A local woman charged with a felony for stealing about $7,000 from the Brown County High School Athletic Booster Club was sentenced late last month.
In March, Melanie Redmond, 49, was charged with theft, a Level 6 felony, after she admitted to an Indiana State Police sergeant that she stole the money.
On Nov. 29, Redmond was sentenced to serve 180 days on home detention with credit for one actual day served. She was ordered to serve 185 days on probation with conditions that included 100 hours of community service, a mental health evaluation, to write an apology letter and pay $7,000 of the $12,493.31 restitution along with a fine and court costs.
The total restitution owed to the Booster Club was set at $12,493.31.
Her conviction will be reduced to a Class A misdemeanor after she successfully completes probation, according to online court records.
At the time when the money was stolen, Redmond had been treasurer of the Booster Club for two-and-a-half years.
The booster club is run by a president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. The club is a separate entity from the school; it is responsible for raising money for the athletics department by selling concessions and hosting benefits.
At the time, about $7,000 was found to be missing from the booster club’s account, but Redmond later admitted the number was closer to $7,400, the police report said.
Prosecutor Ted Adams said that amount increased to over $12,000 after the booster club had incurred $5,093.31 in finance charges, late fees and interest at 29.9 percent on the club’s Sam’s Club credit card while Redmond was acting as treasurer.
The investigation began early in March when Sgt. Chris Fears was contacted by a member of the club who said that Redmond admitted to her that she took money from the club for personal use, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The member was made aware that money was missing when the athletic department’s bookkeeper went to Sam’s Club to get on the school’s account and accidentally logged into the booster club’s account.
The balance was higher than what the club had expected. The booster club was under the impression that the Sam’s Club bill was paid in full every month because it was reported in financial reports made at meetings.
As treasurer, Redmond was the only person keeping track of the money. In the interview with police, Redmond said over the two-and-a-half years she served as treasurer, she had not deposited all of the money earned from the concession stand.
“An internal audit showed that, prior to Ms. Redmond being treasurer, the booster club never carried a balance or incurred late fees or finance charges,” Adams said in an email last week.
“After Ms. Redmond became treasurer, evidence showed that the Sam’s Club credit card balance ballooned to as high as $7,000.”
Further evidence showed that Redmond did not report the balance to the club’s executive board. Redmond testified in the sentence hearing that she should have paid off the balance, but that she could not because it would zero the booster club funds out and the board would have been made aware of the theft, Adams said.
“The $5,093.31 is what the State of Indiana demonstrated was a direct result of Ms. Redmond’s criminal actions,” Adams said of the increased restitution amount.
Adams said that because of Redmond’s theft the booster club was unable to pay for any athletic expenses for eight months and that the executive board made the decision to pay off the Sam’s Club credit card balance to prevent more finance charges.
Paying off the balance used up all of the club’s funds and the club was unable to “fulfill their goal of helping Brown County athletics” including helping students afford to pay for athletics who did not have the money to do so, Adams said.
The high school would generally make athletic purchases and then submit requests to the booster club for reimbursement. The booster club would then vote on whether to pay the school back.
Adams said that because the booster club was unable to pay for any athletic expenses for eight months, he asked that Redmond serve an executed sentence of eight months with 30 days in jail.
Redmond testified that she used the $7,400 to buy normal necessities.
In an interview with Fears, Redmond said over the two-and-a-half years she served as treasurer, she had not deposited all of the money earned from the concession stand. She said she spent it on things for her family, like bills, travel ball teams, gas and food.
Her family’s vacations were paid for with tax refund checks. She said in the probable cause affidavit that she thought about paying the money back using tax refunds, but she didn’t want her husband to find out she took the money.
During the sentence hearing, Redmond said she had cashed in her retirement from her job as branch manager at the Nashville branch of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and that she had $7,000 on hand to pay the Booster Club back.
She was terminated from that job after she was arrested.
