Chatham County probate clerk who admitted theft sues to get her pension restored

SAVANNAH | Convicted former Chatham County Probate Court Chief Clerk Kim Birge has challenged the denial of her county pension benefits based on her conviction.

The challenge was filed Thursday in Chatham County Superior Court for Birge and her husband, Lawrence Franklin Birge. It named Chatham County acting through the Chatham County Pension Board.

It asks a judge to review the facts and hold a hearing to require the pension board to show why it should not be required to provide Birge with her pension.

Birge, 62, worked for the county and was a member of the retirement plan from July 19, 1982, until she was terminated Dec. 2, 2014.

She pleaded guilty in federal court on July 31, 2015, to stealing $232,000 from the court as part of a scheme in which the government said she stole more than $750,000 over a three-year period.

She was sentenced to six years in federal prison and ordered to make restitution of more than $750,000 for her admission to stealing $232,000 from the court.

As part of the plea to the mail fraud count, prosecutors dismissed the remaining counts in the indictment.

A pre-sentencing investigation identified 33 individual victims, two estates and Chatham County Probate Court that suffered losses as the result of her conduct.

U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. said the 36 victims suffered actual losses, adding that none of the funds ever belonged to the court.

He set the actual restitution in the case at $751,715.95.

Chatham County officials contend Birge stole $890,000 from individuals and another $113,000 from Chatham County.

At her sentencing, Birge told Moore she “wanted to ask forgiveness for everybody who has been affected by my wrongdoing. … I am ashamed and embarrassed.”

The petition seeking her pension, filed by attorney Walter Bellow III, said she applied for her benefits under the Chatham County Employees Retirement Plan on Jan. 5, 2015, and was denied on Jan. 26, 2015.

She appealed and was denied March 30.

Her suit said denial of her pension is “unreasonable, capricious and arbitrary and an illegal attempt to exercise discretion which is clearly forbidden by Georgia law.”

The county argued that the pension contained criminal conduct violations of which “are specifically contemplated” in the county’s plan.

Those violations include convictions for theft, sabotage, embezzlement, and fraud.

Further, the pension plan mandates that the pension board “reduce any sum to Ms. Birge by three times the amount of the economic impact of her crime. … That sum is far above that is available for the board to seize.”

At Birge’s sentencing hearing, Clarence Bynes Jr. – one of Birge’s 33 individual victims – told Moore that, “This is atrocious. … There was no fear here. ... This was just greed. Why would anyone do this to young kids. ... Ms. Birge should be ashamed.”

He told the judge he lost $217,000 with Probate Court from the sale of his father’s house. He did not learn of the theft until the day he went to claim the money and was told his money was gone.
“I’m sorry. ... Your honor, this is not fair,” Bynes said.

Full Article & Source:
Chatham County probate clerk who admitted theft sues to get her pension restored

Former clerk Kim Birge sentenced to six years in federal custody, ordered to make restitution

By Jan Skutch

Former Chatham County Probate Court Chief Clerk Kim Birge on Friday was sentenced to six years in federal prison and ordered to make restitution of more than $751,000 for her admissions to stealing $232,000 from the court.

U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. also ordered Birge, 61, to serve three years supervised release after completion of her custody term but imposed no fine citing her inability to pay.

There is no parole in a federal sentence.

She will have until 2 p.m. on Nov. 20 to report to a federal facility designated for custody.

Birge, standing with attorney Tom Withers, told Moore that she “wanted to ask forgiveness for everybody who has been affected by my wrongdoing.

“I am ashamed and embarrassed.”

But she asked Moore to consider her efforts to beat the twin problems of pain medication and gambling addiction and said, “I never meant to hurt anyone.”

“I promise to you that I will never let anyone down again,” Birge said.

“This is atrocious,” Clarence Bynes Jr., who was one of Birge’s 33 individual victims, told Moore.

“There was no fear here. … This was just greed. Why would anyone do this to young kids. … Ms. Birge should be ashamed.”

