New charges filed against Mitchener
Five new felony charges have been filed by the state against a Roachdale woman accused of stealing more than $56,000 from Putnam County's Old National Trail (ONT) special education cooperative.
In addition to the Class C felony corrupt business influence and Class D felony charges she was already facing, Tammy Y. Mitchener, 33, is now charged with four counts of Class C felony forgery and one count of Class D felony official misconduct.
Class C felonies are punishable by up to eight years in prison, while Class D felonies carry a maximum sentence of three years.
Mitchener was accused of writing $56,639.16 in checks to PC Technologies -- a dummy corporation Mitchener created and set up a bank account for -- from the account of Old National Trail Special Education Cooperative, where she was employed as the treasurer from July 2007 to November 2008.
The thefts are alleged to have occurred between Feb. 24, 2008 and Oct. 31, 2008.
According to an affidavit of probable cause filed Wednesday in Putnam County Circuit Court, a follow-up investigation was conducted Wednesday. That investigation turned up two checks totaling $14,650.49 that had actually been written to P.C. Technologies, but had been recorded as having been for payments to the Indiana Department of Revenue. The checks were dated Oct. 20, 2008 and Oct. 31, 2008.
The investigation was headed up by Putnam County Prosecutor's Office investigator Charles Bollinger, who was assisted by ONT deputy treasurer Dana Bumgardner.
"A review of ONT bank records shows check No. 1556 is mostly handwritten," Bumgardner said in the affidavit. "It is made out to P.C. Tech in the amount of $7,044.33. Bumgardner advised me that ONT records, which Mitchener was responsible for, show that No. 1556 went to the Indiana Department of Revenue for withholding taxes. Bumgardner said that Mitchener did not have authority from her or anyone else at ONT to change the terms of the check to P.C. Tech, and the Indiana Department of Revenue was not paid using this check."
The same was true for a second check, court records said.
Two charges of forgery were filed for each check -- one because Mitchener wrote the checks in the first place, and one because the checks "purported to have been made by authority of one who to did not give authority, to-wit, Dana Bumgardner," the affidavit said.
On May 19, Mitchener's attorney, Robert Perry, filed a motion to dismiss the corrupt business influence charge. Perry argued that for such a charge to be valid and enterprise had to be involved, and because Mitchener was an individual she could not be considered and enterprise.
A response from the state prepared by Deputy Prosecutor Justin Long was filed last week. Long said the charge should not be dismissed.
"Tammy Mitchener did not just commit a simple theft," Long's response said. "She did not steal checks from Old National Trail and cash them. She set up a fake business with a name similar enough to a current vendor as to not create suspicion from her superiors and to help cover up her crimes.
"It's this type of behavior that goes above and beyond a simple pattern of theft," Long continued. "P.C. Technologies is an enterprise under both the federal and Indiana definitions."
In addition to the checks she allegedly wrote to herself, an audit done by the Indiana State Board of Accounts showed that ONT lost more than $52,000 in penalties and interest paid to the Internal Revenue Service and the Indiana Department of Revenue due to Mitchener's negligence.
Mitchener is set to be in court for a change of plea hearing on June 25. She was arrested on Dec. 2, and was released from jail that day after a family member posted 10 percent of a $10,000 bond.