A former employee of the Pulaski County commissioner of the revenue's office who took more than $167,000 from her church pleaded guilty to five embezzlement charges on Wednesday, December 9, 2009.
Patricia Wilson, 57, of Draper was charged in April with two counts of embezzlement. A grand jury that met in July added seven other charges dating from 2006 to early this year.
According to evidence summarized at a hearing Wednesday in Pulaski County Circuit Court, an investigation began after the electricity at Memorial Christian Church in Draper was turned off in March.
The pastor and another church member approached Wilson, who had been in charge of church funds for nine years.
Wilson admitted that she took money from the church without authorization but told the pair that she had hoped to be able to pay it off within six months, prosecutor Peggy Frank said Wednesday.
The church members told the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office what had happened on April 17. Wilson was arrested the same day.
Wilson took more than $116,600 from the church's building fund and more than $50,300 from its general fund. She has since repaid about $20,000, Frank said.
Four of the nine charges Wilson faced were dropped in court.
Wilson has not entered into a plea agreement and will remain free on bond until she is sentenced at a hearing in April. She faces up to 20 years in prison on each conviction.
After she was charged, Wilson resigned from her job as deputy commissioner.
The sheriff's office has said an investigation has shown that no funds were taken from the commissioner of the revenue's office.
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