3 Syracuse Area School Employees Arrested, Defrauding After School Program

Three employees of the Syracuse City School District have been arrested for allegedly defrauding a program designed to help students graduate.

Following a joint investigation by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s Office and Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, Jason Cecile, Tina DeCarlo and Nicole Murry were charged with Defrauding the Government and Corrupting the Government.

The three were employees of the school district’s after-school Twilight Program.

The Twilight Program is a recovery program located at Syracuse’s Henninger High School for students who need support in order to graduate on time.

The three employees are accused of engaging in a scheme to regularly leave their jobs at the program early and to submit false time sheets that stated they were at work.

They also allegedly created a fake home visit log to falsely claim they were visiting Twilight students at their homes.

“My office has always taken fraud and corruption seriously, but it is particularly troubling when children in our community suffer because misguided educators act selfishly. Once again, it has been a pleasure to work with our great Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and his staff in ensuring that public servants do not abuse the public trust. I thank Superintendent Jaime Alicea for his cooperation in this investigation and, like him, I feel that this case is an anomaly and does not reflect on the hardworking dedicated teachers of the Syracuse City School District,” said Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick.

Cecile, DeCarlo and Murray were arraigned in Syracuse City Court and released on their own recognizance.

Murray is due back in court on June 3.

The next court date for Cecile and DeCarlo is to be determined.