Animal Shelter Director enters guilty plea

Mahaska County Sheriff’s Department

By Charlie Comfort

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Director of the Stephen Memorial Animal Shelter has entered a guilty plea in her case, less than one month after initially being charged with third-degree theft and forgery. Lindsey Sime, 30, of Oskaloosa, entered a guilty plea Monday morning in Mahaska County District Court.

Both charges are aggravated misdemeanors and are punishable by up to two years in jail on each charge, and a fine between $625 and $6,250.

A sentencing date has been set for March 27 at 10 a.m.

Charges against Sime were filed on January 25 after an investigation was launched in reference to a complaint that an employee of the Stephen’s Memorial Animal Shelter had used a Mahaska County credit card for fraudulent purposes. The investigation revealed that Sime had purchased $592.88 in tires from a Discount Tires store in Coralville and had then ““altered the invoice to make it appear that the tires that were purchased were for the truck that is owned and operated by Stephen’s Memorial Animal Shelter,” according to court documents. Court documents also indicated that when confronted on the complaint in a police interview, Sime admitted to using the credit card to buy tires for her personal vehicle.

Court documents have also detailed a plea deal with Sime. According to a plea deal offer filed with Sime’s guilty plea, Sime is expected to receive a two year suspended jail sentence on both charges. The sentence will run consecutively, meaning Sime would serve a four year suspended jail sentence, with probation in lieu of jail time. The plea deal states that if Sime pays all fines and restitution on the day of sentencing, the jail time would be sentenced to run concurrently, meaning Sime would serve both sentences at the same time. Court documents also indicate that Sime will enter a guilty plea, and not an Alford plea, pursuant to the plea deal.

The plea deal also states that Sime’s sentence will not affect in anyway any charges that may potentially arise from a special audit being conducted on the Stephen Memorial Animal Shelter.

Mahaska County Sheriff Russ Van Renterghem says that an investigation is ongoing with an audit being conducted by the state

Sime is currently on “temporary leave” from the animal shelter, pending the disposition of the charges, according to a statement from the Stephen Memorial Animal Shelter Board.

Posted by on Feb 13 2017. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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