By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
BORDENTOWN CITY — Former Bordentown Historical Society Treasurer Barry Hausser pleaded guilty Monday to stealing over $84,000 from the organization, according to the Burlington County prosecutor’s office.
Mr. Hausser, 63, of Farnsworth Avenue, pleaded guilty to a third-degree charge of theft by failure to make required disposition, according to a press release from the prosecutor’s office.
Under a plea agreement, he will be sentenced to between six and 12 months in prison on May 1 by Superior Court Judge Thomas S. Smith Jr. Mr. Hausser will be allowed to apply for house arrest.
Mr. Hausser has also agreed to repay the $84,718 to the Historical Society before he is sentenced, the release said.
Mr. Hausser, a part-owner of App’s Hardware on Farnsworth Avenue, was the society’s treasurer from December 2005 to July 2008. He also served a stint as president.
Prosecutors said that over a period of about 22 months, Mr. Hausser gave the society’s board members false checks and forged signatures on society checks. Some were made out to his hardware store, some to fictitious bills, and still others simply to “cash.”
Mr. Hausser was charged in late October 2008, after a monthlong investigation by the prosecutor’s office and Bordentown City police. He was named in a suit originally filed in early September 2008 with the state Superior Court Civil Division in Mount Holly.
An audit conducted by the society found there had been no missing state or federal grant money, but investigations did reveal that money collected and raised at special events and fundraisers had not been deposited into the society’s business account.
Mr. Hausser had served an instrumental role in coordinating events in 2007 commemorating the city’s 325th anniversary.
He is free on $25,000 bail.

