Morrisville Ambulance Leader Called Charges 'Fake News' : Report

MORRISVILLE, PA — Days before she was arraigned on charges she took part in stealing more than $130,000 from the now-defunct Morrisville Ambulance Squad, Ruth "Roxy" Rookstool took to Facebook to call accusations against her and former squad chief Brian Michael Eckert "fake news."

The Intelligencer reports that after charges were filed against her, but before the arraignment, Rookstool, 58, addressed the charges on a borough Facebook group.

"Nothing was ever done in a malicious manner, (by) Eckert or myself," she wrote on the now-deleted Nov. 8 post, according to the Intelligencer. "People only hear what they want to, once again fake news."

She writes that the squad was audited monthly and its books "were always open to anybody" because of its nonprofit status, the report said.

"I can’t believe we are now going back many years and we have a whole new group of people on Council and new so-called Borough managers they can call it as they see it, unforgiving but ignorant," she wrote. "Some of this is all fake news."

Rookstool's lawyer, Brian Puricelli, declined to comment to the paper on the post, saying that sometimes people's accounts on Facebook get hacked.

Last month, Rookstool and Eckert were arraigned on felony charges of theft, receiving stolen property, identity theft, forgery, computer crimes and criminal conspiracy in the case. Rookstool, of Morrisville, was the operations supervisor of the ambulance squad.

The Morrisville Ambulance Squad was contracted by Morrisville Borough and Falls Township to respond to 911 and other calls. It was funded primarily by taxpayer money from the two governments.

According to an affidavit of charges in the case, Eckert is alleged to have stolen a total of $30,785.44 via insurance fraud, direct stealing, fake reimbursements and other methods. Rookstool is accused of stealing $101,634.55.

The theft happened between 2011 and March 2018, according to the Bucks County District Attorney's office.

Investigators say money from the squad's M&T Bank account was used for such expenses as an ambulance company employee's honeymoon, to pay Eckert's credit card bills and his Amazon Prime membership and an animal hospital visit.

Rookstool is also alleged to have reimbursed herself thousands of more dollars than she should have gotten for using her personal credit card to buy stamps and other items for the company.

The two also are accused of conspiring to enroll Rookstool in health and dental insurance polices at a time when she wasn't working for the company. During that time, Morrisville Ambulance Squad paid about $27,000 in insurance premiums and insurance companies paid out more than $65,000 in claims.

Prosecutors say Bucks County detectives were alerted to investigate by members of the ambulance squad and began investigating in July.

According to the Intelligencer, prosecurots plan to require Eckert and Rookstool to pay restitution to Morrisville and Falls as part of the case against them.

Photo courtesy Bucks County District Attorney's office