In 2005, founder and CEO Joseph O”™Connell of Orange County”™s Family Empowerment Council helped put together a comprehensive guide called “Parents Without Directions” to help navigate the maze of the juvenile agency bureaucracy.
He was at least on the right track as far as someone needing help.
By 2007, O”™Connell was replaced and a forensic audit was begun by the attorney general”™s office after the council”™s board of directors discovered financial irregularities during O”™Connell”™s tenure.
The AG”™s Medicaid Fraud Unit compiled the damning evidence against the former CEO, who had absconded with $350,000 of the nonprofit”™s income. O”™Connell pleaded guilty on Jan. 15 in Orange County criminal court and faces three years in prison when sentenced in March.
“On behalf of the Family Empowerment Council Board, we are deeply disturbed by the past actions of the former leadership,” said Graham Skea, former Orange County Parks commissioner and current council board chairman, in a prepared statement.
Amy Anderson-Winchell, an executive with Middletown-based Occupations, a support service for the disabled, and CEO of Family Empowerment since 2007, said, “It is a very sad day for all of us. We”™ll continue to work with the authorities to bring this matter to a just conclusion and have taken steps to prevent anything like this from ever happening again.”
FEC and Occupations have partnered to bring services to the community and will continue to do, said board members of both nonprofit agencies.
