Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Reece pleads to embezzlement
A Cocke County woman who in 2016 was indicted by a Jefferson County Grand Jury, on Monday entered a guilty plea to the offenses. Special Agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation obtained indictments naming Rhonda Michelle Reece, 39, Newport, a former employee of the Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Office in connection with a theft and misconduct investigation. Tennessee Comptroller Justin P. Wilson said Comptroller auditors were first alerted to this issue by officials from Jefferson County after a citizen received a past-due notice for his adequate facilities tax – a bill which the citizen could prove he had already paid. Jefferson County’s finance director, with assistance from the Comptroller’s office, performed an internal review of the receipts and deposits of the Planning and Zoning Office and found the problem was more widespread. The internal review determined that $21,752 in adequate facilities tax and building permit collections were unaccounted for. “Jefferson County can reduce the risk of theft by segregating money-handling duties within its Planning and Zoning Office,” said Comptroller Wilson. “The county finance director has indicated that this weakness has been corrected.” In August 2015, at the request of Fourth Judicial District Attorney General Jimmy Dunn, Special Agents began investigating reports of missing funds. During the course of the investigation, Agents developed information which led to Reece as the individual responsible for the missing funds. The county had terminated Reece’s employment in June 2015, before it learned of the discrepancy. The indictments naming the defendant charged her with one count of Theft over $10,000, one count of Theft over $1,000, and four counts of Official Misconduct. Reece pleaded guilty to the theft charges but the Official Misconduct charges were dismissed in the agreement. Judge Duane Slone scheduled sentencing for Reece on June 18.


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