Former Official Pleads Not Guilty to Fraud

Kevin DeWitt, the county’s former mental health manager, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges that he swindled the county out of $255,000 in wages by covering up a criminal past and presenting forged documents to obtain his $85,000-a-year job.

DeWitt, 40, declined to comment after a brief hearing. His defense attorney, David Follin, told reporters his client has done nothing wrong.

“Kevin DeWitt was thought of as highly successful at what he did and was well thought of by his superiors and people who worked with him,” Follin said.

But Assistant Dist. Atty. Terence Kilbride said evidence he will present at a preliminary hearing this month will show DeWitt conducted a shadow life, going to great lengths to juice up his job application and conceal his past.

DeWitt lied on employment forms about eight bank fraud convictions dating back 10 years, and gave county officials a phony 1993 doctoral diploma and bogus university transcripts, Kilbride said.

DeWitt is charged with single felony counts of forgery and grand theft that could carry up to three years in prison if he is convicted.

DeWitt resigned in August after news reports disclosed that he lied about his past when seeking a job as the Behavioral Health Department’s deputy director in 1996. DeWitt told The Times he failed to inform the county of the felony bank fraud convictions because several years had passed.