Kinston woman convicted of theft from Coffee County Jail

A jury found a Kinston woman guilty on Thursday of stealing nearly $40,000 while she worked at the Coffee County Jail.

Coffee County District Attorney Gary McAliley said the jury deliberated for about four hours before returning with the guilty verdict against Debra Mitchell Williams. The 48-year-old Williams turned herself in with her lawyer, Lee Knowles, in May 2008, after a grand jury returned an indictment against her for felony first-degree theft of property.

McAliley said Williams formerly worked as the bookkeeper for the Coffee County Sheriff's Office, which included the jail, for at least six years. He said two county sheriffs, former Sheriff Ben Moates and current Sheriff David Sutton, testified in the case, which was handled by Assistant District Attorney Jeff Moore.

"An embezzlement is one of the hardest cases to prove," McAliley said. "You just try to show a pattern, and you let a jury see that monies taken were not deposited. Over a period of time she failed to make deposits in various Coffee County Sheriff's accounts, some of which were jail accounts."

McAliley said at the time of Williams' arrest, deputies charged her with embezzling money used in the prisoners' "on deposit money" account at the jail, which is money inmates had on them when they were arrested and taken to the jail. Williams was also charged with stealing money from the store at the jail.

After Sutton received a notice of insufficient funds from the bank, he asked for an investigation by the Coffee County District Attorney's Office and an audit of the Coffee County Sheriff's records by the Alabama Department of Public Examiners.

McAliley said at the time of Williams' arrest, auditors discovered more than $36,000 missing from the inmates' money on deposit fund over a several month period, from June 2006 to December 2006, under the previous administration of Moates.

"We were also able to show she was paying more in rent than she was brining in, and she was living a lifestyle that cost more than she was bringing in," McAliley said.

Williams, who was not sentenced Thursday, faces two to 20 years in prison for the class B felony of first-degree theft of property.

"Our office will ask for some incarceration," McAliley said. "If he does grant probation we're going to ask that she maintain and keep a job and pay at least 25 percent of her income toward restitution to the people of Coffee County and the prisoners."

Knowles said his client testified in her own defense in the trial.

"We're going to file something and try to have the verdict set aside," Knowles said. "Our expert testified it was more probable the money was taken before Ms. Williams ever touched it, and that testimony was based on the state auditor's own work."

From: Dothan Eagle