He told the judge he lost $217,000 with Probate Court from the sale of his father’s house. He did not learn of the theft until the day he went to claim the money and was told his money was gone.

“I’m sorry. I don’t see no leniency. … Your honor, this is not fair,” Bynes said.

His testimony, one of three victims to address the court, came after Birge’s sister-in-law, Karen Birge Lang, testified the family could not believe her conduct.

“Everyone depended on her,” Lang said. “Obviously she’s been under a lot of stress for a number of years.”

Birge’s father, Robert Helmey, also testified he did not know what had occurred.

“I don’t know. It’s not Kim,” he said. “I ask for a second chance in life for her.”

Birge pleaded guilty on July 31 to stealing $232,000 from the court as part of a scheme in which the government said she stole more than $750,000 over a three-year period.

As part of the plea to the mail fraud count, prosecutors dismissed the remaining counts in the indictment.

A pre-sentencing investigation identified 33 individual victims, two estates and Chatham County Probate Court that suffered loses as the result of her conduct.

Moore said the 36 victims suffered actual loses, adding that none of the funds ever belonged to the court.

The issue then was “who paid what money to whom,” Moore said.

He set the actual restitution in the case at $751,715.95.

‘Life spiraled out of control’

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scarlett Nokes told Moore that despite Birge’s battles with both drugs since 2008 and gambling excesses since 2003, she did not seek help until her crimes were discovered.

The case was in court because Birge victimized people who were trusting her to do her job, Nokes said.

But, Nokes said, the government was standing by its agreement in the negotiated plea to recommend that she be sentenced at the low end of the sentencing guidelines of 63 months.

The recommended sentencing guidelines were 63-78 months, with the final sentence Moore’s alone.

Under the terms of her negotiated plea with the government, Birge pleaded guilty to count three of a five-count indictment, charging her with mail fraud and federal program fraud in the scheme the government said lasted between January 2011 and November 2011.

But under federal sentencing guidelines, probation officers can consider all alleged misconduct — including dismissed counts — in reaching their recommendations to the judge.

During Birge’s appearance in court, the judge said he found it a mystery that the 342 checks she had written to cash, 322 were checks for less than $3,000 and only 20 in excess of that number.

Birge explained that Probate Judge Harris Lewis had told her she did not have to get permission to write checks of $2,900 or less.

When Moore suggested that her conduct suggested she had a reason for the check sums, Birge responded, “I didn’t try to hide anything from anyone. … Much of the time I didn’t know what I was doing.

“I can’t explain why I did what I did and I’m sorry and I just pray for mercy.”

And Birge said that despite the probation report finding only an audit of the court in 2009. “That’s not true. We were audited every year. Every year they come in my office and sat in the record room and audited our records,” Birge said.

Probation officials only found a 2009 audit and one in 2014.

The count to which she pleaded charged that between Sept. 21, 2011, and Oct. 18, 2011, a check for $232,000 payable to the Chatham County Probate Court was among those she used for herself.

In his pre-sentencing memorandum, Withers told Moore his client’s life spun out of control because of painkiller drugs and gambling, leaving her “shamed and a lifetime of good works destroyed.”

“Kim was unable to handle the losses and stressors in her life and instead of seeking help, she turned to drugs and gambling,” Withers said. “She would disappear into a world of addiction, and her life spiraled out of control.

“Ultimately, Kim became addicted to the prescription opioids she was taking for pain management. Kim became seriously addicted to video game gambling in convenience stores both near her work and home.”

Full Article & Source:
Former clerk Kim Birge sentenced to six years in federal custody, ordered to make restitution

See Also:
UPDATE: Ex-Probate clerk Kim Birge to plead guilty in theft case on Friday

Kim Birge pleads not guilty to Probate Court fraud charges 

Former Probate Court clerk Kim Birge indicted in theft of more than $700,000 from the court

UPDATE: Ex-Probate clerk Kim Birge to plead guilty in theft case on Friday

Kim Birge

By Jan Skutch

 

Former longtime Chatham County Probate Court Chief Clerk Kim Birge is scheduled to plead guilty Friday to charges of stealing or embezzling more than $700,000 from the court over a three-year period.

