NJ Woman Guilty of Overbilling Paterson School by $190K

A jury has found a former Paterson school district employee guilty of misconduct and theft.

Prosecutors had charged Anna Taliaferro of hiring a company in which she had an undisclosed financial interest to organize parent conferences for the district, and with overbilling the district by nearly $200,000.

On Thursday a jury in Passaic County found the 76-year-old guilty of three official misconduct counts and one count of theft by deception. Taliaferro retired from the school district in 2008 and has been living in Virginia Beach, Va.

The state claimed Taliaferro lied on ethics forms about being president of a nonprofit corporation that organized taxpayer-funded conferences. She also allegedly ran the nonprofit using school district employees and resources, and overbilled the district by $190,000.

Taliaferro is to be sentenced in March.

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