Man Accused Of Stealing AIDS Funds May Avoid Jail

The man in charge of the AIDS Task Force of Southeast Central Indiana was charged by the Wayne County prosecutor with 10 felony counts of theft in January, 2006, but under a plea agreement the prosecutor plans to drop most of the charges and reduce the remaining theft counts to mere conversion. Insted of jail time, William Selkirk is likely to do 120 days of home detention and serve 3 years of probation. He would also be required to repay $11,050 to the Hope Fund. Here were the facts contained in the original charge as outlined by the Palladium-Item:

• Wrote an $8,000 check out of AIDS Task Force funds to a local businessman to cover the payroll of the man's private business. Neither the businessman nor task force officials have any record the money was paid back.
• Hired a New Castle woman he had met in an online chat room and instructed her to do the task force's 2002 state audit even though the woman was not a public accountant or a certified public accountant. He paid the woman $3,150 to do the audit and eventually paid her $8,700 for consulting and fundraising services. The Indiana State Board of Accounts eventually rejected the audit because an accountant did not do it.
• Made dozens of unauthorized purchases using task force cash and credit cards, buying meals at restaurants like O'Charley's, Red Lobster, Carver's and Jag's, spending $346 for tickets to a performance by The Three Tenors in Chicago, buying alcohol, motorcycle parts, hotel stays and gift cards at local stores.
• Paid himself $12,000 from a Wayne County Foundation Impact grant to Hope House for a full year of bookkeeping services that were never performed.