Former Roosevelt Library President Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement

Connor used money from fundraisers to pay for plane tickets, car repairs, and restaurant bills

MINEOLA, NY - Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that the former president of the Roosevelt Public Library has pleaded guilty in Nassau County court to stealing more than $47,000 of library money to pay for airplane tickets, car repairs, groceries, and restaurant bills.

Natalie Connor, 46, of Roosevelt, pleaded guilty late Wednesday to Grand Larceny in the Third Degree. She faces up to seven years in prison at her October 8 sentencing in front of Nassau County Judge Margaret Reilly.

Rice said that from about May 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008, Connor, who in addition to serving as president of the library, acted as co-director of the library’s fundraising foundation, embezzled $47,278 from the foundation’s bank account. The foundation was established in 2006 as the fundraising arm of the library, raising money for the library’s expansion project and for the library’s enrichment, programs, technical equipment, training and community events.

“We refused to plea bargain this case because the message has to be sent that when you violate the public’s trust, when you steal from your community, you will be held accountable for what you have done,” said Rice following the guilty plea.  “For the sake of this community and the people the library serves, and to restore the public’s faith in the system, I will be asking the judge to send this defendant to prison.” 

Handling the case for the District Attorney's Office is Deputy Bureau Chief William Wallace of the Government & Consumer Frauds Bureau. The defendant is represented by Samuel Rieff, Esq.