A woman recently pleaded not guilty to charges she stole about $20,000 from Athens-Clarke County Juvenile Court when she worked there as its clerk.
After working for the court for 20 years, Sherri Lynn Price was fired in August 2014 after admitting she had not deposited any funds received by the court in two years, according to previously filed court documents. Athens-Clarke County police initiated an investigation that same month, after court officials were unable to account for funds the court received over a period of several years.
Price was arrested in February, and a grand jury indicted her in June 16 on 25 counts of theft by taking and 20 counts of using false writings and documents to perpetrate the alleged crimes. The offenses are felonies, each punishable by up to five years in prison.
Price pleaded not guilty during her Aug. 18 arraignment in Clarke County Superior Court.
The arrest warrants do not specify how much Price allegedly stole, but search warrant affidavits filed in Superior Court while Price was under investigation provide some details.
The warrants, sought by an Athens-Clarke County detective, were for searches of Price’s former work computer in Juvenile Court, her bank account and the county’s email system.
The affidavits revealed how Juvenile Court officials began an investigation after the district attorney’s office inquired about a $500 payment a defendant had made to the court that had not yet cleared the bank.
Price’s duties as deputy clerk included handling fines, fees and restitution paid to Juvenile Court.
Price was not working when the district attorney’s office asked about the defendant’s $500 payment not clearing the bank, so her boss looked into it, according to the affidavits.
Juvenile Court Clerk Catherine Rowen found the clerk’s cash box was unlocked with an envelope outside it containing cash and checks totaling about $4,178, according to affidavits. Rowen subsequently deposited those funds.
When Price returned to work the next day, she was confronted by her boss about the undeposited funds, at which time she “admitted that she had not made a deposit in two years,” according to affidavits.
Further pressed by Rowen and Juvenile Court Judge Robin Shearer, Price admitted “to taking between $200-$300 from the Juvenile Court funds and returning it,” according to affidavits, which note that Price was subsequently fired.
About a week later, then-Police Chief Jack Lumpkin assigned a detective to initiate a criminal investigation.
The detective found that books containing Juvenile Court receipts dated from March 2010 to August 2014 indicated that the court had taken in more than $26,000. Affidavits note that only two deposits totaling $5,019 had been made since July 2007, and that included the $4,178 Rowen deposited.
Juvenile Court is required by state law to remit a portion of its revenues to the Sheriffs Retirement Fund of Georgia and the Peace Officers Annuity and Benefit Fund of Georgia. According to documents, Price submitted false reports in which it was stated the funds were “entitled to zero dollars from fines and bond forfeitures from the Athens-Clarke County Juvenile Court.”
When police searched Price’s office, they found “a number of original court records such as traffic tickets and police reports that were accompanied by apparent payment of the fines with a check,” the detective noted in affidavits. “These records were stashed in a box and hidden in the office space and not part of the official file, though they should have been.”
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