Jurors in Lycoming County Court found the former coordinator of the county's drug task force guilty of two counts of tampering with public information or records and one count of obstruction of justice Friday afternoon.
The jurors found Thomas H. Ungard Jr. not guilty of three other counts of tampering with public information or records and not guilty of four counts of theft by failure to make the required disposition of funds.
After the foreman announced the verdict, Ungard requested a poll of the jury to determine if each juror agreed with the verdict.
The poll revealed that all 12 jurors agreed with the announced verdict.
The investigation of Ungard by the state Attorney General's office began after he took a task force truck to Canada on a personal fishing trip with then-city police chief John McKenna in 2006.
The office alleged over the course of its investigation that Ungard embezzled funds and orchestrated straw purchases of forfeited vehicles, concealing the fact that he was in fact the purchaser of those vehicles.
The jurors found him guilty of three counts related to those purchases, including falsifying the information regarding the sale price of two vehicles on the pink slips submitted to the state Department of Transportation.
Prior to beginning deliberations after lunch on Friday, jurors heard closing arguments from each side which served to summarize the week's worth of testimony.
"I needed to have you hear the facts. They did not prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt," Ungard, who represented himself, said in his closing argument.
He described some of his actions regarding this case as "stupid and dumb" but insisted he did not break the law. "Being stupid is not illegal," he said. "It's my opinion they are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole."
He also reminded the jurors that there were no written guidelines or policies in place during his time as the coordinator of the task force to govern the administration of it.
"The only people who knew the system were myself and Mr. (Dustin) Kreitz," he said, noting he received no training on how to administer the task force.
In response, Deputy Attorney General Michael Sprow told jurors that Ungard filled the week's proceedings with numerous "distractions" designed to keep their attention away from the matters at hand and cited several inconsistencies within Ungard's statements during the trial.
"If you are going on the defendant's word, then you have to look at all of his words," Sprow said.
After beginning deliberations, the jury returned to the courtroom twice to ask visiting Potter County Senior Judge John B. Leete two questions. One question involved clarification of the definition of reasonable doubt and the other related to which offense was connected to the obstruction of justice charge. Less than 30 minutes after asking their second question, the jury returned with the verdict at 4:45 p.m.
After the verdict was read, Leete thanked the jurors for their attention throughout the week especially given the "mountain of paperwork and information" presented throughout the proceedings.
Leete allowed Ungard to remain free on bail and said he would be sentenced at a yet-to-be-determined date.
