By Staff
Former employee accused of stealing at least $100,000
By CLAUD HODGES
Senior Reporter
A former Beaufort County Hospital employee facing embezzlement charges will appear today for her first time in court.
Her case will be called in the 9 a.m. session of Beaufort County Superior Court which meets in the Beaufort County Courthouse.
Jeanne Williams Jones, 63, of Elwood Drive, Raleigh, was arrested April 16 by the Washington Police Department. The warrant charges her on one count of felony embezzlement in excess of $100,000.
Judge William C. Griffin Jr. will preside.
An administrative session of court is a venue for parties in a case to discuss plea bargains and provides a forum for motions to be heard, Anglim said.
Jones was indicted April 14 by a Beaufort County grand jury for embezzling more than $100,000 from the Beaufort County Hospital Foundation during the period from August 2000 to February 2006.
She was a hospital employee during that period assigned to the foundation, which is the fund-raising arm of the hospital.
The offense against Jones is classified as a Class C felony. A minimum prison sentence for this offense for a person with no criminal history is five years, two months, and a maximum sentence is seven years, nine months.
According to Anglim, Jones has no criminal history.
According to North Carolina law, a plea offer must be made to Jones by the district attorney’s office.
He said that Jones has been cooperative with the district attorney’s office, the police department and the hospital.
Jones’ original date of employment at the hospital was Dec. 16, 1998, hospital spokeswoman Pam Shadle said Monday.
Jones was an administrative assistant whose work was split between two departments — the hospital’s Development Department and Staff Services Department, Shadle said.
Jones was suspended by the hospital without pay on Nov. 19, 2007, Shadle said.
Jones tendered her letter of resignation through Sermons to the hospital on Nov. 20, 2007, and the letter was dated Nov. 19, 2007, Shadle said.
The indictment handed down by the grand jury states that Jones “unlawfully, willfully and feloniously did embezzle and fraudulently and knowingly misapply and convert to her own use, and with the intent to embezzle and fraudulently and knowingly misapply and convert to her own use, take and make away with and secrete U.S. Currency belonging to the Beaufort County Hospital Foundation, Incorporated.”