Former Uniontown treasurer guilty of stealing more than $100k in city tax payments
Hodge scheduled for trial in another theft case in December
The former Uniontown treasurer accused of stealing more than $100,000 from the city’s tax payments was convicted by a Fayette County jury on all charges Thursday.
Antoinette Louise Hodge was convicted of four felony counts that included theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, perjury and theft by failure to make required disposition, along with misdemeanor charges of misapplying government funds and obstructing administration of justice.
Hodge, 55, was indicted by a statewide grand jury in December 2022 and accused of stealing $106,750 in tax payments between 2020 and 2021 while working as the elected city treasurer in Uniontown.
The jury trial began Monday in Fayette County Court of Common Pleas before President Judge Steve Leskinen and concluded with Thursday’s verdict. Leskinen is set to sentence Hodge at a later date.
The state Attorney General’s office, which prosecuted that case, could not be reached for comment late Thursday. A message left at the public defender’s office late Thursday afternoon was not immediately returned.
This week’s trial was one of two theft cases Hodge is facing.
She is also charged with allegedly taking $112,484 from the Youghiogheny Western Baptist Association, which is a religious association with 27 individual churches across the region, including in Fayette and Greene counties. State police said Hodge used her position as the board chairperson to oversee the association’s bank accounts and failed to pay bills or real estate taxes, which left the organization in financial distress.
She is facing 33 counts of forgery, along with three charges of theft and one count each of dealing in the proceeds of unlawful activities, receiving stolen property and misapplication of entrusted property. Hodges is scheduled to go to trial in that case on Dec. 2.
In both situations, investigators said she used the stolen funds for vacations, playing the lottery and gambling at casinos.
Hodge ran unsuccessfully for reelection as city treasurer in the Democratic primary in May 2023, but lost and left office when her term expired at the end of last year.