A former Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office agent is accused of stealing $121,000 from the agency’s North Huntingdon office, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday by Westmoreland County detectives.

Brenda D. Sawyer, 61, of North Versailles, was also charged with stealing $52,650 from the McKeesport branch of the NAACP.

She was arrested Thursday on charges of trafficking in the proceeds of unlawful activity, forgery, obstruction, tampering with evidence and three counts of theft. Sawyer said nothing as she was led from district court to the Westmoreland County Jail after the hearing.

District Judge Henry Moore set bail at $100,000. He cited the seriousness of the crime charges, the amount of money involved and her position of trust with the Attorney General’s Office.

“I think a relatively high deposit will guarantee your performance,” he said.

Sawyer retired in February from her position as regional director of the Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and Drug Control, North Huntingdon office, and has become police chief for the McKeesport Area School District.

According to court documents, authorities said the financial discrepancies only came to light after the woman retired.

“After discovering missing funds from the Narcotics Investigations Division at our North Huntingdon office, our agency referred the matter to the Westmoreland County District Attorney for investigation,” spokeswoman Jennifer Crandall said in an email to the Trib.

Westmoreland County Detective Ray Dupilka has been investigating since the spring.

In court documents, he accused Sawyer of writing checks from two accounts that agents in the North Huntingdon office used to make undercover and controlled drug purchases, then depositing the checks into her personal accounts.

Police said nearly 60 checks were issued this way between Jan. 1, 2019, and Sawyer’s retirement date.

In addition, eight envelopes of evidence containing nearly $76,000 were missing from the office’s asset forfeiture evidence room, according to court documents. The agent told Dupilka that requests for funds to conduct undercover buys involving mid- and high-level dealers were denied by Sawyer.

“(The agent) stated that he later learned that if these requests had been approved, there was a risk that the account would be defrauded,” according to court documents.

During the investigation, police gained access to Sawyer’s personal bank accounts and her Rivers Casino Players Club account. Both accounts showed activity consistent with checks drawn on Sawyer’s attorney general accounts, according to court documents.

While investigating these financial discrepancies, authorities discovered an account called the NAACP Community Violence Fund that Sawyer controlled.

The organization’s treasurer told investigators he was unaware of the account’s existence. Police said multiple cash withdrawals were made from the account, some of which occurred at Rivers Casino.

During a hearing in May, Sawyer told investigators that she had lost $26,000 that she had withdrawn from the attorney general’s account and that she may have lost the envelopes containing the evidence when she retired, according to court documents.

She estimated her state salary at $130,000. Sawyer said she plans to hire a private attorney. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 13.

Sawyer previously worked as a McKeesport police officer and was hired in October as the McKeesport Area School District police chief, according to school board meeting minutes. Her salary was set at $75,000.

A district spokesman did not respond to an inquiry.

According to a state census, a handful of agents, attorneys and staffers work out of the state attorney general’s regional office in North Huntingdon on Route 30, which oversees cases and investigations in Allegheny, Bedford, Fayette, Greene, Somerset, Washington and Westmoreland counties.

Sawyer is also named as a defendant in a federal lawsuit that accuses her and other McKeesport officers of unlawfully searching and holding at gunpoint a group of city residents as police searched for a man who shot and killed a fellow officer in December 2020.

Recent arrests by Westmoreland police

Sawyer is at least the sixth Westmoreland County police officer arrested in recent years:

• Shawn Denning, 43, of Delmont, a former Greensburg police chief, is awaiting sentencing in federal court on a charge of conspiracy to distribute narcotics.

• His former co-worker, Regina McAtee, 51, of New Kensington, is awaiting sentencing on a drug conspiracy charge.

• Suspended state trooper Nicholas Hood, 32, of Derry Township, is awaiting trial on a domestic case in Westmoreland District Court.

• Former Ligonier Valley Police Chief John Berger, 52, of Ligonier Borough, is awaiting trial on a sexual assault charge in Westmoreland County Court.

• Former Greensburg police officer Kenneth J. Burke, 37, was sentenced last year to a year of probation in connection with a domestic violence case.