Bank sues wife of slain Dr. Moonda

By Jeff Greenburg
Sharon Herald

November 16, 2005 12:36 pm

— The wife of slain Hermitage urologist Dr. Gulam Moonda and a former Beaver County man are being sued for defaulting on a loan for a sport utility vehicle that was apparently driven by Damian R. Bradford, a “person of interest” in the slaying.
Sky Bank is suing Donna J. Moonda and Thomas M. Kase after they failed to make payments for a 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer they allegedly bought for Bradford in November 2004.
Sky Bank is asking for $4,115, which includes the $3,429 balance owed on the loan after the vehicle was resold and $686 in legal fees, plus court costs and interest of 68 cents a day since Nov. 4, 2005.
The loan agreement was signed by Donna J. Smouse, which is Mrs. Moonda’s maiden name, and Kase. Both listed their addresses as the same Monaca address of Bradford.
Kase’s last known address, according to the suit, was in Aliquippa, but he is believed to live in Florida.
He told KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh in May that he co-signed a loan with Mrs. Moonda on Nov. 9, 2004, to buy the beige SUV for Bradford and then had the Beaver Falls dealership, Morrow Chevrolet-Kia Inc., send the loan receipt book to Bradford’s apartment so Dr. Moonda wouldn’t learn of the purchase.
“I saw her (Mrs. Moonda) one time in my whole life,” Kase told KDKA. “I’ll take a lie detector.”
Bradford, 24, was allegedly having an affair with Mrs. Moonda. Although he isn’t officially described as a suspect in Dr. Moonda’s highway killing, the Ohio Highway Patrol called him a “person of interest.” He has been in jail since May on unrelated drug charges and a probation violation.
Mrs. Moonda, 46, of 2330 Trout Island Road, and Kase put $3,000 down on the $17,770 vehicle and financed the rest, agreeing to make 60 monthly payments of $296 each.
According to the suit, the bank repossessed the vehicle after the defendants failed to “make payments when due and by failing to bring the payments current upon demand.”
Richard J. Parks of MacDonald, Illig, Jones and Britton, the Erie-based law firm representing the bank, couldn’t be reached for comment so it was uncertain when the SUV was repossessed.
After Mrs. Moonda or Kase failed to redeem the vehicle within 15 days of the repossession, the bank sold it but said the proceeds of the sale failed to fully cover the defendants’ obligation.
The suit indicates that “numerous demands for payment” were made by the bank, but Mrs. Moonda and Kase “failed or refused to pay.”
Mrs. Moonda hasn’t been seen by or spoken to the media since a television interview she gave shortly after the slaying May 13 along the Ohio Turnpike. She said at that time she pulled the Jaguar to the side of westbound lanes of the toll road to switch drivers with her husband as they were headed to Toledo.
A dark-colored van pulled in behind them and a man got out, robbed Moonda, 69, of his wallet, shot him once in the face and fled. Mrs. Moonda and her mother, Dorothy Smouse, who was riding in the back seat, weren’t robbed or harmed.