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Jay woman pleads guilty to stealing from road association

3 mins read
Bobbie Dawes (Photo courtesy of Franklin County Detention Center)

FARMINGTON – A Jay woman pleaded guilty to stealing $62,000 from a road association in The Forks in Franklin County Superior Court Friday, with her attorney saying the money fed a gambling addiction.

Bobbie Dawes, 46 of Jay, pleaded guilty to theft by unauthorized taking or transfer, a Class B felony. A misdemeanor count of forgery was dismissed as part of the arranged plea that resulted in a sentence of one year, all but 30 days suspended, followed by three years of probation.

According to Assistant District Attorney Joshua Robbins, the then-president of the Mile 10  Owners Road Association in The Forks was alerted to a potential issue after a contractor contacted him to indicate that he had not received payment for work. The Mile 10 organization funds the repair and maintenance of private roads. The president contacted Dawes, the Mile 10 secretary/treasurer, and told her to cancel the check issued to the contractor and send a new one.

This did not occur, and further investigation indicated that numerous checks had been utilized to withdraw money from the Mile 10 account. In some cases, Robbins said, Dawes did not include the president’s signature, as required, and in others the signature was forged. In total, $62,000 was stolen by Dawes.

Dawes admitted to the theft in a handwritten note that was faxed to the president. In it, Dawes indicated that she would turn herself in and asked the president not to tell her husband.

Terms of Dawes probation include repaying $52,000, as $10,000 of Mile 10’s loss was covered by a bond, as well as avoiding gambling establishments and seeking an evaluation for future counseling regarding a gambling addiction. Dawes said that she had closed her accounts at casinos and was attending Gambling Anonymous meetings.

Dawes’ attorney, Walter Hanstein, said that his client had been in the “throes of a vicious gambling addiction” that had led to the theft of money. He said that the few times Dawes actually made money gambling, those funds had been paid back to the Mile 10 account.

Dawes had signed over a camp to contribute toward restitution, Hanstein said. The Department of Corrections will oversee the payment of restitution during probation, with the District Attorney’s Office taking over after that.

Robbins said that Dawes had cooperated with the investigation, and that the sentence reflected both that and the signing over of the camp. Dawes had no criminal record prior to the theft, he said.

[Editor’s Note: The author and attorney Walter Hanstein are related.]

 

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5 Comments

  1. Steal $62,000 and go to jail for 30 days?!?!? O! The injustice. Our court system is a joke. A laugh-out-loud joke! LOL!!

  2. Well, 30 days is about $3000+ in the local tax payer funded bed and breakfast as well as free healthcare. If she serves 360 days that would be roughly a 36,K+ tax payer funded vacation which is more than most around here make in a year. We wanted a jail so we have to pay for everyone put into it. Money scheme based crime pays either way, that’s the message I see. Nice.

  3. this is so sad. To be caught up in an addiction, any addiction is hard to kick. I’ve been there. Praise God that’s behind me.

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