According to court documents, Birge has reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors and will change her not guilty plea to some or all of the five-count indictment during a session before U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr.

The government’s notice of a plea agreement, which was entered on Monday, simply states “that a plea agreement has been reached by the parties which would dispose of the charges pending in the … case against the defendant.”

A copy of that agreement has been provided to Moore for his consideration, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scarlett Nokes said in the filing.

Typically a defense attorney, in Birge’s case attorney Tom Withers, will negotiate a deal where the defendant will plead guilty to some of the charges, with the government dismissing others in return for a plea agreement.

Final determinations on sentencing are the judge’s alone. Details of Birge’s accord will not be made public until the actual court hearing.

Birge, 61, remains free on a $40,000 unsecured bond pending disposition of the case.

Birge was named May 18 in a five-count indictment that included four counts of mail fraud by using the mail to defraud Chatham County out of $700,000 between January 2011 and November 2014 and then using the cash for her own benefit.

A fifth count charged federal program fraud. It alleged she stole about $767,218 between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 31, 2014, from Chatham County, money that involved a federal grant.

The count included the same funds and time frame as the mail fraud counts.

Included in the indictment is a forfeiture allegation in which the government says, if she’s convicted, it will try to recover “any property, real or personal” derived from the offense.

The indictment charged that Birge in her capacity as chief clerk of Probate Court was authorized to conduct transactions in at least two court bank accounts but “was not authorized to conduct transactions in the Probate Court bank accounts for the benefit of herself or her family.”

It charges she would sign court orders to direct insurance companies, private businesses, public employers, banks and other entities to send funds to the court “for the benefit of minors and other individuals who had conservatorships” established in Chatham County.

A conservatorship establishes someone to watch out for money or property for minors or incompetents in the court.

Birge would then deposit fees paid to the court into one of two bank accounts maintained by the court and make representations that the money would be used for court matters, the indictment charged.

She would then forge the signatures of conservators and/or their attorneys to create false documents to disburse the money, would use the cash from negotiated checks for her personal use and would fail to disclose her activities to others in the court, the indictment charged.

Probate Judge Harris Lewis fired Birge on Dec. 2 in what was described as “in the best interests” of the court.

He had placed Birge on investigative suspension without pay Nov. 20 during a probe of “discrepancies with the services that you are responsible for handling,” Lewis said in a Nov. 20 letter.

As part of Lewis’ initial action, Birge has been barred from entering the Montgomery Street courthouse or discussing any matters related to the investigation “with anyone other than investigatory staff, unless otherwise directed to do so.”

The action came in wake of a reported federal/Savannah-Chatham police probe of undisclosed activity.

Full Article & Source:
UPDATE: Ex-Probate clerk Kim Birge to plead guilty in theft case on Friday

See Also:
Kim Birge pleads not guilty to Probate Court fraud charges 

Former Probate Court clerk Kim Birge indicted in theft of more than $700,000 from the court

Kim Birge pleads not guilty to Probate Court fraud charges

By Jan Skutch

 

Former longtime Chatham County Probate Court Chief Clerk Kim Birge on Tuesday pleaded not guilty in federal court to stealing or embezzling more than $700,000 from the court over a three-year period.

“How does she plead to the charges in the indictment?” U.S. Magistrate Judge G.R. Smith asked Birge’s lawyer, Tom Withers, during her initial appearance.

“Not guilty,” Withers replied.

Smith allowed Birge, 61, to remain free on a $40,000 unsecured bond pending trial. That means she’s required to put up no money as part of the bond. Birge, who started with the court on July 19, 1982, had long been a stalwart in Probate Court, dating back to the administration of former Judge Robert Cook.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scarlett Nokes told Smith the government did not object to a probation recommendation that Birge be released pending trial.

The judge noted “a confession to a gambling addiction problem” in Birge’s probation workup and later directed her to refrain from any gambling activity as a condition of her pre-trial release.

