Woman pleads guilty to stealing from rehab group

Published 6:43 am Saturday, April 23, 2011

A Dalton woman charged with 44 counts of felony theft and four counts of misdemeanor theft from a rehabilitation agency escaped prison when she was allowed to plead guilty to just one of the counts on Friday in Whitfield County Superior Court in exchange for seven years on probation.

Wilma Carter Starns, 50, of 1901 Summit View, was charged with 16 counts of felony theft by taking by a fiduciary, 12 counts of felony theft by taking, 16 counts of felony theft by taking by a government employee and four counts of misdemeanor theft by taking.

Starns pleaded guilty to one count of felony theft by taking before Judge Cindy Morris and was given seven years, all to be served on probation. She must also pay court costs and surcharges, perform 200 hours of community service and pay $13,300 in restitution to the Georgia Rehabilitation Association, which her attorney, Steve Williams, called a private and not a government agency.

Starns was charged last June when she was working as a “treasurer or secretary of some sort” for GRA, said Assistant District Attorney Ben Kenemer.

“(GRA) began looking at their books and the checks written,” Kenemer said, noting the agency found a total of $13,300 missing. “This was money that was supposed to be used for the purposes of the association, but the defendant took for her own use.”

When Morris asked Starns if that was the case, she replied, “Yes.”

According to their website (georgiarehab.org), GRA is “a membership organization whose mission is to improve the quality of life for individuals with disabilities through education and advocacy.” Williams said Starns, who has an undergraduate degree in rehabilitation and a masters degree in counseling, worked for “one of those subdivisions” of the Department of Labor but that the theft did not involve Department of Labor funds.

Kenemer said Starns had no previous arrests, but had a DUI charge back in March. She qualified for first offender status in the theft sentencing, he told Morris.

“Wilma has had a lot of emotional stress,” Williams told Morris, “from not a wonderful marriage and being in debt from that. She has college degrees and she’s working again.”

He said her current job was with a private firm.

Outside the courtroom, Williams said he felt the outcome for his client was fair but the prosecution could have gotten by with charging Starns with just one count of theft by taking.

“That’s a little game they played,” he said. “Each time they charged her three different ways. She is a government employee, but this organization was not government, it was private. She is a government employee who happened to be the treasurer of this organization. I’ve never seen (the prosecutors) do it like this.”