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EX-SCHOOL EMPLOYEE WHO CONFESSED STEALING HAS PUNISHMENT LIGHTENED

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Thursday, September 10, 2009 11:56 PM CDT

The 80-year prison sentence of a former employee of the Pine Bluff School District who admitted stealing money from the district was cut by more than half by a circuit judge last week.

In a one page order filed in the Jefferson County Circuit Clerk’s Office Sept. 2, Judge Berlin Jones reduced the sentence of Lynda King to 38 years, following a petition filed by King asking for the reduction.

King, 41, who had worked in the school district’s central office, had been charged with 1,152 separate allegations that covered an eight-year period, from 2001 to 2008, involving more than $800,000.

When she was sentenced to 80 years, Jones told King she could be released after serving 12 years of that sentence if she earned the maximum amount of good time possible. With the reduction to 38 years, King could apply for parole after serving just over six years.

The judge’s decision followed a petition filed by King on June 15 that included a one-page letter and copies of newspaper reports of similar crimes which resulted in lower sentences for defendants.

Among those cases, the former principal of a school sentenced to three to six years in prison for stealing $900,000; a former treasurer/bookkeeper at the Bearden School District who was sentenced to six months in jail, ordered to pay restitution, and given probation, and a former clerk in Union County who pleaded guilty to second-degree forgery and theft of more than $275,000 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

“Even with the difference in some of the amounts, even if you double or tripled their sentence, it would still in no way compare to mine,” King said in her letter to the court.

She also claimed that she was given a 10-year sentence for one count of attempted theft of property, “which is excessive considering I have no prior criminal history.”

Police said King prepared counterfeit invoices on a vendor named “MTC,” a company that did legitimate business with the school district, then after the district wrote checks to pay the invoices, she deposited the funds into a bank account she opened under the name “MTC Inc.”

Those funds were then transferred to another account she had opened so she could access the money.

“There was nothing presented in the petition, no new circumstances or basis presented to support her arguments that the sentence should be reduced,” said Prosecuting Attorney Steve Dalrymple, whose office had objected to King’s request, and asked that the reduction be denied. “This petition was basically just a cry for leniency.”

King was also ordered to make restitution in the amount of $747,000.73 when she is released from prison.

“I’m well known in my community and I have great skills and work ethics,” King said in the letter to the court. “I’m business minded and will have no problem obtaining work. I would be willing to work for the Pine Bluff School District free in order to make restitution. I’m willing to give up all I own to repay that which I have stolen. My family has also agreed to help make monthly payments to make restitution.

“The judge indicated that he would consider an alternative sentence had a plan for restitution been mentioned,” King wrote. “I have a plan and mentioned this to my attorney prior to sentencing. I can’t promise the court that I’ll repay every penny but I will die trying.”

Although King was represented by attorneys Bryan Achorn and Daniel Pilkington of the Robinson, Zakrzewski and Achorn Law Firm during the case and sentencing, she filed the petition on her own, claiming pauper status.

“In my experience, Judge Jones is a fair minded person who considers all the evidence presented to him before making a decision and in this case, also considered the things Ms. King said in her petition,” Achorn said. “I appreciate the time the court has spent in reviewing this matter and that the judge saw fit to reduce the sentence.”

Prosecutors had recommended that Jones sentence King to a total of 120 years, meaning that she would have been eligible to apply for parole after serving one-sixth of that sentence, or 20 years.

“This was as clear a set of facts and as openly presented by both sides as any case I’ve even seen,” Dalrymple said. “These were the kinds of acts that undermines the faith citizens have in government and the money she stole does not include the amount the school district has to repay the federal government for the grants they received.”

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