HOBART — A Kiowa County judge has scheduled an April 27 trial for a former Mountain Park official who allegedly stole about $77,000 in utility payments from the town.
District Judge Richard Darby on Wednesday set the trial date for Kimberly Morris, 29, who was arrested in October 2007 on charges of felony embezzlement.
The state Auditor and Inspector's office uncovered the missing money in September 2007.
District Attorney John Wampler had requested the audit after Mountain Park residents complained they were receiving cutoff notices from Oklahoma Natural Gas despite having paid their bills on a computer at City Hall.
Mountain Park Mayor Leland Coulter said he is glad to see the legal process moving forward because the town needs the money back to pay mounting debts.
"We may have to raise the price of utilities again if something doesn't happen quick," Coulter said. "The state auditor could only find $76 (thousand) to $77,000 he could substantiate as missing, but I'm saying there's a heck of a lot more than that that's been drained off, and we keep getting bills from the IRS."
Coulter said he was encouraged that Morris will go to trial instead of making a plea agreement.
"That would have taken forever, and we need the money now," he said.
A jury trial also would provide a chance to analyze how one person could have made the town go broke so that similar incidents don't happen again, Coulter said.
"I think we'll have more details about what happened and what happens now," he said. "Maybe we'll find out why that went on for four or five years and nobody noticed it."
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Information from: The Lawton Constitution, http://www.lawton-constitution.com
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
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