Comment
Rate
Former deputy clerk sentenced in stealing case
| Advertisement |
By Jeff Halidman
News Tribune
“These are the kind of cases that keep a judge up at night,” Special Judge Robert Schollmeyer said Monday as he sentenced a former deputy Cole County circuit clerk who last year was found guilty of stealing funds from the circuit clerk's office.
Schollmeyer, of Osage County, sentenced Jamie Wolfe to 120-days shock time in prison, with the likelihood that - if she completes that successfully - she'll be put on five years' supervised probation.
She also must pay restitution.
Last December, a Cole County jury took a little more than a half-hour to find Wolfe, 27, guilty of the stealing charge, a class C felony.
“I don't think I deserve jail time, and I haven't done anything wrong,” she said before she was sentenced.
Prosecutor Mark Richardson recommended that Wolfe get three years in prison, while the sentencing advisory report prepared by the Probation and Parole office recommended five years of supervised probation.
Richardson said he asked for prison time because of Wolfe's unwillingness to take responsibility for her actions, and Schollmeyer said that was the reason why he thought prison time was proper.
“Your case is different than the run-of-the mill stealing cases, because it deals with public funds,” Schollmeyer told Wolfe, “and if the public gives money to be put in a certain place, that's where they expect it to go.”
In a trial last June, a jury could not reach a verdict in Wolfe's case.
The Cole County Grand Jury indicted her in January 2007.
In March 2006, then-Presiding Judge Tom Brown said an internal review of financial records found that, between December 2005 and late-January 2006, approximately $2,200 was received by the clerks in the criminal division, but was not credited to any account or included with daily deposits.
The discrepancy was discovered when a litigant claimed he had not received proper credit for a payment he had made.
The Cole County circuit court marshal's staff investigated and turned the findings over to the sheriff's department, which then turned the case over to then-Prosecutor Bill Tackett.
He filed charges against Wolfe in October 2006.
In the December trial, the jury heard more than six hours of testimony, which was similar to the testimony and evidence presented during June trial.
A number of former and current circuit court employees testified.
All of them said they never saw Wolfe take any money.
But Richardson tried to show, with their testimony, that only Wolfe's computer was found to have had discrepancies, because each clerk is given a password they are not allowed to give to anyone else.
Richardson's chief witness was Circuit Court Marshal Steve Diemler, who conducted the investigation and showed the jury a large number of documents he went through to trace the missing money back to Wolfe's computer.
Diemler, who helped install the system the clerk's office uses, said it was physically impossible for one person to make an entry at a particular time at one computer and have that same person be shown to make an entry on another computer at the same exact time.
He said that was what he found on Wolfe's computer.
Defense attorney Heather Vodnansky of the Public Defender's office told jurors that all this showed was that it was Wolfe's work station that was being used - it didn't show it actually was Wolfe who was using the computer.
That's because at the time the money was found to be missing, the clerk's office in the criminal division was severely understaffed and on busy days and anyone could have had access to Wolfe's computer because people logged onto computers and left them on.
As in June, Wolfe testified in her own defense, saying she turned herself in when she found out she was being charged.
She felt someone had set her up.
Schollmeyer, of Osage County, sentenced Jamie Wolfe to 120-days shock time in prison, with the likelihood that - if she completes that successfully - she'll be put on five years' supervised probation.
She also must pay restitution.
Last December, a Cole County jury took a little more than a half-hour to find Wolfe, 27, guilty of the stealing charge, a class C felony.
“I don't think I deserve jail time, and I haven't done anything wrong,” she said before she was sentenced.
Prosecutor Mark Richardson recommended that Wolfe get three years in prison, while the sentencing advisory report prepared by the Probation and Parole office recommended five years of supervised probation.
Richardson said he asked for prison time because of Wolfe's unwillingness to take responsibility for her actions, and Schollmeyer said that was the reason why he thought prison time was proper.
“Your case is different than the run-of-the mill stealing cases, because it deals with public funds,” Schollmeyer told Wolfe, “and if the public gives money to be put in a certain place, that's where they expect it to go.”
In a trial last June, a jury could not reach a verdict in Wolfe's case.
The Cole County Grand Jury indicted her in January 2007.
In March 2006, then-Presiding Judge Tom Brown said an internal review of financial records found that, between December 2005 and late-January 2006, approximately $2,200 was received by the clerks in the criminal division, but was not credited to any account or included with daily deposits.
The discrepancy was discovered when a litigant claimed he had not received proper credit for a payment he had made.
The Cole County circuit court marshal's staff investigated and turned the findings over to the sheriff's department, which then turned the case over to then-Prosecutor Bill Tackett.
He filed charges against Wolfe in October 2006.
In the December trial, the jury heard more than six hours of testimony, which was similar to the testimony and evidence presented during June trial.
A number of former and current circuit court employees testified.
All of them said they never saw Wolfe take any money.
But Richardson tried to show, with their testimony, that only Wolfe's computer was found to have had discrepancies, because each clerk is given a password they are not allowed to give to anyone else.
Richardson's chief witness was Circuit Court Marshal Steve Diemler, who conducted the investigation and showed the jury a large number of documents he went through to trace the missing money back to Wolfe's computer.
Diemler, who helped install the system the clerk's office uses, said it was physically impossible for one person to make an entry at a particular time at one computer and have that same person be shown to make an entry on another computer at the same exact time.
He said that was what he found on Wolfe's computer.
Defense attorney Heather Vodnansky of the Public Defender's office told jurors that all this showed was that it was Wolfe's work station that was being used - it didn't show it actually was Wolfe who was using the computer.
That's because at the time the money was found to be missing, the clerk's office in the criminal division was severely understaffed and on busy days and anyone could have had access to Wolfe's computer because people logged onto computers and left them on.
As in June, Wolfe testified in her own defense, saying she turned herself in when she found out she was being charged.
She felt someone had set her up.
 |
 |
|
| Woman faces murder charge in child's death | Home on 179 gutted by fire |
Article Rating |
|
Before commenting read the News Tribune Forum's policies and procedures.
Thanks.
RSS
mom123 wrote on Feb 11, 2008 3:57 PM: