The former clerk of a rural Tallahatchie County church recently pleaded guilty to embezzling $56,604.53 in church and cemetery funds and has agreed to make full restitution in order to avoid possible prison time.
Marilyn Diane Ross, 63, of 29 Murphreesboro Road, Scobey, could have faced up to 20 years imprisonment, Circuit Judge Smith Murphey V reminded Ross during her final sentencing Friday morning at the Yalobusha County Courthouse in Water Valley.
Instead, as part of a March 8 negotiated guilty plea, Ross made a lump-sum payment of $39,992 to New Hope Presbyterian Church and New Hope Cemetery on April 20. She agreed to pay the remaining $16,612.53 in embezzled funds through monthly payments of $280 over a period of five years, beginning on June 5.
Ross also will be required to pay as yet unspecified court costs, an audit fee of $100 and a state crime victim’s compensation fee of $100, according to records on file Tuesday at the circuit clerk’s office in Charleston.
By virtue of Murphey’s Order of Non-Adjudication, handed down last week, if Ross fulfills all terms of her agreement, her charges will be dismissed and her criminal record expunged.
Ross’ September indictment charged her with embezzling the money between Jan. 1, 2010, and May 31, 2016, from New Hope, located on Mitchell Drive in the Scobey community.
