Danbury educator charged with embezzling from Brookfield PTO

Monica Bevilacqua, left, Head Start director in Danbury, Conn., and U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty. Monica Bevilacqua, left, Head Start director in Danbury, Conn., and U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty. Photo: Carol Kaliff Buy photo Photo: Carol Kaliff Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Danbury educator charged with embezzling from Brookfield PTO 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

BROOKFIELD — The leader of Danbury’s Head Start education program was arrested Friday and charged with embezzling $12,700 from a Brookfield elementary school’s parent teacher organization over two years.

Monica Bevilacqua is accused of taking money from the Center Elementary School parent teacher organization’s accounts through a series of checks and more than 180 personal orders charged to the organization’s credit card.

She was arrested by Brookfield Police on Friday morning and is charged with one count of second degree larceny, three counts of second degree forgery and one count of illegal use of a credit card, according to a Brookfield Police report.

She was released Friday on a written promise to appear and a hearing is scheduled for Jan. 10 in Danbury Superior Court.

The PTO is a private organization that does not receive any public funding from the town of Brookfield or its school district.

Brookfield Superintendent John Barile said in a statement that school officials were “deeply disappointed” to hear of the police findings, but noted that it appears to be “isolated conduct.”

Bevilacqua will pay full restitution to the PTO accounts, said Gene Zingaro, Bevilacqua’s attorney.

“Monica has a clean record and to my knowledge she’s never had any allegation like this before,” he said. “She’s going to make whole restitution up front. Clearly she’s trying to make this right.”

Police began investigating in August when new leadership at the PTO raised concerns to police and schools leaders after finding irregularities in the organization’s financial records.

Bevilacqua served as treasurer of the PTO from November 2016 to July 2018.

The ensuing investigation found Bevilacqua wrote eleven checks to herself or to “cash” and forged another person’s signature on three of those checks, police said.

Investigators also found Bevilacqua had used the organization’s credit to make 139 purchases from Amazon, 19 purchases at other merchants and 24 purchases from DoorDash, an on-demand meal delivery service.

Bevilacqua is the past chair of the Brookfield Democratic Town Committee and she briefly served on the Huckleberry Hill PTO in September.

She also has worked for the Connecticut Institute For Communities for more than a decade leading the regional Head Start program, an initiative that helps provide early education to more than 350 low-income preschool children and support for their families.

CIFC has reviewed its own finances and concluded that there are no financial irregularities in their accounts and that Bevilacqua has never had signature authority in connection with any CIFC bank anyway, CEO Jim Maloney said.

CIFC has placed Bevilacqua on indefinite suspension, with pay, as CIFC Director of Early Learning and Head Start, pending the outcome of the court proceedings, he said.

She has never been accused of any misconduct while at CIFC, Maloney noted.

“Mrs. Bevilacqua has served in her Program Director position with distinction and integrity, and has been very well regarded by her supervisors, her peers, and her staff,” he said.

Brookfield Police did not release additional information about their investigation Friday. Current leadership of the Center Elementary School PTO were no able to immediately comment on the investigation late Friday.

zach.murdock@hearstmediact.com