Sunday, August 26, 2007

Second Ex-Johnson Co official found guilty of stealing over a half-million dollars

PIKEVILLE — A second ex-Johnson County School District official was convicted Thursday of stealing over a half-million dollars of school funds.

After deliberating about four hours, a nine-woman, three-man federal jury convicted the former school payroll clerk, Shelby Jean Coleman, of issuing unauthorized pay checks to herself and paying a co-defendant's son, Michael VanHoose, at times he was not a worker of the school system.

The verdict came after about six days of testimony.

Coleman, like Peggy VanHoose, the former finance officer and treasurer, was not remanded into custody after her conviction.

A federal judge is scheduled to sentence the two Nov. 27.

VanHoose faces 30 years behind bars, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. Coleman faces a similar sentence, but the maximum sentence she can serve is a 20-year prison term...

This from the Big Sandy News along with an outline of closing arguments and testimony; reported at KSBA.

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