Sutherland had no access to fair board funds

Thursday, March 5, 2009
Sutherland

Putnam County 4-H Youth Development Extension Educator Mark Evans says the fair board has no worries about the safety of its money.

Cause for concern comes from the arrest of a Cloverdale man who is a fair board member and technology director for South Putnam Community School Corporation.

Rick Sutherland, 45, was charged Monday with seven felony counts of theft from National Printing Converters, Brazil. While employed by National Printing, Sutherland allegedly made unauthorized transactions on a company credit card.

The charges totaled more than $110,000 during a four-year time frame beginning in 2004.

Evans told the Banner Graphic Sutherland didn't have contact with the fair board's money.

"He was not a treasurer or anything like that," Evans said. "He was always with someone when money was handled."

Evans said it was moot right now.

As far as his position with South Putnam schools, no action has been taken yet.

Superintendent Bruce Bernhardt said the school board has already had some discussion regarding Sutherland's employment.

"He is currently on a leave of absence," Bernhardt added.

Sutherland was transported to the Clay County Justice Center without incident Monday, where he is being held on $7,000 cash bond. He is awaiting further court proceedings.

If convicted, Sutherland is looking at six months to three years prison time and a maximum $10,000 fine for each Class D felony theft charge.

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  • Same here. Took forever to get the passes from him, and he was very hard to contact.

    -- Posted by indy500 on Thu, Mar 5, 2009, at 12:17 PM
  • i think you all need to get over yourselves. for one you don't even know if he actually did it or not. You should not be the first to pass judgement unless your lives are completely free from doing anything wrong!!

    -- Posted by sfitzpatrick on Mon, Mar 9, 2009, at 12:40 PM
  • I just want to say that I have met the Sutherlands through 4-H, they are nice people. Sometimes good people make bad choices too, maybe he did, maybe not, that's not for me to judge. I just hope that people in the community will be kind to his wife and kids and respect their privacy through this ordeal.

    -- Posted by kaybeck on Tue, Mar 10, 2009, at 1:19 PM
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