The former bookkeeper for the towns of Kinderhook and Greenport, indicted in September on 18 felonies and two misdemeanors for allegedly stealing more than $350,000 from the municipalities she worked for, appeared briefly in Columbia County Court Friday, January 14, in anticipation of her pending trial. A report in the Register-Star by Andrew Amelinckx notes that the charges against Pegeen Mulligan-Moore, 40, are related to alleged thefts from the town of Kinderhook, which began in December 2006 and went through Dec. 31, 2009, when her tenure there ended; and in Greenport from January of this year to her suspension in July.

Authorities said Mulligan-Moore stole more than $287,000 from Kinderhook and around $53,000 from Greenport. On January 14, Amelinckx reports, Mulligan-Moore appeared in Columbia County Court in Hudson with her attorney Andrew Safranko, of Albany, before Judge Jonathan Nichols. After a conference in chambers between First Assistant District Attorney Michael Cozzolino, Sr. Ass. D.A. David Costanzo, Nichols and Safranko, the date of the pre-trial hearing in the case, originally scheduled for Jan. 21, was move, with the pre-trial hearing will now be on the morning of the first day of trial, set for Feb. 28. The change may necessitate pushing back jury selection, according to Nichols. The defendant continues to be out on bail.

Besides the criminal trail before Mulligan-Moore, the story continues, she is also facing a civil lawsuit by the town of Kinderhook filed late last year. The suit is not only seeking the money Mulligan-Moore allegedly stole, but for the salary she earned during the time period in which the alleged embezzlement occurred.