A North Carolina Court of Appeals panel has found no error in the conviction of a former Brunswick County School Board member for embezzlement when he led a local school’s PTA.
Ray Gilbert, who served on the school board from 2004 to 2008, was arrested in June 2013 and charged with embezzling more than $3,000 from the PTA at Jessie Mae Monroe Elementary School in Ash. A jury convicted Gilbert in June 2017 on two counts of embezzlement by an officer of a charitable organization. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of 16-29 months, both of which were suspended for 36 months of supervised probation.
In an unpublished opinion from the NC Court of Appeals released today, a panel of judges denied Gilbert’s claims, including concerns about jury instructions and the testimony of a Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office detective, were enough to grant him a new trial. The judges, though, did leave open the possibility of Gilbert getting appropriate relief for ineffective assistance of counsel.
According to the ruling, investigators charged Gilbert, who served as Jessie Mae Monroe’s PTA president from 2011 to 2013, after a CPA’s review of the organization’s finances “found several problematic transactions, such as transactions with no receipts, unaccounted for gift cards and fundraising certificates, checks for meals, checks reimbursing Defendant personally for gas and travel expenses, and checks issued without the purpose indicated.”
Prosecutors offered as evidence transactions including golf shirts embroidered with the name of the church where Gilbert was the pastor, but billed to and paid for by the PTA; PTA reimbursements to Gilbert for gas used to attend a family funeral; a digital camera purchased by Gilbert with PTA funds; numerous unaccounted for gift cards bought with PTA funds; payments to PTA board members and their families; reimbursements for food at PTA board meetings; and renewal of the church’s Sam’s Club membership with PTA funds.
Gilbert presented no evidence at trial in his own defense and moved to have the case dismiss, which was denied.
The PTA’s treasurer testified against Gilbert after being granted immunity from prosecution.
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