Hudson Valley Teacher Accused of Stealing Money From Charity

A Hudson Valley teacher is accused of stealing over $5,000 from a child-care charity.

On Tuesday, New York State Inspector General Letizia Tagliafierro announced the arrest of Patti Milisauskas, 53, of Grahamsville who was charged with grand larceny.

Milisauskas, a teacher 4 at the State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision’s Woodbourne Correctional Facility, is accused of stealing over $5,000 in charitable funds, raised by facility employees hoping to create a child-care facility for children of prison staff.

Milisauskas used the stolen funds to pay personal expenses including costs related to show horses she rode, officials say.

“The defendant’s funding of a show-horse hobby with charitable child-care money she controlled was a violation of trust rooted in greed,” Inspector General Tagliafierro said. “She cleaned out a bank account built on a dream of a safe and convenient facility for the children of Woodbourne’s employees, and she will now be held accountable.”

An investigation by the Offices of the Inspector General found that Milisauskas, in the early 2000s, was one of a group of Woodbourne Correctional employees trying to create a daycare facility for the children of employees at Woodbourne and nearby Sullivan Correctional Facility. Those employees obtained not-for-profit status for a corporation and began raising money to create the “Step-by-Step Child Care” at the facility. Ultimately, no daycare center was created. Several of the original employees who initiated the funding drive retired or left employment and the money for the facility remained in a bank account, officials say.

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In late 2017, Milisauskas allegedly withdrew more than $5,000 from that account and used that money for expenses related to show horses that she rode, among other personal expenses.

Milisauskas was arraigned on the charge in the Village of Liberty Court and released on her own recognizance.

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