In Roofner's Appeal, 81 Pa. Super. 482 (1923), three road supervisors were indicted and tried upon the charge of unlawfully neglecting and refusing to keep fit for public travel a certain public township road which became a public nuisance. Two were acquitted, one was convicted. The auditors allowed the supervisors a credit for paying their attorney's defense fee from the road funds of the township. In Roofner, the Superior Court, in affirming the trial court's disallowing the credit and surcharging the supervisors for the amount of their attorney's fee that was paid out of public funds, stated: From time out of mind in all governments where the common law prevails, a person prosecuted for crime has been compelled to pay his own expenses, when he had the means to do so. Counsel fees and other expenses incurred by public officials in defending criminal charges, or charges of official misconduct, are incurred for a private purpose and cannot, in the absence of statutory provision therefore be paid from public funds.... It is not the duty of the public to defend or aid in the defense of one charged with official misconduct. When one accepts a public office he assumes the risk of defending himself even against unfounded accusations at his own expense. Id. at 485.