Montville ― Two former members of the town’s Housing Authority were charged Friday with misusing the authority’s credit cards.

Patty DiGioia-Evrett, 62, of Waterford, and Michael Brower, 62, of Stonington, were charged by Montville police with second-degree larceny, second-degree conspiracy to commit larceny, and illegal use of a credit card.

Brower was previously arrested on July 7 for disorderly conduct. He had been an authority commissioner from 2017 until his resignation last year.

DiGioia-Evrett was on the authority until she resigned last April after moving out of town. The Housing Authority is responsible for the two elderly housing communities in town, Independence Village and Freedom Village.

According to the affidavit for their arrest warrants, an audit of a 16-month period provided to Montville Police by Housing Authority Administrator Shirley Smith revealed $34,323 in losses.

Brower was found responsible for $14,531 in charges and DiGioia-Evrett for $19,793. Items purchased on the credit cards included men’s and women’s clothing and undergarments, groceries, cell phone cases, candles, king sized quilts, dog treats, children’s toys, makeup, pet accessories, AT&T cell phone bills and other items, according to the affidavit.

DiGioia-Evrett was released on a $100,000 bond and Brower was held on a $100,000 bond. Brower appeared in Norwich Superior Court on Feb. 10 and is set to appear again on Mar. 28. DiGioia-Evrett is set to appear on Feb. 23.

The matter had been under state investigation since last May.

DiGioia-Evrett, the finance and human resource manager for the New London Housing Authority, was suspended from her positions in May as a result of the investigation.

“The new Housing Authority commission did what it had to do,” said current chair of the authority Joe Jaskiewicz on Wednesday, in reference to contacting the police. He was appointed to the authority in December of 2021.

In Detective Addison Saffioti’s warrant for the commissioners’ arrest, he detailed that Lt. Dave Radford of the Montville Police Department received documents via email from Witness 1, a member of the Town Council, that alerted him of the possible fraudulent activity. It was later revealed in the affidavit that Witness 1 was council chairman Tom McNally.

In a meeting with Saffioti and officer Brittany Noyes, McNally detailed that on Feb. 18 of last year he received a phone call from the housing authority’s manager, referred to as Witness 2, complaining about working conditions and threatening behavior from Evrertt and Brower. It was later revealed in the affidavit that Witness 2 is Shirley Smith, the housing authority administrator.

According to the affidavit, Smith told McNally that there were discrepancies in the authority’s bank statements. Smith gave McNally the bank statements and he questioned charges to Amazon, Walmart and AT&T and a grocery store bill. McNally later received an email from Town Attorney, Matthew Willis, on April 17 recommending DiGioia-Evrett and Brower be removed from their positions.

DiGioia-Evrett submitted a letter of resignation the following day and Brower resigned on April 28.

Saffioti and Noyes met with Smith last June 1 and she told the that in her two years as the administrator, she was directed by DiGioia-Evrett and Brower, her bosses, to only open bills from Citizens Bank and pay them, according to the affidavit.

Smith noticed the bills were higher than usual and noticed a charge to AT&T, and became suspicious as her emergency phone provided by the authority was a T-Mobile phone and did not know of anyone in the authority with an AT&T phone.

Smith said she also found an additional charge to T-Mobile along with purchases for car parts, “many” Walmart purchases as well as from Amazon. Smith explained that these purchases were unusual as she normally receives a receipt for purchases to document and then pays the bill, according to the affidavit.

She said in the affidavit that she never received receipts for these transactions, and estimated the fraudulent charges totaled more than $50,000 over the previous year and a half.

Smith continued on to say she learned that Brower had access to surveillance cameras from both living facilities in his home and a maintenance worker had seen a screen with camera footage in Brower’s home on one occasion.

Smith added that she saw Brower’s girlfriend enter Smith’s office, take something out of the lock box ― which holds keys to tenants’ homes ― and put it in her pocket.

Brower was interviewed by Montville Police on June 8 and explained that he was aware of the investigation and that he may have used the wrong Amazon account for the purchases and was willing to pay back the authority the $50 for the purchase he made. He detailed that he was responsible for ensuring maintenance jobs were completed, but was not in charge of any finances. Brower confirmed he had access to the cameras and said there was no written rule saying that he could not, according to the affidavit.

Smith said she had the credit card accounts transferred to her name after DiGioia-Evrett’s and Brower’s resignations, according to the affidavit.

Saffioti tried to contact DiGioia-Evrett 10 days prior to her arrest on Jan. 31 to schedule an interview, but she did not answer the phone and never returned the call.

At a June 9, 2021, Town Council meeting, Brower and DiGioia-Evrett were confronted with complaints from tenants about what they said were unjustified raises in rent, additional fees, warnings of eviction and maintenance problems. The Town took no action at the time.

The Montville Housing Authority has faced its share of criticism and internal issues dating back to 2019, when former Executive Director Mary Cahoon stepped down. Former Housing Authority Commission member Sierra Davis resigned on Dec. 30, 2020, in part because she said commissioners, including Brower, had overstepped into the authority’s day-to-day operations.

k.arnold@theday.com