Man arrested on Rawhide Road on 111 charges from Pennsylvania|[03/06/08]

Published 12:00 am Thursday, March 6, 2008

Talk about paperwork. A man living quietly and innocently in Warren County was picked up by the sheriff’s department this morning and will answer what must be a record 111 felony and misdemeanor warrants in another state.

Jan Seely, 61, 1125 Rawhide Road, was arrested about 6:30 at his home, Sheriff Martin Pace said.

Seely is accused in Pennsylvania of 26 counts of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received, 52 counts of theft by deception, 31 counts of theft by unlawful taking or disposition and two counts of access device fraud, Pennsylvania State Police Crime Investigations Supervisor Corp. Chris Wheeler said. He faces no charges here.

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Some of the Pennsylvania charges are felonies and some are misdemeanors, the determining factor being how much money was involved in each case.

Wheeler explained that Seely had a power of attorney over his mother’s property. About two years ago, after the woman’s funds had disappeared, the Tioga County District Attorney in Mansfield requested the state police perform an investigation. The results pointed to Seely, Wheeler said.

“In a nutshell, he apparently stole a lot of money from his elderly mother,” Wheeler said. “One check alone was for $118,000.”

A warrant was issued for his arrest in June 2006, but Seely couldn’t be found. Wheeler said over the past months the state police had received tips indicating Seely might be in Mississippi, but couldn’t locate him.

New information surfaced Wednesday, Wheeler said, and Warren County deputies went to a travel trailer on the rural road to make the arrest. Pace said Seely had apparently been living in the camper.

Seely was being held in the Warren County Jail without bond pending an initial appearance in Warren County Justice Court on Friday. At that appearance, Seely will have the option to waive an extradition hearing. If he does, Pennsylvania State Police will be allowed to pick him up at the jail here and return him to Mansfield. If he does not waive the hearing, the state police will have to obtain a governor’s warrant to have him moved back to Pennsylvania.