Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's office released debit card transaction records from one of his police bodyguards Friday in an effort to show money from a secret police credit union account wasn't spent on alcohol, personal trips and other extravagances as a former bodyguard claims.

“This is important. This card was never used for the mayor himself. That was never the idea behind it,” said Yarone Zober, Ravenstahl's chief of staff. “That's sort of in direct contrast to Fred Crawford's statement.”

Crawford of Morningside is the former police bodyguard who accused Ravenstahl last week of knowing about the credit union accounts and directing his bodyguards, including Crawford, to use their Greater Pittsburgh Police Federal Credit Union debit cards to hide purchases of alcohol and other improper expenses from open records requests submitted by the media.

Zober said the Mayor's Office also has a letter that states former police Chief Nate Harper opened the credit union account — labeled with the initials “I.P.F.” — and requested eight debit cards. Ravenstahl forced Harper to resign last week amid a federal investigation of the police department.

The mayor announced Friday he was not running for re-election. He said a federal investigation connected to police spending and the credit union accounts is not a reason for bowing out of the campaign.

Zober said the cards that Harper requested were issued in the names of Ravenstahl's three bodyguards Sgt. Dom Sciulli, Sgt. Matt Gauntner and Crawford, who is now retired, and five other top police officials. They are: Harper, Deputy Chief Paul Donaldson, Assistant Chief Maurita Bryant, clerk Tammy Davis and Sandy Ganster, manager of the personnel and finance office.

Zober said the letter showing Harper's request to obtain the card is unsigned. For that reason, he declined to release a copy of it. He said Sciulli obtained the statement by requesting it personally from the credit union.

The city doesn't have a copy of Crawford's charges, but is trying to obtain one, possibly by taking legal action, Zober said.

Gauntner obtained a letter dated Wednesday and signed by credit union CEO Karen Janoski that states Gauntner had a debit card but that the card was never used.

Sciulli's statement shows 15 charges between Jan. 22, 2009, and Nov. 11, 2011. None is larger than $500, and many appear to reflect hotel stays and gasoline purchases on the way to or from Harrisburg and Washington D.C. The charges total $1,812.

“If this were some kind of scheme where cards were issued to do improper, illicit things it would kind of stand to reason that all three of them would be using them in that same way,” Zober said. “One never even opened the card, one used it 15 times almost entirely for travel to either D.C. or Harrisburg and the third we're working our darndest to try to get the records to prove the same.”

Sciulli accidentally made two personal charges to the card, Zober said.

One was a $113.06 charge on Dec. 14, 2010, from “Lamoda Tailor” in Phuket, Thailand, where Sciulli travels on vacation each year. Another occurred Dec. 31, 2010, for $142.29 from “Bimmerspecialist.co.” The website Bimmerspecial.com supplies BMW auto parts.

Zober said Sciulli reimbursed the account Thursday for the charge from the auto parts web site and on Jan. 26, 2011, for the charge in Thailand.

This article was written by Channel 11's news exchange parnters at TribLIVE.