Brookfield woman sentenced for embezzlement scheme against church

A Brookfield woman has received 21 months in prison for embezzling funds from a local church.  

Cynthia Head, 51, of Brookfield, was sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay $192,000 in restitution for embezzling funds from the Brookfield Church of Nazarene. 

Head was found guilty of writing unauthorized checks to herself, making unauthorized withdrawals from the church’s bank account and purchasing items like computers, cameras and vacuum cleaners with church checks, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Missouri.

The fraud scheme began in September of 2007 and lasted until October of 2013. Head also served as the church’s treasure during the time and netted approximately $192,000 from the scheme, according to the release.  

The Kirksville Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Linn County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case.