Former Madison County employee Cana Chambers pleaded guilty to two charges Friday morning related to the theft of nearly $30,000 from the Madison County Probate Judge’s Office.
Chambers pled guilty to theft by taking and false report of a crime. The theft by taking charge is for stealing $500 or more. Chambers was not sentenced Friday and she is contesting the dollar amount that she will be required to pay in restitution.
Another hearing in the case is set for 1:30 p.m., Nov. 24, in Lexington to determine restitution. Her sentencing could also be spelled out at that hearing.
Chambers said after the hearing Friday that she is innocent, but that she entered a plea so she can move forward with her life. Her attorney cited the case of Alford vs. N.C., saying that defendants can enter a plea of guilty but maintain their innocence if they want the proceedings to end or they feel the state’s evidence is so overwhelming that they won’t be acquitted.
Chambers, who was married three weeks ago, said poor health and financial considerations led her to enter a guilty plea.
“They have all these people saying it; they’re stacked against me,” said Chambers. “My health has gone downhill and I just will feel better if I can get this over with and can move on. Financially, we can’t afford to go through a trial.”
The Madison County Probate Office was reportedly burglarized July 4, 2007, but investigators concluded that Chambers staged the break-in. Auditors determined that $29,865 was stolen from the office between Jan. 1, 2006, and June 30, 2007.
WOW that was hard!!!!!!!
assume that the question lies with how much cash was involved.
You're proud of being a tax payer so I assume you vote. You would be a potential juror. You already have your mind made up without seeing the full "investigative report" or even talking to the defendant. She knew she would not stand a chance in this community to get a fair trial. You should be glad she chose to end it before going to trial. Restitution hearings cost far less than a trial. Guess who pays for the trial, taxpayer?
I wonder if the judge will make a example out of her when it comes to sentencing?
If you still feel like you are correct. Why don't you get a copy and post it on here to prove me wrong?
My question is this...If I were to steal money from my office sure I would get fired, reprimanded,etc. but ya know what, my boss would have to answer a few questions, too. So, why wasnt her boss held responsible for holding that much money and not making a daily deposit,etc? Is that why did retired?
But then again, he may only deposit what is given to him.
Well, we as citizens are going to have to stay on top of these situations and keep our commissioners feet to the fire and make sure whomever is involved is legally prosecuted.
stolen was coming out of their own pockets instead of Madison county taxpayers ,they likely would be more careful with incoming and outgoing funds.
There would not be any incidents of theft,if incoming funds were entered into the nice computers that the taxpayers have paid for in every office of government in the county.Entries into the computer could not be changed unless the department head used their assigned password to make changes in the monetary column.Any changes made would be saved
at several backup computers to prevent theft by the department heads.The backup computers would
require the passwords of each of all our commissioners in order to be viewed if theft is
suspected and every quarter for review.
There is no excuse for not making daily deposits in the county's bank account.It couldn't take more than 15 minutes to go to the bank and make a deposit in order to keep the financial records up to date and to discourage large thefts...like have occurred.
The department heads need to be "bonded" in order to protect taxpayer funds."The buck stops here" should be the creed of our elected officials.I haven't heard of any apologies to the taxpayers from the Probate judge.Maybe Judge Royston has apologized for the poor organization of the Probate office and I just missed it in the news.
Judge Royston has not been following state sentencing guidelines concerning DUI offenders either which I find very offensive to the law,citizens of our county,and victims of drunk drivers.
Another elected official was using cash to pay for postage of a large mailing at the Post Office which seems rather odd too.I noticed this a number of years ago so it may have been a one time happening.
Fellow citizens keep your eyes open your ears on alert and pay attention to the actions
of our county officials.The fish rots from the head downward.
BTW, for the person saying Cody did the investigation... he/she is an idiot. We all know the GBI did the investigation.