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AKRON, OHIO---A retired captain with the Akron Police Department who admitted to stealing over $20,000 from the city by altering her pay records spent Thanksgiving in the Summit County Jail.
But although she pleaded guilty to felony grand theft from taxpayers and tampering with evidence, Elizabeth Wright, 49, will spend only 10 days in jail.
In exchange for pleading guilty, a third felony charge of theft in office was dismissed.
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Patricia Cosgrove sentenced Wright to five years in prison, suspended the sentence and then imposed the 10-day term. Although Wright, a single parent, asked to report to the jail on Monday so she could spend Thanksgiving with her 13-year-old daughter, the judge denied the request.
Wright, who received an annual salary of nearly $75,000, was placed on three years probation and ordered to serve 100 hours of community service at either a Salvation Army soup kitchen or a social service agency.
Wright had altered her time sheets for about a year, showing that she was working on days that she was off. She retired in January after her theft was discovered last December.
She has made complete reinstitution.
The arrest and conviction will not affect her pension. She will receive about 60% of the average of her last three years of pay.
She had been sentenced to the maximum penalty for the two charges, 18 months for grand theft and five years on the tampering charge but Cosgrove then suspended the sentence.
The judge said she imposed the additional 10-days because she felt an additional penalty was need due to Wright's "betrayal of the public trust".
Wright was reportedly undergoing financial difficulties at the time of the theft and is currently undergoing counseling for depression and chronic sleep disorder. 11-23-06
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© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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