HOLLIDAYSBURG - A local businessman who organized concerts agreed on Friday to make $1,750 monthly restitution payments to address theft and related criminal charges.
Scott William Stuttard, 46, 204 E. College Heights Drive, was ready Friday with a $15,000 restitution payment and is expected, through monthly restitution payments, to reimburse an additional $53,500 to a pair of investors and Penn State Altoona.
"He never had any intention not to pay this back," Stuttard's attorney, Lucas Kelleher, said Friday outside Blair County Court, where Stuttard pleaded guilty to three charges before Judge Elizabeth Doyle.
State police at Hollidaysburg charged Stuttard in August 2011 with theft by deception, theft by failure to make required disposition of funds and deceptive business practices based on arrangements Stuttard made with local investors.
In the criminal complaint, police said that Stuttard, owner of in2it Marketing of Hollidaysburg, took payments of $35,000 and $32,500 from investors for concerts to be held in the West but seemingly applied that money to an October 2009 Doobie Brothers concert at the Jaffa Shrine Center.
The complaint also detailed that Penn State Altoona gave $72,350 to Stuttard for the Doobie Brothers concert, but the school, after learning that Stuttard hadn't paid the band's talent agency on time, had to come up with $32,500 so the concert would be held as scheduled.
Assistant District Attorney Wade Kagarise said the criminal charges reflect Stuttard's actions.
"Our allegations were that the defendant used deceptive tactics," Kagarise said. "With two of the victims, he said he was investing their money for a guaranteed returned, a guaranteed profit. But he was paying off debt for the Penn State concert."
Kelleher said his client's actions reflected the complexities of his business.
"It may fit the charge, but the intent of Mr. Stuttard was not deception. The intent was always to pay back the investors," Kelleher said.
Doyle ordered Stuttard's monthly payments to be divided so that 50 percent goes to the investor expecting a reimbursement of $27,500, and the remaining 50 percent is evenly split between a second investor and Penn State Altoona, both anticipating reimbursements of $12,500.
Kagarise said Friday that the investors and Penn State Altoona were made aware of the proposed settlement and offered no objections.
Penn State Altoona is satisfied with the negotiated arrangements, spokeswoman Shari Routch said.
"If Mr. Stuttard keeps up with his payments," she said, "then we will be made whole."
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.
