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Mitchener approved for transition program
GREENCASTLE -- A Roachdale woman who stole over $55,000 from local special education cooperative Old National Trail has been granted release into a community transition program.
Tammy Y. Mitchener, 34, has been in prison since July 2009. She was convicted of stealing funds from ONT, where she was employed as a treasurer. She was convicted of one count of Class C felony corrupt business influence (also known as racketeering) and one count of Class D felony theft.
Mitchener was arrested on Dec. 2, 2008. Later that day, a family member posted 10 percent of a $10,000 bond and Mitchener was released.
According to court records, Mitchener wrote $56,639.19 worth of checks from the ONT's account to a vendor called PC Technologies, which turned out to be a dummy corporation she set up and opened a bank account for.
Mitchener deposited the checks she wrote into the PC Technologies account and then moved the money into her personal account, which was at a different bank, using online banking services.
Judge Matthew Headley gave Mitchener a five-year sentence and ordered Mitchener to serve years in prison and spend two years on probation. The maximum sentence Headley could have given Mitchener would have been 10 years.
Mitchener has been serving her prison sentence at the Indiana Women's Prison in Indianapolis. Her earliest possible out day is listed on the IDOC website as Jan. 21, 2011.
Mitchener's approval for the transition program means that while she will technically still be a Department of Corrections inmate, she will be released from prison. She will either be put on electronic home monitoring or work release.
This was the second attempt to get Mitchener out of prison.
Mitchener's attorney, Bob Perry, filed a request on Nov. 4, 2009, to ask that his client be released into home detention. The state objected to the request, and it was denied by Headley on Nov. 17, 2009.