Squirrel Hill man stole more than $100,000 from baseball, school groups, investigators say

PITTSBURGH — A Squirrel Hill man is accused of stealing more than $100,000 from community and school baseball organizations for which he handled bank accounts, the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office announced Friday.

Detectives with the District Attorney’s Office arrested Jeffrey Rosenthal, 66, Friday morning on more than a dozen charges. Rosenthal is accused of stealing the money from the 14th Ward Baseball Association, the Taylor Allderdice High School junior varsity baseball team and the Taylor Allderdice High School Alumni Association.

Investigators said Rosenthal systematically depleted the groups’ bank accounts to pay for personal expenses including his mortgage, credit cards and vehicles.

The investigation began in 2015 when the school’s parent-teacher organization was about to take over the Alumni Association. Rosenthal, who was the alumni association’s president at the time, turned over records to the PTO and signed the bank account over to the school.

The treasurer noticed checks written from the alumni association to the 14th Ward Baseball Association, and from the baseball association to Rosenthal.

According to investigators, Rosenthal said that City of Pittsburgh Chief Operations Officer Guy Costa was also a signer on the account.

Costa told detectives that he did not believe that to be the case, and that he did not remember signing a check for the alumni association. Costa also told investigators that there would be no reason for Rosenthal to write checks from the alumni association to the baseball association.

The charges against Rosenthal include theft, forgery, fraud and receiving stolen property.

He was awaiting arraignment Friday at the Allegheny County Jail.

Cox Media Group