He also prohibited her from any alcohol use during the pre-trial period and ordered mental health and substance abuse evaluations.

Smith also told Birge to have no contact with any potential witnesses or victims in the case.

Birge was named May 18 in a five-count indictment including four counts of mail fraud by using the mail to defraud Chatham County out of $700,000 between January 2011 and November 2014 and then using the cash for her own benefit.

A fifth count charged federal program fraud. It alleged she stole about $767,218 between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 31, 2014, from Chatham County involving a federal grant.

The count included the same funds and time frame as the mail fraud counts.

Included in the indictment is a forfeiture allegation in which the government says, if she’s convicted, it will try to recover “any property, real or personal” derived from the offense. That would include but not be limited to at least $767,218.

The indictment charged that Birge in her capacity as chief clerk of Probate Court was authorized to conduct transactions in at least two court bank accounts, but “was not authorized to conduct transactions in the Probate Court bank accounts for the benefit of herself or her family.”

It charges she would sign court orders to direct insurance companies, private businesses, public employers, banks and other entities to send funds to the court “for the benefit of minors and other individuals who had conservatorships” established in Chatham County.

A conservatorship establishes someone to watch out for money or property for minors or incompetents in the court.

Birge would then deposit fees paid to the court into one of two bank accounts maintained by the court and make representations that the money would be used for court matters, the indictment charged.

She would then forge the signatures of conservators and/or their attorneys to create false documents to disburse the money, would use the cash from negotiated checks for her personal use and would fail to disclose her activities to others in the court, the indictment charged.

Probate Judge Harris Lewis fired Birge on Dec. 2 in what was described as “in the best interests” of the court.

He had placed Birge on investigative suspension without pay Nov. 20 during a probe of “discrepancies with the services that you are responsible for handling,” Lewis said in a Nov. 20 letter.

As part of Lewis’ initial action, Birge has been barred from entering the Montgomery Street courthouse or discussing any matters related to the investigation “with anyone other than investigatory staff, unless otherwise directed to do so.”

Birge has not returned to the courthouse since she left Nov. 20.

The action came in wake of a reported federal/Savannah-Chatham police probe of undisclosed activity.

Full Article & Source:
Kim Birge pleads not guilty to Probate Court fraud charges 

See Also:
Former Probate Court clerk Kim Birge indicted in theft of more than $700,000 from the court

Former Probate Court clerk Kim Birge indicted in theft of more than $700,000 from the court

By Jan Skutch

 

A federal indictment unsealed Monday charged longtime Chatham County Probate Court Chief Clerk/Court Administrator Kim Birge with stealing or embezzling more than $700,000 from Chatham County Probate Court over a three-year period.

The five-count indictment includes four counts of mail fraud involving the $700,000 between January 2011 and November 2014 and a fifth count for federal program fraud alleging she stole about $767,218 between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 31, 2014, involving a federal grant.

The count included the same funds and time frame as the mail fraud counts.

Included in the indictment is a forfeiture allegation in which the government says, if she’s convicted, they will try to recover “any property, real or personal” derived from the offense. That would include but not be limited to at least $767,218.

Birge, 61, is expected to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge G.R. Smith within a few days for her initial court appearance.

Birge’s defense attorney, Thomas Withers, declined comment Monday.

The indictment charged that Birge in her capacity as chief clerk of Probate Court was authorized to conduct transactions in at least two court bank accounts, but “was not authorized to conduct transactions in the Probate Court bank accounts for the benefit of herself or her family.”

It charged that Birge, without authorization and with intent to defraud, would “use the mails to embezzle, steal, misappropriate and unlawfully convert more than $700,000 from the Chatham County Probate court.”

It charges she would sign court orders to direct insurance companies, private businesses, public employers, banks and other entities to send funds to the court “for the benefit of minors and other individuals who had conservatorships’ established in Chatham County.

A conservatorship establishes someone to watch out for money or property for minors or incompetents in the court.

