FROM THE STARPRESS.COM -
For many East Central Indiana residents, the community’s churches — and other places of worship — are a welcome source of fellowship, inspiration and moral support.
But what does one do after allegedly stealing almost $200,000 from a local congregation?
One possibility is to find a new church.
Angela Renee Linder, a 42-year-old rural Yorktown resident, is set to be sentenced in nine days, in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, over allegations she embezzled nearly $200,000 during the nine years she worked as an accounting administrator at Union Chapel United Methodist Church on Muncie’s north side.
The charge, wire fraud, carries a maximum 20-year prison term and $250,000 fine, but Linder’s sentence is certain to be far less severe than that, given that she and her attorney, Mark McKinney, have negotiated a plea deal with federal prosecutors.
In recent days, McKinney submitted nearly 50 letters of support for Linder to be considered by U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Platt before she sentences Linder on May 28.
Several of the letters are from those who have attended church with the defendant, but not at Union Chapel.
Those letters come instead from members of the Yorktown Church of the Nazarene, where Linder and her family have worshiped in recent years.
The letters contain what are no doubt sincere endorsements of Linder as a caring wife, mother and Christian.
Some of the letters don’t address Linder’s misdeeds, or possible punishment, in any fashion. Others specifically refer to the possible sentence Judge Platt could impose, and describe the devastating impact the Yorktown woman’s incarceration would have on members of her household.
“I personally don’t think she should be taken away from her family for one stupid mistake,” one friend wrote the judge.
Prosecutors might suggest the theft of $200,000 over a period of several years, involving hundreds of individual misdeeds, could represent more than a single “mistake.”
The Yorktown church’s family pastor, Brian Couch, said Linder was “vigilant protecting” her family, “as much as possible, from societal harm.”
Senior Pastor George Ballard wrote that he believed Linder had made a sincere effort “to move her family forward by sitting with them and explaining her misguided deeds, and (she) has a tremendous repentant heart for anyone she has wronged.”
“With this, I believe that Angela is fully aware that there are consequences for errors, restitution for justice to be served, and a peace of knowing she is in God’s hands either way,” Ballard added.
Several of the letters — both from Yorktown Church of the Nazarene members and those who came to know Linder and her husband through their work with the fire department and ambulance crew in the Daleville area — note her founding of the “Children’s Fire Clothing Rescue,” providing replacement clothing for youngsters whose homes and belongings had been damaged by fire.
The congregation of Union Chapel United Methodist Church might deserve a shout-out for those efforts as well, for providing what local economic officials might call “seed money.”
Court documents suggest Linder set up her charity using stolen money that Union Chapel members had tithed to their own church.
The most poignant letters, perhaps, come from members of Linder’s family.
Her husband, Robert, asked Judge Platt to consider his wife’s service as an EMT, recalling one of her first calls, to an October 2007 accident on Interstate 69 that killed five members of an Amish family and injured 11 other people.
“I finally noticed that Angie was sick,” Linder wrote, apparently referring to the circumstances surrounding her alleged criminal activity. “After we got her help and in a therapy program, then I noticed just how sick and bad her illness is.
“She has changed with the daily medications she takes. I do know with my professional job that mental illness can be deadly.”
The letter doesn’t put a time frame on his discovery of his wife’s problems.
She worked at Union Chapel from February 2001 to March 2010, and is accused of using the church’s credit cards to pay for family vacations, home improvement projects, meals at various restaurants and medical expenses, and to buy items including clothing, wine, gasoline and cosmetics.
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According to U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett’s office, Angela Linder, in addition to drawing her regular salary, paid herself more than $54,000 between 2004 and 2006 — the year she married Brian Linder — by falsely listing herself as working at a community center associated with Union Chapel.
Authorities said Linder’s theft spree apparently began in 2003 and lasted until her employment at the Muncie church ended in 2010.
Letters, we get letters
Nearly every time a story concerning embezzlement appears, we receive communication from readers asking why we haven’t reported on accounts they’ve heard, usually through the grapevine, of money being stolen from local workplaces or organizations.
If the victims of those purported crimes have elected to not involve law enforcement in the resolution of their problems, such developments are far more likely to remain private — unless public funds are involved. And that’s hardly a coincidence.
Delaware County Prosecutor Jeffrey Arnold last week told The W/R Report he has yet to receive final reports from Indiana State Police on two ongoing theft investigations.
One involves the alleged embezzlement of funds from the Muncie Fraternal Order of Police lodge. The other focuses on the reported theft of more than $4,000 from a safe at the Delaware County Fairgrounds.
Senior Pastor George Ballard wrote that he believed Linder had made a sincere effort “to move her family forward by sitting with them and explaining her misguided deeds, and (she) has a tremendous repentant heart for anyone she has wronged.”
“With this, I believe that Angela is fully aware that there are consequences for errors, restitution for justice to be served, and a peace of knowing she is in God’s hands either way,” Ballard added.
Several of the letters — both from Yorktown Church of the Nazarene members and those who came to know Linder and her husband through their work with the fire department and ambulance crew in the Daleville area — note her founding of the “Children’s Fire Clothing Rescue,” providing replacement clothing for youngsters whose homes and belongings had been damaged by fire.
The congregation of Union Chapel United Methodist Church might deserve a shout-out for those efforts as well, for providing what local economic officials might call “seed money.”
Court documents suggest Linder set up her charity using stolen money that Union Chapel members had tithed to their own church.
The most poignant letters, perhaps, come from members of Linder’s family.
Her husband, Robert, asked Judge Platt to consider his wife’s service as an EMT, recalling one of her first calls, to an October 2007 accident on Interstate 69 that killed five members of an Amish family and injured 11 other people.
“I finally noticed that Angie was sick,” Linder wrote, apparently referring to the circumstances surrounding her alleged criminal activity. “After we got her help and in a therapy program, then I noticed just how sick and bad her illness is.
“She has changed with the daily medications she takes. I do know with my professional job that mental illness can be deadly.”
The letter doesn’t put a time frame on his discovery of his wife’s problems.
She worked at Union Chapel from February 2001 to March 2010, and is accused of using the church’s credit cards to pay for family vacations, home improvement projects, meals at various restaurants and medical expenses, and to buy items including clothing, wine, gasoline and cosmetics.
According to U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett’s office, Angela Linder, in addition to drawing her regular salary, paid herself more than $54,000 between 2004 and 2006 — the year she married Brian Linder — by falsely listing herself as working at a community center associated with Union Chapel.
Authorities said Linder’s theft spree apparently began in 2003 and lasted until her employment at the Muncie church ended in 2010.
Letters, we get letters
Nearly every time a story concerning embezzlement appears, we receive communication from readers asking why we haven’t reported on accounts they’ve heard, usually through the grapevine, of money being stolen from local workplaces or organizations.
If the victims of those purported crimes have elected to not involve law enforcement in the resolution of their problems, such developments are far more likely to remain private — unless public funds are involved. And that’s hardly a coincidence.
Delaware County Prosecutor Jeffrey Arnold last week told The W/R Report he has yet to receive final reports from Indiana State Police on two ongoing theft investigations.
One involves the alleged embezzlement of funds from the Muncie Fraternal Order of Police lodge. The other focuses on the reported theft of more than $4,000 from a safe at the Delaware County Fairgrounds.
