The office of special prosecutions on Monday filed one charge of first-degree theft against Katherine L. Turner, 39. The charge is a class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Ron Woods, the area court administrator, contacted Alaska State Troopers July 9 after noticing irregularities in bail deposits, according to charging documents.
Many entries had been backdated to show money being received weeks or months after it should have been deposited, and all of the suspicious transactions had been made by Turner.
When questioned by troopers a week later, she reportedly admitted to using a “pyramid-type scheme” to embezzle money during the past three years, according to charging documents.
Turner was removed from her position as accounting supervisor in July, around the same time Woods sent a memo to courthouse employees about the investigation.
Turner allegedly took the bail money as it came in, only depositing it in the trust account a day or two before it was scheduled to be exonerated.
Though she is accused of taking $237,000 worth of bail money, most of the cash, $144,000 was belatedly deposited, and investigators say $93,000 is still unaccounted for, according to a criminal complaint filed in court.
A search of her car also turned up 89 missing court documents related to the missing money.
Turner, who has no prior criminal record, reportedly told troopers she used the money for “living expenses.”
She is scheduled to be arraigned on the charge this afternoon before Superior Court Judge Douglas Blankenship. Court records do not list a lawyer for her.
Contact staff writer Chris Freiberg at 459-7545.
Hilarious post.HAHAAHA
when this is so muuuuuch more fun.
C'mon, I have more of a life now, and i'm getting a feel for the mindset of my neighbors.
And i'm finding out they are sensible,full of satire,thoughtful, bizarre, and give a damn about Alaska and the DNM.
Why post our names, when we have this type of interaction.We can all be talking souls, without our name labels on.
It sure would be eye opening to put faces to names,I do agree with that.But then we would not have this type of dialogue.
So the mystery will continue;for now anyway,who knows what may happen with privacy issues in the future.
Back to the subject at hand.
This lady chose to steal,lady got found out.
She made her choices.
Nothing wrong with siding with justice.
But something wrong when one sides with injustice.
Yes,people make mistakes.
But some mistakes are life changing.
We as adults get to choose how we live our lives.
And have to live with the consequences.
Such is life.
Pays to choose wisely, as many posters have wrote.
C'mon now, most of us that write on here are taking an active interest in our local news.And are concerned about the goings on where we live.
COWARDS - usually don't give a damn about anything but themselves.
They use some very unconventional accounting practices. For example, when someone goes in to pay a judgment, they pay the balance due. Then the clerk adds uncharged interest, and the person has a balance due that they don't even know about. And that balance continues to be charged interest.
I knew a person whose bank account was garnished to pay for a judgment that had been paid years previously (including the interest). It was purely an error on the part of the court, and it took them 8 months to get the money back into the person's bank account. (And no interest was added, of course.)
They are also very sloppy about how they keep track of community service hours. And when community service hours are not completed by the time they are due (even if through an error of the court clerk), they "unsuspend" suspended fines and turn them in for collection - presumably without the judge having any input regarding the suspended fine.
I would think that the court system would take certified checks, cashier checks and possibly credit/debit cards. That would probably have helped in this situation.
It's inconceivable that this went on for three years before anyone got suspicious.
"So what will they set bail at? Will they take a check?"
LMAO! That's hilarious!
I have to disagree with you. It's cheap shoes that aren't worth the savings!
It requires a person to do it against or around people they work with every day, which means every interaction is wrapped in phoniness. It means using a lot of time to keep all the stories straight, and in this case, to keep track of when money would need to be available to the person who posted it (did she have her own little spreadsheet and reminders system?)
It requires sustained deception 24-7 while otherwise doing normal work and personal activities.
She doesn't even use the substance abuse excuse.
I do, however, really wonder how this could go undetected for so long. Even though she was a supervisor, when someone handles a lot of money, shouldn't there be at least some kind of informal audit process going on?
If she gets probation without any jail time to serve, simply because she has not prior record, it will be completely wrong. Each separate act of taking and replacing money was a crime.
Ah well, FCC will provide you ugly gold or blue cotton pull on pants, scrub type top, faded gray undershirts, nasty stretched out tube socks, even nastier stretched out 50's era bra, granny panties and three questionable meals a day. Have fun Turner.
Or the local yokel government accountant...
Nothing says Alaskan government like taking the money and running.
... maybe it's just me.