Woman gets prison term for embezzling from Athens church
A Madison County woman was given a prison sentence recently in Athens following a plea of guilty to stealing approximately $185,000 from Young Harris United Methodist Church in Athens.
Lacey Lelynn Shubert, 39, of Danielsville entered a guilty plea to eight counts of felony theft on Oct. 4 in Clarke County Superior Court.
Superior Court Judge Lawton Stephens accepted a negotiated plea between the defense attorney and prosecutor and imposed a sentence of 15 years with the first three years in prison and the remainder on probation.
Seventeen misdemeanor counts of forgery were dismissed under the agreement.
Shubert, who was employed as a bookkeeper at the church on Prince Avenue, came under investigation in February 2019 after board members for the church advised they had found Shubert had been embezzling money for the past five years, according to the Athens-Clarke police report.
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Church members obtained back bank statements and compared them to statements presented to the board by Shubert and realized money was missing, according to the police detective who investigated the case.
Not only was Shubert forging checks to take money, but she was also in charge of taking the church’s collection plate money, which she would tally and have signed off by church members on Sundays, according to the report.
Shubert would then change the amount and make a bank deposit, police said.
The court records in the case show Shubert took different amounts during the years from 2012 to 2019, much of it by forging checks. However, in a period from 2012 to 2018, she is alleged to have taken approximately $59,000 from the collection plate, although the court documents state the exact amount is unknown.
Church members allowed their attorney, Spencer Tolley of Athens, to take a laptop that Shubert used, but he released the laptop to police for the investigation.
Tolley also provided police with a screen shot from a telephone that showed messages in which Shubert apologized to another church employee for her actions.
The plea agreement also ordered that she make restitution, but the amount was undetermined. The restitution will be made in monthly payments after she serves time and is placed on probationary supervision.
The church pastor, the Rev. Luis Ortiz, declined comment Tuesday, explaining this occurred before he became pastor.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Woman gets prison term for theft of money at Young Harris UMC
