CHENANGO COUNTY – On Friday, more than two years after first being charged in April of 2019, former Pharsalia Town Supervisor Dennis Brown pleaded guilty to stealing $240,000 in public funds in Chenango County Court and agreed to pay the rest of it back.

Brown pleaded guilty to second degree grand larceny, as a crime of public corruption.

As part of the plea Brown agreed to pay $240,000 in restitution, he has already paid $125,000. Prosecutors said he will be sentenced in September and could face a potential state prison term of between one and three years.

Brown had been allowed to remain out of jail without bail with prosecutors citing the case's non-violent nature, the defendant's age, ties to the local community, and ongoing medical needs as factors.

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli first announced Brown's arrest on April 10, 2019 following an audit of the town's finances, saying, “Since 2010, Mr. Brown allegedly cheated his neighbors out of over a hundred thousand dollars by using public funds for his pleasure and daily expenses.”

DiNapoli said Friday, “For decades, the residents of Pharsalia trusted Dennis Brown to safeguard taxpayer money, but instead he treated the town’s funds like a personal piggybank, pocketing over $240,000.”