BAZETTA — Township officials say the $80,000 a judge has ordered County Auditor Martha Yoder to pay to the township will benefit the township’s fire, police and roads departments.

Trustees at a news conference Thursday said that Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Sarah Thomas Kovoor ruled Yoder was to pay the township $80,857 in taxes collected by the county for police, fire, emergency medical services, local government fund taxes, gas taxes and statutory interest.

Yoder in a statement issued Thursday said “With regards to the court’s decision yesterday concerning the case filed by Bazetta Township, it is my belief that the court erred in this decision. Fortunately, there are legal options for appeal when a judge errs. My attorney and I will be discussing those legal options in the very near future.”

Trustee Chairman Mike Hovis said Yoder was required by law to distribute the funds to the township in August 2024 but instead deposited the money in a Green Dot bank account in California following email instructions from cybercriminals who hacked into the email account of the Bazetta fiscal officer.

“Auditor Yoder’s office made no effort to verify that the email requests to change the township bank was legitimate,” Hovis said in a prepared statement read at the news conference. “Although the emails from the cybercriminals contained multiple signs of a fraudulent payment redirect of an email scheme. … Evidence submitted to the court revealed that Auditor Yoder did not educate or train her employees about payment redirect in email compromise schemes.”

He said Yoder has a legal duty to pay the $80,857 to the township and has no legal basis for failing to fulfill her duty.

“Bazetta Township appreciates the court’s decision finding Auditor Yoder responsible for failing to accurately deliver public funds to the township. The residents of the township have been denied these taxpayer funds for more than eight months,” Hovis said.

Hovis indicated the funds will be used to support police, fire, EMS and other services of the township.

Trustees noted that if Yoder decides to file an appeal that prolongs the proceedings, it will hinder the township’s ability to offer services like road paving.

“This is a prime example of government failure and wasted taxpayer dollars by an auditor who evidently did not understand her statutory duties of what she needed to do by law. We had to spend our taxpayer dollars to have a court tell her that.” Hovis said.

He said the township spent more than $12,000 in attorney fees and court filing fees to get the monies owed to the township.

Hovis said no bills went unpaid during this time.

He said the township believes in a transparent form of government with the public.

Trustee Mike Morelli said the matter has been drawn out long enough.

He said not having the $80,000 has affected the budgets township trustees and the fiscal officer discuss and prepare for the next year.

“We are asking for those township funds we were guaranteed to receive so we can have enough in our budgets for next year,” Morelli said.