Aids Task Force: Update
Here is the Pal-Item article: Selkirk faces 10 felonies. It said 10 felony theft counts, and when I rechecked the case database, there are 10 counts filed.
The article provides the detail that the charges cover not only Selkirk’s service at the Task Force, but also his activities as director of local Hope House, a drug recovery and housing program. I had forgotten that Selkirk went to Hope House after leaving the Task Force under fire. Prosecutor Michael Shipman noted the difficulties in pursuing criminal charges in misappropriation cases:
“I have put more time into the investigative stage of this case than any other criminal case I’ve been involved in,” Shipman said. “Tracking down a large sum of money spent in small amounts over a long period of time is difficult.”
I also found some of the charge details interesting, besides spending $346 to see the 3 Tenors in Chicago:
Hired a New Castle woman he had met in an online chat room and instructed her to do the task force’s 2002 audit even though the woman was not a public accountant or a certified public accountant. He paid the woman $3,150 to do the audit and eventually paid her $8,700 for consulting and fund-raising services. Her audit eventually was rejected by the Indiana State Board of Accounts because it was not done by an accountant. Selkirk did not have a romantic relationship with the woman.
The article also quotes a friend of mine, who got me involved with the Task Force, and who was booted off the board along with me by Selkirk:
Jean Gifford, who was one of the founders of the AIDS task force but was removed from the board by Selkirk, was happy to hear of the charges.
“I’m very disappointed,” she said. “It makes me ill to think of what has happened, primarily because of the clients who were definitely affected.
November 6th, 2008 16:57
[...] the history on this issue see these posts: Aids Task Force: Update and Wayne County Aids Task Force: Prosecution [...]