Owls Head woman pleads guilty to stealing Oceanside High School graduation funds
ROCKLAND — A woman from Owls Head who took more than $8,000 from the graduation fund for the Class of 2018 at Oceanside High School, was sentenced to seven days in jail.
Brenda Carty, 52, pleaded guilty to felony theft in Knox County Unified Court June 26.
A deferred disposition agreement was reached between Carty and the District Attorney’s Office. The agreement stipulates that if Carty meets the terms of the deferred disposition over the next year, the felony theft count will be changed to a Class D misdemeanor theft charge. She would then be sentenced to 364 days in jail with all but seven days suspended and serve one year of probation.
The conditions of the deferred disposition agreement include that Carty will pay $548 in restitution, perform 200 hours of community service, cannot participate in the financial management of any charitable fundraising organization, complete the Restorative Justice Program and pay a monthly $10 administrative fee.
If Carty is unsuccessful with meeting these conditions, she will be subject to open sentencing for felony theft.
Sentencing will be deferred for 12 months and is scheduled for June 28, 2018.
According to the police affidavit filed by Detective Joel Neal, parents of the 2018 graduating class decided to begin raising money for their children in October 2013 to offset costs of graduating class events. The only signature on the account was Carty.
Class students and parents had participated in numerous fundraising events over the years, including craft fairs, selling Yankee candles and basketball concessions. When parents began to question Carty about the account balance Carty told them there was only $4,800 in the account, police said. The parents believed there should be much more than that in the account.
Subpoenaed bank records showed numerous ATM withdrawals not connected to the Class of 2018 and numerous purchases, said police.
In July 2016, Neal was first contacted by a parent of a student, who was a member of the 2018 student government for the class, after her daughter had reported to her that when she asked Carty for some of the funds to purchase T-shirts she “got very upset” and said the money was not available. Carty allegedly told the student that the money was invested in a certificate of deposit and could not be cashed in until the class graduation.
According to the bank records a total of $13,114.73 was deposited in the Class of 2018 account since October 2013. There was a total withdrawal of $13,112.13 leaving a balance of $2.60. There was a total of $4,732.92 in what is believed to be legitimate expenditures by Carty in support of the Class of 2018. There was a total of $5,930.50 in expenditures that had nothing to do with the Class of 2018 and another $2,457.71 in questionable expenditures with no receipts.
Some of the questionable expenditures included ATM cash withdrawals, hotel, car and cell phone expenses and Walmart purchases in Maine and out of state.
Reach Sarah Shepherd at news@penbaypilot.com
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