Former Fire Department Treasurer Sentenced For Theft

The former Treasurer of the Cecil Township Volunteer Fire Department Number 2 was sentenced on Tuesday for her role in a series unauthorized charges to the department’s debit card and checks being written to herself. Toni Zombeck, 68 of Muse entered an open plea of guilty to a felony charge of theft by failure to make required deposits. Her sentence was lenient in that she will serve seven years probation with the first six months on house arrest on electronic home monitoring. She will also be required to make $32,279 in restitution to the Utica Insurance Company. In her allocution statement Zombeck spoke of mental and physical health issues that she has been experiencing since the death of her husband several years ago. She blamed her addiction to gambling on lottery tickets as the reason that she used the fire department funds to make personal payments to herself. Zombeck apologized to the court, fire department and community at large. Zombeck could have been sentenced to three to twelve months in jail. The judge took into account her remorse and clean criminal record remarking that she does not even have evidence of a traffic ticket during the sentencing. Both, the defense attorney and district attorney described the sentence as fair.