Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Hurley — Former Hurley mayor Joe Pinardi is facing charges in Iron County Court in connection to an existing case involving former fire chief Darrell Petrusha.
Pinardi, 69, is charged with being a party to the crime of unauthorized use of an entity’s identifying information or documents, misdemeanor false swearing and obstructing an officer.
The first is a felony, while the other two counts are misdemeanors.
The charges primarily stem from statements Pinardi allegedly made regarding Petrusha’s case, according to the criminal complaint filed Monday.
Pinardi declined to comment beyond saying he was innocent of the charges Thursday, citing the ongoing legal case.
Petrusha is charged with one count of unauthorized use of an entity’s identifying information or documents.
Both cases center on a Hurley Fire Department credit card, which Petrusha allegedly used for personal purchases between 2013 and 2016 while he was fire chief.
The department decided to get the card in March 2007, according to court documents, to make it easier to obtain hotels rooms when traveling for department business.
At the time, there was no city or internal policy regarding credit cards, according to Monday’s complaint.
“The city council did not approve the receipt of the credit card, nor were they required to do so,” the complaint reads.
According to the complaint, both Petrusha and Pinardi used their Social Security numbers to apply for the cards. The complaint alleges the city of Hurley’s Employee Identification Number was used when applying as the department didn’t have its own.
Hurley Clerk Stacey Wiercinski learned of the card in January 2018, according to the complaint, when she tried to obtain a card for the police department and was denied because the fire department card had a delinquent balance of $7,800.
This led to the Wisconsin Department of Justice-Division of Criminal Investigation opening an investigation in March 2018.
According to the complaint, Pinardi spoke with city attorney Bill Nordean about Petrusha’s debt in February 2018 and he said “Nordean indicated he did not think it was a crime for Petrusha to use the city credit card for personal purchases, but thought Petrusha should pay what he owed.”
Potentially complicating the issue of repayment, according to the complaint, was Pinardi’s 2016 bankruptcy. According to the complaint, Wiercinski learned the debt was discharged during the proceedings as it was associated with Pinardi’s Social Security number. Pinardi said the card had to be reactivated for the debt to be paid, according to the complaint, but the bankruptcy proceedings prevented its reactivation.
As part of the investigation, Special Agent Loreen Glaman interviewed Pinardi on March 29 and March 30.
According to the complaint, Pinardi told Glaman he didn’t know Petrusha had been using the card for personal purchases until January 2018. Pinardi said he didn’t talk with Petrusha about using it for personal purchasing, neither giving him permission or telling him not to use it for that purpose.
“Pinardi told Special Agent Glaman that he didn’t think it was a problem for Petrusha to use the card for personal purchases and make payments on the purchases,” the complaint reads.
The complaint alleges Pinardi later said Petrusha told him several years ago he was using the card for personal items and would make the payments.
The complaint also alleges Pinardi swore in a July 2018 affidavit that he, on advice of his bankruptcy attorney, listed the credit card debt in the proceedings as the card had been issued to him personally. The complaint alleges Glaman didn’t find the debt among those listed in the proceedings and Pinardi “indicated he had no ‘codebitors.’”
In Petrusha’s case, Judge Patrick Madden rejected a defense motion to dismiss the charge against him for lack of probable cause at a hearing Monday.
Along with the criminal cases, the credit card usage is at the center of a lawsuit Pinardi and Petrusha filed against the city of Hurley and U.S. Bancorp several weeks ago.
The lawsuit contends Pinardi obtained the business credit card through Gogebic Range Bank, an institution the city wasn’t authorized to conduct business with. The bank was selected because one of the firefighters, Mike Sejbl, worked there.
“Pursuant to (state law), it would have been a violation of Wisconsin law for the city to have an account with the GR Bank because the GR Bank was located in Michigan and the GR Bank did not have a branch office in Wisconsin,” the lawsuit reads. “Also, in 2007, the city had not designated GR Bank as the city’s depository or the financial institution it did business with, or that otherwise handled the city’s business financial accounts.”
The bank’s credit card business was later acquired by Elan Financial Services, according to the lawsuit, a division of U.S. Bank National Association — a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp.
Both Petrusha and Pinardi had cards with their respective names and “Hurley Fire Department” on them, according to the suit, and Pinardi was listed as the account holder with both listed as authorized users.
The lawsuit claims Petrusha or Pinardi were acting in a personal, rather than professional, capacity when obtaining the cards.
The suit asks the court to find Pinardi the sole account holder and the city of Hurley wasn’t an account holder. It continues that, if Pinardi is the sole account holder, “Then there is no basis to claim that Petrusha engaged in unauthorized use of the city’s identifying information as alleged in (the criminal case) because the city is not the holder on that account.”
Iron County District Attorney Matt Tingstad said even if Pinardi, who is chairman of the Iron County Board of Supervisors, and Petrusha win their lawsuit, the criminal cases can continue, in part because, there are different burdens of proof in criminal and civil cases.
Pinardi is scheduled to next appear in court March 25, according to court records, while Petrusha’s next scheduled appearance is March 26. No future court date has been set in the civil case.
