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This blog is dedicated to issues affecting criminal justice in northern Beaufort County. The blog also includes information on trends and issues that affect area fire and police departments, as well as the local courts.
Patrick Donohue is the Gazette’s Police, Fire, and Military reporter. Donohue is a native of Terre Haute, Ind. and a graduate of the Ernie Pyle School of Journalism at Indiana University. He was previously a general assignment reporter at The Destin Log in northwest Florida.
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Ex-Performing Arts employee scheduled to stand trial in August
Posted by pdonohue at 11:18 am, Thursday, June 18th, 2009
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A second employee of Beaufort Performing Arts Inc. charged with stealing money from the organization is scheduled to face trial in August, according to Beaufort County court records.
An internal audit of the organization’s finances earlier this year uncovered that Melanie Lashawn Daniels, 36, had been writing checks to herself from the organization’s accounts to the amount of $36,649, according to Capt. Michael Lee, spokesman for the Beaufort Police Department.
Daniels was executive assistant to Beaufort Performing Arts executive director Bonnie Hargrove. She was arrested April 21 on one count of breach of trust with fraudulent intent and released on a $50,000 bond the following day, according to the Beaufort County Detention Center’s jail log.
She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, according to state law.
Beaufort Performing Arts, a nonprofit founded in 2003, encourages cultural and economic development within Beaufort County using the University of South Carolina Beaufort's performing arts center.
The nonprofit ordered the audit after the June 2008 arrest of Stacey Whitmore, 26, who was accused of stealing more than $98,000 from the organization’s accounts. Employees noticed a number of suspicious checks that Whitmore had written from the organization's business account, according to police. Investigators found that Whitmore had been writing checks for her own use since August 2006.
Whitmore pleaded guilty in December to one count of breach of trust with fraudulent intent and was sentenced by Circuit Court Judge Carmen Mullen to 10 years probation and was ordered to pay back more than $78,000.
If she violates her probation or misses a restitution payment, Whitmore could be sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to Beaufort County court records.
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