Hempfield man charged in theft scheme involving 2 Allegheny County school districts
Share this post:
A 45-year-old Hempfield man turned himself in to Allegheny County detectives Wednesday on charges he stole about $31,000 from two area school districts last year, according to the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office.
John Trageser is accused of theft, forgery and other crimes for allegedly devising a scheme where two school districts wrote checks for new wrestling mats to “WTL,” which authorities determined was the Westmoreland Travel League, a baseball organization led by Trageser.
Checks totalling just over $31,000 were issued to the league by Chartiers Valley and West Jefferson Hills school districts for new wrestling mats that were sold to them by Trageser, who worked for S&S Flooring of Ambridge, the company that sold and installed the mats.
Trageser’s attorney, Timothy Tomasic, declined to comment. He said he hadn’t reviewed the criminal complaint. Trageser, who did not return a call seeking comment, was released on an unsecured bond.
“He did a real number,” S&S Flooring owner David Murray said.
Murray and his company in January filed civil lawsuits seeking payment from the school districts which are pending. Officials from both districts told county detectives it wasn’t unusual for checks to be issued to other providers and being asked to issue checks to WTL didn’t raise alarms, according to the complaint.
Murray and Trageser have also sued each other in Allegheny County over their business dealings.
Trageser was employed by S&S for about 18 months and he stopped working for S&S in September 2019, according to Murray.