CLEARFIELD – A Karthaus woman accused of stealing from a local veteran’s group pleaded guilty in Clearfield County Court.
Melanie Louise Moore, 51, 67 Oak St., Karthaus pleaded guilty to a felony count of theft by unlawful taking and was sentenced to 30 days to two years in jail and five years consecutive probation.
She was fined $100 plus costs and she must pay total restitution of more than $18,000. Her plea agreement required that she pay $10,000 prior to sentencing, which she did.
Before announcing the sentence, President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman commented that he doesn’t like employee theft and he has been known to send people to state prison for this type of crime even if the person has no prior record. He stated he was unhappy with the 30-day plea.
Scott McKenzie, the commander of the Frenchville VFW post in Covington Township, addressed the court stating he was in agreement with the 30-day sentence. He said the group’s main concern is getting their money back.
Moore apologized to McKenzie and stated that she could pay $200 per month toward the remaining restitution amount.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, Amy Jo King, the treasurer for the organization was going through the small games of chance tickets before she resigned in September of 2013. Moore confessed to King that she had been stealing from the small games. When asked how many, she said maybe two games.
King told police that she thought Moore had taken about 20 games. Moore also told her that she did this previously but the old Quartermaster covered for her.
In December of 2013, King told police she wasn’t sure how much money was taken, but she had to advise the group to quit spending money because the organization didn’t have it. She stated she had to tell Moore at one point to stop buying beer because the inventory was starting to cost more than what was coming in.
Some of the customers came forward saying that after King left the building Moore would take the game flyers down and put up new games. She would have as many as 19 going at a time even though there were only supposed to be three at a time.
Customers also said that she didn’t ring all the orders into the cash register.
The books used to do a daily drawing were also off with the Sunday books missing $861.00.
King stated that she knew Moore was having trouble making ends meet and that she had a gambling problem. After Moore’s husband lost his job she started stealing more, according to the complaint.
Moore was interviewed on Dec. 23, 2013. She said she stared taking money in June of 2012 out of the small games. She stated she was doing everything at the post and “pretty much running the whole place.” She estimated she took about $7,000, which she spent on bingo and lottery tickets.
She said no one else was involved. She stated that she wished the others were doing their jobs so it wouldn’t have gone on this long. Moore claimed she did not take any of the book money and that she always rang the beer up.