Village of Candor Mayor Sentenced to 60 Days in Jail After Stealing From Village Funds

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Superintendent of the New York State Police Steven G. James, have announced former Mayor of the Village of Candor, Eric Halstead, has been sentenced after he was arrested in July of last year by State Police on corruption charges.

Back in early July of 2024, Troopers arrested Halstead on two felony charges, Corrupting the Government in the 2nd and Grand Larceny in the 3rd. State Police made the arrest after a joint investigation with the Comptroller’s Office where it was found Halstead withdrew over $23,000 dollars in cash from the Village of Candor account for his own personal use. The investigation also found Halstead replaced almost $19,000, but still owes money to the Village of Candor.

Halstead was sentenced to 60 days in jail as a result after pleading guilty to Grand Larceny in the 3rd back in January and paying full restitution. He was also barred from running for public office every again by Judge Adam R. Schumacher in Tioga County Court

“Halstead was elected to serve his community but chose instead to steal from it,” DiNapoli said. “He now faces the consequences of his crime. Public corruption does lasting damage to people’s confidence in the institutions that exist to serve them. My thanks to Tioga County District Attorney Kirk Martin and State Police Superintendent Steven James for partnering with my office to ensure that justice was served in this case.”

The crime of how Halstead removed such a large amount of cash was discovered from “unusual entries” of referred ATM withdrawals along with a “Mayor’s discretionary fund” found in village records. In total, Halstead stole $23,519 in village funds between February 2017 and May 2023; he put $19,302 back into the accounts at random intervals.