Birge would then deposit fees paid to the court into one of the two bank accounts maintained by the court and make representations that the money would be used for court matters, the indictment charged.

She would then forge the signatures of conservators and/or their attorneys to create false documents to disburse the money, would use the cash from negotiated checks for her personal use and fail to disclose to others in the court her activities, the indictment charged.

Probate Judge Harris Lewis terminated Birge on Dec. 2 in what was described as “in the best interests” of the court.

He had placed Birge on investigative suspension without pay Nov. 20 during a probe of “discrepancies with the services that you are responsible for handling,” Lewis said in a Nov. 20 letter.

As part of Lewis’ initial action, Birge has been barred from entering the Montgomery Street courthouse or discussing any matters related to the investigation “with anyone other than investigatory staff, unless otherwise directed to do so.”

Birge has not returned to the courthouse since she left Nov. 20.

The action came in wake of a reported federal/Savannah-Chatham police probe of undisclosed activity.

Birge, who started with the court on July 19, 1982, had long been a stalwart in Probate Court, dating back to the administration of former Judge Robert Cook.

Full Article & Source:
Former Probate Court clerk Kim Birge indicted in theft of more than $700,000 from the court

Metro Could Be on Hook for Money Stolen from Estate

By Walter F. Roche, Jr.

The attorney for an estate bilked out of $771,009 is asking a judge to rule that Metro government should be held liable for those losses because the probate court clerk's office failed to perform its statutorily mandated duty to monitor the case.

The argument filed this week in a 17-page document filed in circuit court concludes that the Probate Clerk's office headed by Robert Bradshaw negligently failed to require the now jailed administrator of the estate to file annual reports for a full decade.

The suit against Metro government follows the guilty plea by attorney John E. Clemmons to charges that he stole over $1 million from estates and conservatorships he had been assigned to manage. The pleas included the estate of William C. Link, the subject of this week's filings.

Metro attorneys already have filed motions to dismiss the case citing governmental immunity and quasi-judicial immunity.

Patrick B. Mason, who was hired to represent the estate in the civil suit, argued that neither governmental immunity or quasi-judicial immunity should apply in the case because the probate clerk's duties are set out by specific statutes and the duties were put in place to protect a specific individual and not the general public.

Clemmons, who is serving a 16 year jail sentence imposed after his guilty pleas, was appointed administrator of the Link estate in 2003. While he filed an annual accounting in 2004, he never filed another before his removal from the case in 2013.

In a nearly identical brief filed this week, Mason argued that Metro also should also be held liable in another case handled by Clemmons, the conservatorship of Donald E. Griggs.

In his briefs Mason charged that Bradshaw's office "negligently failed to ensure that proper accountings were filed."

In the Griggs case, according to the brief, three years had passed without a proper accounting at the time Clemmons was removed from his role as conservator. Grigg's lost $172,506 while Clemmons served as his conservator, according to court records.

Mason noted that the clerk's office knew the Link and Griggs estates had substantial assets and they also knew "the substantial and unjustifiable risk of their misconduct."

He also cited Davidson County rules of procedure and several prior court cases to bolster the argument.

In fact, the brief argues, the clerk's office owed a special duty of care to the Link estate and its beneficiaries.

"For a period of 10 years the probate clerk's office failed to follow their duty to ensure proper accounting, failed to monitor estate administration, failed to cite Mr. Clemmons for his failure and failed to obtain a contempt order," the filing states.

The inaction, Mason concluded, amount to "reckless conduct."

The cases were originally assigned to Judge Thomas Brothers but he recused himself from the case and it has been reassigned to Senior Judge Ben H. Cantrell.

Clemmons was removed from his role in four cases in Rutherford and Davidson counties shortly after his license to practice law was suspended in April 2013. He was later disbarred.

Full Article & Source:
Metro Could Be on Hook for Money Stolen from Estate

See Also:
Metro Pulled in to Another Conservatorship Case

Nashville lawyer admits to stealing $1.3 million, gets 18 years in prison