arrested last week on charges he stole large amounts of money from the MAA and used it to avoid foreclosure and pay for his bill at a Bensalem strip club while he served as the non-profit’s treasurer, police said.
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Middletown Township Manager Stephanie Teoli confirmed that Butts is currently serving on the committee. She added that he has not attended a meeting since fall.
“The board is advisory and had no access to accounts,” Teoli said. She told LevittownNow.com that all the information Butts had access to in his role is already public record.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the township had not received resignation from Butts, who began serving on the committee in 2010. According to township meeting minutes, Butts’ term is up in 2014.
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Teoli read a statement prepared after speaking with township solicitor Joseph Pizzo. The statement said the township expects Butts to submit a resignation letter by the end of the week.
Supervisor Drew Kreiling also serves as president of the MAA and was asked via text message by Butts to “cover” him if he called the theft an “investment or loan” in August 2012, police said in court documents. Kreiling was reported to have said no.
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Lower Southampton, who employed Butts as its finance director, parted ways with him recently. A job listing on the township website marks the position as being vacant.
According to court documents, Butts theft was uncovered last year when the MAA did not have enough funds to complete work on sports fields.
Butts provided the MAA board with documents which misrepresented the actual finances, police said. Authorities said he had full control the MAA finance, except for checks, which had to be signed off by the board.
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During a majority of his term as MAA treasurer, Butts was unemployed. He received a $10,000 loan from his sister, withdrew money from his son’s trust account and worked part-time for UPS. However, authorities say he never tried to pay back the MAA once he got his job at Lower Southampton in early 2012.
Since the investigation began, Butts has been reimbursing the MAA, his lawyer told police.
