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" A Crime is a Crime. The State Police found enough evidence to give to the grand Jury and charge her and even had a counsel outside the Jurisdiction handle the matter. Let's wait to see what the verdict is first, before we belittle the woman that probably none of you know, but only what you have read about. Give Justice a Chance here. "

" I understand the frustration of of the trial, and I agree with most of you...if Mrs. Milton is guilty, termination or suspension probably would have been the most appropriate course of action here. But as far as Denise C. goes, she is really a very nice person. I have been a friend of her family's for over 20 years and she has always been very friendly and pleasant to be around. Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth. I just hope the people who have posted the judgmental comments about Denise at least know who she is before saying these things. "

" That's only hearsay. If someone were to tell you that your best friend said your butt looked fat, would you believe them just because they said it? "

" Sounds like Cowan left early alot. Perhaps Milton was asking Cowan as friend or neighbor to give the kids a ride. But I think the operative word here is "asked" not ordered. Cowan waw Milton's son working on envelops. Saw stamps coming into the office. Did not see the stamps go on the same envelops Milton's son was working on. This isn't even circumstancial evidence. It is a vendetta by a former employee. "

" If you read todays article, it states that Ms. Milton admitted to using the postage. She also said that she didn't think that there was anything wrong with it. Okay. Well, maybe a stamp or two, but taking 1000? That's definitely wrong. And there was more than one employee that stated that Ms. Milton did indeed request her employee to take her children home. She's definitely guilty of the charges brought against her. I guess the punishment is more in question. And I think I'd be a little upset if I got a $2 an hour paycut, for whatever reason, while Ms. MIlton is using government $$ to make herself look like the Pope. "

" Drop in wages could be because Ms. Cesario was not doing the same job as she once did. Dont's forget our County Board has say so on pay rates. Let's use the old example of if you were a team supervisor and then something occured and then you were just part of the team, this would deem a cut in pay. Supervisors tend to make a bit more than the staff. 1000 stamps for the year, not for a month or for a week. Ms. Cowan was not forced to pick up PeggyAnn's kids and it was a known fact in the office that Ms. Cowan left early many times as well as having a varied schedule from other county clerks. "

" Which is it? Does the office use metered mail as To "Who" posted or did the office order the stamps as Pantagraph got it wrong! Posted? I know things like this go on everywhere and if it happened, yes it is theft but come on, a slap on the hand and a don't do it again would have been enough. All Betzy Cowan had to do as tell Milton no if she didn't want to do it. It doesn't make any difference how much comp time a person has. That is there time and if Cowan felt she would loose her job by saying no that would be better grounds for charges being filed I would think. I am a little curious as to why a drop in wages too? "

" Can she perform miracles and walk on water? "

" So, she wasn't given time off early to take the kids home, she was already leaving anyways for comp time? Please keep us abreast of this trial, because the Pantagraph tends to slant information and then pretty soon people are assuming what the Pantagraph wrote was true, when in fact there is much more to the story. "

" Why can't they just request a report of postage spent during the time that the "witness" supposedly saw Milton and her son with 1000 (did she count them?) charity letters. If the postage machine isn't a dinosaur, then it should work like this: It's like a debit account. You pay a chunk of money for future postage, and you get alerts to let you know what the balance is. Surely, there must be some record that could settle this dispute. "

" Yea this does sound kind of fishy. None of them ever saw her use the stamps either, so how can they even have some kind of proof that she did? This just needs to get settled out of court, this is a waste of time and money on everyone's part. "

" I agree. This disgruntled employee did admit that she NEVER saw her boss or her son using the postage for her charity's letters (it's appalling that a person would retaliate a cut in pay by possibly falsely getting someone in huge trouble for using postage FOR CHARITY!!!) This happens in offices everywhere. Actually, much worse crap like happens, and it's shocking that this office tiff made it to trial. I'm so disgusted that my tax dollars are put towards a junior high cat fight! And you're right - not only was the employee ASKED, not told, to take the kids home, she was given incentive to take some time off early. And come on, between 6 - 12 times? That's a pretty broad estimate, and makes me wonder if this whiner is just making it up that she was asked so many times to do this. I'm surprised the City wouldn't want to find a reason to let this whiner-employee go. After all, if she sees just one person put a company pen in their purse, even if by accident, she'll have 'em arrested and take their butts to court! "

" Wow. This trial is completely ridiculous. The state's evidence looks pathetically weak here. I don't care about her politics - this really does appear like a disgruntled employee is just trying to get revenge. "

" Thank you so much ladies for spending (wasting) MY tax dollars. You should be horribly ashamed. "

" You have to be kidding me. 1000 stamps is approx. $400.00. How much money do you think this trial is costing the tax payers? "

" I think you need to reread the article... "they saw about 1,000 stamps brought to the office, which normally uses metered mail" If the office uses metered mail, then could the stamps possibly be brought in by her or her son? " Cowan testified that Milton asked her six to 12 times to transport her children home " The key word here was ASKED; not told to. This whole case is ridiculous and is cost us WAY to much $$$. For that; I am angered!! "

" all have a sinking feeling in our guts that this is indeed nothing but a set up against an innocent woman? That we've been torturing this woman for a year---based on nothing. Think about the tragedy and injustice of that. Also, start thinking about the millions Milton is going to nail everyone for in the civil lawsuits after she's cleared. Cesario's house in Towanda is some lawyer's paycheck. And Milton, when she sues and wins, deserves every nickle she ends up with! Somebody really screwed up bad here and we're all going to have to pay for it now. Think saying gee, we're sorry, our bad, is going to cut it? "

" It was also clear from the actual testimony not reported exactly correctly in the paper that Betzy Cowan had tons of comp time to spend and she was using it by going home a little early some afternoons. She took the Milton kids home a FEW times ---on her own way home--as a personal favor because the Cowans and the Miltons were FRIENDS! Cowan was not on the clock. Cowan was not ordered to do it. Cowan was going home anyway. It was clear that Denise Cesario talked this poor Cowan woman into making this complaint against her will. It was also clear that Cowan was shown special favoritism by County Administrator Zeunick and being rewarded for her role in this lynching by being given a job at the Circuit Court despite not being qualified. ALL the witnesses against Milton were so bad on the stand, so transparently lying and exaggerating things, it was embarassing! Too bad this isn't on TV so that everyone can see and hear the testimony for themselves!!! "

" Unfortunately while this story is partially correct, it's not ALL correct. The story is missing some very important facts. You'd know that if you were there listening to the testimony. The 1000 stamps figure is inaccurate. That's the figure reported for the total amount of stamps that were purchased for the department for an entire year. ALL of these stamps are accounted for. All the prosc witnesses admitted on the stand that NONE of them ever saw Milton steal a single stamp. The blame isn't being SHIFTED, it's being brought back to where it belongs, on Denise Cesario and her revenge motive. You should have seen the look on her face when she was confronted with her attitude about Milton prior to the reversal of a TEMPORARY PAY HIKE she had. She adored PAM then and they showed evidence to prove it. Once she had to go back down to her previous pay, she got mad, quit, and tried to smear Milton out of pure revenge. It was OBVIOUS. "

" How do you get your pay decreased by more than $2 an hour? A shoddy job performance review could cut down your pay increases, but how does the county just cut pay like that? Aren't the county employees represented by a union that would fight a pay decrease like that? "

" for a paycut. But in the tradition of a defense lawyer they are trying to shift the blame on someone else. Take your eyes off my client is the lament they all sound. A thousand stamps is a whole lot more than a few. The fact corruption costs honest, hardworking taxpayers billions each year is enough for me to say, at any level this is unacceptable. It is also against the law. "