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KING GETS 80 YEARS FOR THEFT FROM SCHOOL DISTRICT

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 4:10 PM CDT

A former employee of the Pine Bluff School District who admitted stealing money from the district was sentenced to 80 years in prison Tuesday by Circuit Judge Berlin Jones.

Linda King listens closely to her attorney Brian Acorn during the sentencing proceedings Tuesday afternoon at the Jefferson County Courthouse. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald

“You could be released in 12 years if you receive the maximum amount of good time but that’s on your shoulders,” Jones told Lynda King, 40, after a sentencing hearing that lasted more than two hours.

“There’s a possibility you could be discharged in 12 years, and a possibility that you could serve the full 80 years,” the judge said. “The choice is yours.”

As Jones was reading the sentence, King slumped against the podium supported by her attorneys, then fell to the floor when the judge finished and deputies moved behind her to take her into custody. She was finally placed in a chair and wheeled out of the courtroom for a trip back to the detention center.

Jones broke the sentence down by the eight years King was charged with stealing money from the district, sentencing her to 10-year terms for each year, but ordering that each subsequent 10-year sentence run consecutively, or after the previous one.

King was also ordered to make restitution in the amount of $747,000.63 when she is released from prison.

“I feel very pleased with the decision Judge Jones gave in regard to the sentencing,” said Deputy Prosecutor Rik Ramsey, who represented the state. “The sentencing that I had proposed in a plea negotiation, it was hard. It was hard for me to come up with a number that I thought was good.

“The amount of money that was stolen, in excess of $800,000 is horrendous, and the fact that she did it over a period of 2001 to 2008, that just blows me away,” Ramsey said. “I feel for the family, I feel for the son, but she did this until she got caught and the only reason she got caught was because somebody looked closely at what she was doing.”

In February, King pleaded guilty to almost 1,500 counts of forgery and theft of property from 2001 until 2008 when district officials questioned some purchase orders she had filled out and turned in.

“We discovered that early on and self reported it to the school attorney, prosecuting attorney, legislative audit, and from there the courts took over,” Pine Bluff District Superintendent Frank Anthony said. “From there the courts took over, she had pleaded guilty to those counts, the court operational procedures have been unfolded today. The court has spoken and we, the Pine Bluff School District, accept the ruling of the court.”

Testifying in her defense, King, whose attorneys had asked for alternative sentencing such as probation and community service instead of a lengthy prison term, told the court she acted alone, and apologized for her actions.

“I apologize to Mr. Anthony, the school board, the community of Pine Bluff, my family and pastor for my actions,” she said. “I pray that one day you will find it in your heart to forgive the pain, embarrassment, and shame I’ve caused every one of you.”

Questioned by Ramsey, King admitted that her taking the funds increased every year, saying she got ”caught up.”

In testimony Tuesday, Anthony said the district actually lost $803,042, has had to pay federal authorities $193,000 that was received from a federal program, and had a pending case involving $108,000 that they could possibly have to repay, a total of almost $1 million.

“In the last 10 years, we’ve lost 2,000 kids and the state funding is currently something like $5,700 per child,” Anthony said. “Losing a million dollars has had a big impact.

“In the last three years, we have not been able to give our teachers raises and we’re behind White Hall and Watson Chapel and about even with Dollarway,” Anthony said. “That money has had a big impact on our ability to recruit and retain quality teachers.”

Prosecutors said King submitted counterfeit invoices in the name of MTC, which the district had done business with in the past, and would pick up the checks to pay those invoices, then deposit the funds into a bank account she had opened under the name M.T.C. Inc.

Ramsey said those funds were then electronically transferred to four other accounts that King had set up at Bank of America.

After reviewing bank records, Marquitta Snelling, bank manager at Bank of America on West 28th Avenue, said those type of transfers were “a common occurrence.”

Snelling said the four accounts included one in the name of King and her husband, Albert King, a second in the name of Lynda King, d.b.a., Personal Touch, and both a checking and savings accounts in the name of Lynda King and her oldest son, Albert James King III.

Questioned by attorney Bryan Achorn, who with attorney Daniel Pilkington represented King, Snelling said not all the funds that were transferred to the other accounts came from the M.T.C. account, and admitted that “it’s easy to move money between accounts.”

In addition to calling King, Achorn and Pilkington called five character witnesses for King, including the Rev. Kerry Price Sr., the pastor of Breath of Life Church where King was a member, Kymara Seals, the deputy state director for U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), and King’s son, Amante, age 15.

Price, Seals, and other witnesses asked Jones to consider community service and probation, with Price saying that “she could get a job and pay some of the money back.”

“I consider Lynda a friend,” Seals said. “She’s a good person who has done a bad thing and I still love her, but I’m very disappointed in her.

“She knows she’s done wrong and I’m proud she had accepted responsibility and understands the consequences, and she can be a productive member of society if given the opportunity,” Seals said.

Asked to describe his feelings, Amante King said since his mother surrendered to authorities in May, he “can’t sleep, and feels very depressed.

“Before she was arrested we were a loving family but after her arrest, it took a piece of my heart,” he said.

During her testimony, Lynda King said the grades of Amante, her youngest son, “had dropped from a 3.0 plus to less than a 2.0.”

She said she has had no contact with her oldest son, and “don’t know where he’s staying.”

Before Jones pronounced sentence, he told King and a courtroom full of school district employees, as well as King’s family and fellow church members that “nobody asked a question about restitution.

“Nobody’s given us anything to tell us how the funds are going to be recovered, over what period of time,” Jones said.

After the verdict, Prosecutor Steve Dalrymple emphasized the financial loss on the school district.

“We hear such big numbers thrown around, well $800,000 is a tremendous number for a school district that like most school districts is that struggles with the finances they have to give kids an education and when you start taking this money out of the available funds, then that’s going to affect every student and every family that depends on the district for an education,” Dalrymple said.

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