Stack-Thorpe v. State

The 4-year statute of limitation on the embezzlement charge-theft by taking by a fiduciary over a specific period of years-was tolled until the offense was discovered.

Thank you for sharing!

Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

A Houston County jury convicted Sandra Stack-Thorpe of embezzling funds from the City of Perry from July 1997 through July 2000. Stack-Thorpe was also convicted of falsifying official documents and submitting false financial reports. She appeals from the denial of her motion for new trial, alleging the trial court made several erroneous rulings and arguing that she was entitled to a directed verdict of acquittal on the charges. Finding no error, we affirm. The evidence presented at trial, viewed in favor of the jury’s verdict,1 showed that the funds at issue were payments made by citizens to the City of Perry Police Department on traffic tickets and other fines. When police department employees accepted a payment on a fine, they placed the money in an envelope, recorded the payment amount on the outside of the envelope, sealed the envelope, and locked it in a safe. They also recorded the payment in a separate receipt book.

Stack-Thorpe was employed in the finance department of the City of Perry from April 1995 until July 2000. She was solely responsible for collecting the fine payments from the police department, matching the envelopes to entries in the receipt book, opening the envelopes and counting the money, recording the total amount of fines collected, transporting the money to the Tax and Utility Department to be deposited, and preparing financial reports about the fines collected. Stack-Thorpe usually took the payments to be deposited on the same day that she collected them from the police department, but she sometimes stored the payments in a safe near her office for a few hours during the day or overnight.

Stack-Thorpe v. State

The 4-year statute of limitation on the embezzlement charge-theft by taking by a fiduciary over a specific period of years-was tolled until the offense was discovered.

Share with Email

Thank you for sharing!

Trending Stories

More From ALM

Subscribe to Daily Report