Former Ind. township trustee charged with theft

A former township trustee from northern Indiana faces charges that she stole more than $53,000 from the township’s poor relief fund.

Fifty-five-year-old Patricia C. Wade of Bunker Hill was arrested Thursday on six felony counts of theft and one felony count of official misconduct.

Indiana State Police said that as trustee of Miami County’s Pipe Creek Township she wrote 150 rent checks to fictitious landlords and deposited the money in bank accounts that she controlled between 2004 and early this year.

Wade resigned in March from the office she had since at least 1990.

She was released from the Miami County Jail. A message seeking comment was left at her home.

The charges against her each carry a penalty of six months to three years in prison.