2003 Media Releases:

CAMDEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
VINCENT P. SARUBBI, CAMDEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR
MEDIA   INFORMATION

March 3, 2003

Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi announced that Hilda Battle, F/43, a corrections officer at the Camden County Correctional Facility in Camden, pleaded guilty today to an Accusation charging her with Theft by Unlawful Taking.

Battle, of the first block of Oak Street in Lindenwold, is the former treasurer of Police Benevolent Association Local 351, the collective bargaining unit for county corrections officers. She admitted writing six PBA checks to herself for personal use and without union authorization. Battle wrote the checks, which totaled $13,550, between January 2002 and January 2003.

In court today, Battle, a 14-year corrections officer, made restitution in the amount of $9,000 and agreed to pay back the remaining $4,550 as well. A plea agreement negotiated by Assistant Prosecutor Leslie B. Dicker, Section Chief of the Special Prosecutions Unit within the Prosecutor's Office, requires Battle to forfeit her position at the jail. An order signed by Presiding Criminal Court Judge Linda G. Baxter bars Battle from ever holding a government job again. The defendant resigned from the jail on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2003.

Local 351 is a charitable organization and also administers members' health benefits.

Dicker will recommend a period of non-custodial probation when Baxter sentences Battle.

The offenses came to light when other union members and officers reviewed Local 351 financial records and questioned a $5,000 check Battles wrote to herself on Jan. 16, 2003. Union officers then audited the check ledger and discovered the five earlier unauthorized checks.