Keith Dwayne Baratie

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The second of two caretakers of Belmont Memorial Cemetery was sentenced Tuesday for theft offenses totalling nearly $300,000.

Keith Dwayne Baratie, 51, of Bellaire, will serve four and a half years in prison as specified by Belmont County Common Pleas Judge John Vavra.

A jury returned a guilty verdict for aiding and abetting his wife and co-defendant, Karen Neff, in forgery and aiding and abetting her in securing writing by deception, and he was found guilty of theft, all of an amount more than $150,000. All are third-degree felonies.

Neff was also found guilty and is currently serving a sentence of four and a half years as well.

Both were also ordered to pay restitution of $282,240 to the cemetery, now the responsibility of Richland Township.

During her sentencing hearing, Neff maintained that she and Baratie were the legitimate successors to the Belmont Memorial Cemetery Association. According to the criminal complaint, Baratie and Neff presented themselves as the Belmont County Cemetery Association to sell the oil and gas rights for the cemetery for $282,240 in 2013, then spent the money. The prosecution has made the case that the cemetery association dissolved years ago. Baratie’s and Neff’s trials each involved extensive viewing of financial transactions by the jury.

Baratie’s defense attorney, Adam Myser, asked Vavra to consider that some of the funds have been of benefit to the cemetery, including the purchase of equipment for taking care of the property. Myser also said there were doubts about Baratie’s knowledge of the proceedings and ability to use the funds. Myser said Neff was the more involved co-defendant. Myser also pointed out Baratie’s largely law-abiding life.

Myser also asked that the cost of equipment, such as a grass-cutting tractor to be forfeited to the cemetery, be subtracted from the restitution.

Myser added that Baratie has long been a caretaker of the cemetery and has demonstrated passion and experience for the job, and would be willing to lend his aid in working off restitution for the cemetery under it’s new management. Myser said the co-defendants have no proceeds left and would be unlikely to be able to pay a lump sum of restitution.

“I just want to say I’m sorry for all this that’s happened,” Baratie said. “I don’t have any money to pay back, but I am going to work to pay back everything. … 25 years at that place, and we just let it slip out of our hands.”

Linda Dobranetski, a friend of the family, gave some emotional testimony about Baratie’s and Neff’s devotion to the cemetery and asked that leniency be considered.

“He’s a good person,” she said.

“Mr. Baratie actively and voluntarily participated in schemes of deceit of an oil and gas company, to cause them to believe that he and his wife, the co-defendant Karen Sue Ellen Neff, were in fact the officers of that cemetery association,” Vavra said. “Mr. Baratie then aided and abetted in forging association resolution and bank documents resulting in further deception to grant him access…converting them to his own use.”

Vavra pointed out the spending, including sums for personal use.

“The association suffered economic harm as its money was wasted by defendant and his wife for their own avaricious expenditures,” Vavra said. “He initially admitted his guilt, but then tried to place all the blame on his wife.”

Vavra imposed sentences of 24 months each for the theft and aiding and abetting forgery charges, to be served concurrently with each other and consecutive with a 30 month sentence for aiding and abetting securing writing by deception.

“Today brings an end to the lengthy and complicated prosecution of the cemetery embezzlement case that this office and the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department have been working on for the last two years,” Belmont County Prosecutor Dan Fry said.

Fry added that the investigation began as a simple inquiry into the conditions and ownership of the cemetery.

“Through our subpoena power, we secured years of bank records for the cemetery and began to uncover fraudulent transactions that we found extremely concerning,” Fry said. “We were simply stunned that the cemetery’s funds that were received by a large oil and gas lease were squandered in about two years.”

Fry commended Detective Randy Stewart of the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department and Jennifer Schonauer from the Ohio Bureau of Investigation.

Richland Township Trustee Kathy Kaluger had no comment on the sentencings, but said the grass-cutting expenses would continue when the weather turned.

“Come spring, we’ll be very busy,” she said. She added that the township is in the process of obtaining a deed for the cemetery from the state, and working on obtaining cemetery records from an area funeral home, which will allow the township to commence selling plots. She said a historical association has expressed some interest in assisting the township.