Reed Pleads Guilty To Stealing Fair Board Money, Gets 10 Year Sentence, $228,000 Missing
February 13th, 2019 by iPhone
Brenda Reed, a former member of the Drew County fair and livestock Association, pled guilty, Tuesday morning to theft of property over $25,000.
It was stated in court, that for up to five years before November 11, 2017, Reed had taken or inappropriately spent $228,000 or more from the Drew County fair board.
Reed pled guilty to the charges, and accepted a sentence of 10 years in ADC, plus 10 additional years on a suspended sentence.
When asked what happened to the money, she responded to Judge Sam Pope, “I know where it went.” Her public defender, Tim Leonard, quickly commented, “She yhought she had taken around $40,000”
Prosecutor Frank Spain disagreed, reading off a list of missing funds, that had been submitted by fair board members to him, which included:
$37,000 in checks,
$39,000 was paid into the account of her employer Pomeroy and McGowan.
Her employer was quoted as saying, “We shouldn’t have received anything, We haven’t done any business with the fair board.”
$17,000 was spent on credit cards
$40,000 (approximately) paid to construction contractors, from fair accounts. Previous discussion with sources familiar with the situation indicate most of this was for plumbing related expenses. When asked, we were told the only two restrooms on the fairgrounds are in the auditorium. They have to rent Porta-Johns for the fair.
Reed was taken into custody by the sheriffs office to begin her sentence. The minimum time before release is 1/6 of the full sentence, which is just under two years.
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Former Fair Board Member Arrested for Theft of Funds, May 10, 2018
In November, it was reported to the Arkansas State police that a theft of thousands of dollars had occurred from the county fair board.
It was reported that treasurer Brenda Reed had allegedly misappropriated the funds. She was then removed from the board and an investigation began, along with an internal audit, including accounts from two local banks.
The investigation reported that checks were written for cash and endorsed by Reed in excess of $37,000. It was also reported that approximately $167,000 was stolen from accounts in both banks.
In March, Reed was interviewed about the theft of and admitted that over the past several years she had taken the funds to pay her personal bills, as well as those for a relative’s business.
Court records indicate that Reed also used her employers accounts to “funnel” approximately $40,000 from the fair board accounts.
Reed was arrested Tuesday and released on a $50,000 bond. She was charged with theft of property over $2500.
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