MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (WXIX) - Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser confirms his office is reviewing the findings of a state and local criminal investigation at Middletown’s now-former senior center.

“I am reviewing it in my role as prosecuting attorney,” he said, declining all further comment.

No charges have been filed at this point.

Middletown police, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Special Investigations Unit at the State Auditor’s Office began investigating in the summer of 2023.

The senior center’s executive director, Diane Rodgers, was abruptly fired in late July 2023 by the board of a non-profit agency that oversaw the publicly funded facility at the time “after a large theft was discovered,” state records show.

Middletown police escorted Rodgers from the building and she was ordered to never return.

The chief told FOX19 NOW at that time she was the focus of the probe.

Newly released state emails show investigators clearly honed in on her from the start.

Rodgers could not be reached for comment.

Her lawyer had little to say on her behalf after she was fired.

In an August 2023 email to FOX19 NOW, he wrote “My client and I have been informed that there is an ongoing investigation. As such, while my client would like to comment and clear up several misconceptions, she is taking my advice and refusing to comment on any allegations at this time.”

FOX19 NOW reached out to the same attorney this week, but he responded that he no longer represents her and declined comment.

Ex-director ‘has criminal history for similar thefts in other states’

As Middletown detectives began investigating, they realized they needed the expertise of forensic accountants. The police chief asked BCI to assist their investigation into “an alleged theft from a local organization,” according to a copy of his request.

BCI agreed to have limited involvement in helping police through the first tier of the investigation and met with them on Aug. 4, 2023, according to an interoffice email at the State Auditor’s Office.

One day prior, city officials disclosed in a public meeting the non-profit agency and board overseeing the senior center that hired Rodgers in 2021 only ran a criminal background check on her in Ohio instead of nationwide.

Rodgers came to Middletown from Nevada and formerly lived in California, where FOX19 NOW confirmed through the courts in 2023 that she was criminally charged in other states in 2006 on multiple counts of financial crimes such as forgery by altering a check, grand theft, burglary and making or passing a fictitious check.

The non-profit organization, Middletown Area Senior Citizens Inc., did business at that time as Central Connections, which also was the name of the senior center, according to online records at the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office.

Police have said the non-profit’s board fully cooperated with the investigation but it’s never been clear why they failed to thoroughly vet someone entrusted to oversee a public asset funded by millions from a tax levy.

Newly released state records show her criminal record “outside of Ohio included theft from senior facility type of entities in California and others.”

Shortly after meeting with Middletown police, BCI’s forensic accounting supervisor in the agency’s Technical Investigations Division sought help from a fraud investigator at the auditor’s office.

“I have a case that I believe is in need of your services,” he wrote in an Aug. 7, 2023, email obtained by FOX19 NOW through a public record request to the auditor’s office.

“A few weeks ago, the Director of the Middletown Senior Services was terminated after a large theft was discovered. She was hired 18 months ago and has a criminal history for similar thefts in other states. This is a non‐profit funded by the county.”

At that point in the email, he shared a link to FOX19 NOW’s Aug. 3, 2023 story about the city of Middletown planning to buy the center to keep it from closing within 24 hours.

It would be the second time Middletown residents invested in the center. Voters approved two five-year, 1-mill senior levies that generated $7 million to provide or maintain senior services at the center. The levy expired on Dec. 31, 2022, after 10 years.

The original mortgage was paid off when the levy ended, the city manager at the time, Paul Lolli, told City Council at that Aug. 3, 2023 meeting.

That same story also reported FOX19 NOW uncovered county records showing a $650,000 mortgage was taken out by Rodgers, as the executive director on behalf of Middletown Area Senior Citizens Inc., in 2022 - $450,000 in July and another $200,000 for the $650,000 total on Dec. 30, 2022, as the levy was ending.

What’s more, we found at least one $266,594.52 lien put on the property in May 2023 by a Milford contractor for a debt related to improvements at the center in June 2022.

‘I fear we are only scratching the surface of true theft’

The BCI official’s email to the state auditor’s office shared the findings of the investigation when it was in its early stages:

“The Director was writing checks to her husband, transferring money out of the organization, charging personal expenses. The employees were all being paid in cash as the bank account kept zeroing out. The Director opened an unauthorized café, bar, and store on the site of the Senior Center, and appears to have taken the cash generated by those businesses. The Senior Center has many vendor(s) who have gone unpaid and the building is being foreclosed upon.

“Unfortunately, all experienced accountants were dismissed early on and replaced with inexperienced accountants who had little visibility to what was happening in the organization. As far as anyone can tell, there is no ledger. While there are a few transactions that are obviously bad, with the information we have now I fear that we are only scratching the surface of the true theft. I believe a full audit is needed as well as assistance in recreating the ledger. This is beyond the capabilities of my unit. Do you think this is something that SIU would be interested in?”

In an exchange of more emails that day, both agencies realized the senior center never underwent a state audit despite being publicly funded.

The auditor’s fraud investigator also noted the senior center received $7 million in levy money and had unpaid vendors as they tried to figure out just how much money might be missing and how to possibly ever recover it.

“Potentially millions, they don’t have number of potential loss,” she continued. “I provided some feedback (to BCI such as) freeze OPERS on the first indictment and freeze identified bank accounts) to help protect where they believe they are as they believe she is a flight risk with her history.”

The auditor’s Special Investigations Unit agreed the next day to open an investigation, another email shows.

Two weeks later, Middletown police charged Rodgers’s husband with seven counts of passing bad checks in connection with the senior center.

Court records show he was accused of writing several checks totaling more than $56,000 from his bank to Central Connections. The checks were returned for insufficient funds, leading investigators to think he was trying to return money taken from the senior center’s account.

The following month, a Butler County grand jury opted not to indict him and the charges were dismissed, court records show.

Grand jury proceedings are confidential so it’s not clear why.

He could not be reached for comment and his most currently listed phone number is disconnected.

Middletown Event Center

The city of Middletown bought the senior center building in November 2023 with $1.8 million it received through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a $6.5 billion federal COVID-19 relief fund, city records show.

The month before the city bought it, the lien was released and the 2022 mortgage was satisfied and paid off in full, according to county records released Thursday to FOX19 NOW. The city agreed to only buy the center if the non-profit took care of all debts and liabilities, Lolli said.

“We did not buy the debits or liabilities,” Lolli said Thursday.

The non-profit agency that once ran the senior center is no longer affiliated with it in any way, Lolli added.

He declined to discuss the investigation but said Middletown wanted to save the center “to make sure we continued services for the seniors. We had to make sure there was a place for the seniors to congregate and get services.”

It’s now called the Middletown Event Center with a new manager, Angela Smith.

There is still programming for seniors and health screenings.

The public can also rent it for weddings and corporate or social events.

“They are renting the facility out and doing more and more every month,” Lolli said. “They’ve had weddings and other events there. The hope is it will become self-sustaining at some point.”

The center no longer offers Meals on Wheels for seniors.

Lolli said seniors can receive that through a program in Warren County.

Just before Rodgers was fired, the facility lost its contract that delivered about 3,000 meals to seniors per week.

The Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio severed ties over financial concerns about how meal delivery and senior transport programs were being handled.

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