By Jan Skutch
Former Chatham County Probate Court Clerk Kim Birge on Wednesday was
indicted on 39 counts including racketeering, theft by taking and
violation of her oath as a public officer for alleged thefts from
accounts in her office over a two-year-period.
The indictment
returned by the Chatham County grand jury identified 18 individual who
were alleged victims between Jan. 1, 2009, and June 30, 2011, and it is
the first time Birge has been charged in a state court proceeding.
Birge,
64, is currently serving a six-year federal sentence imposed in 2015
for her guilty plea to stealing $223,000 from the Probate Court.
The
new charges, obtained on evidence presented by Chatham County Assistant
District Attorney Scott Robichaux, charged Birge with racketeering
activity by obtaining interest in and control of real estate and
personal property by improperly managing Probate Court funds and
accounts by forging or altering documents related to disbursements and
expenditures for her personal use.
It said her scheme grew from
early racketeering involving stealing from existing accounts to “become
more sophisticated and created dummy accounts into which she would
initially deposit and then tqke the monies from these dummy accounts.”
The
indictment charged the Birge “pleaded guilty in federal court to
charges related to the dummy accounts,” but “has not faced any criminal
charges related to the earlier activity of theft and fraud on individual
existing accounts, disbursement, and expenditures.”
It then named
Birge in separate theft by taking counts for each victim with sums of
with a greater or less than value of $500, but did not give a total sum
taken.
The indictment theft charged Birge with violating her oath
by a public officer with the Probate Court in that she did swear to
“well and faithfully discharge the duties of the Chief Clerk of Probate
Court (of Chatham County) ... and I will receive only legal fees.”
The
indictment stated the alleged illegal activity was unknown to the state
until on or about Jan. 4 2017, and is thus excluded from the statute of
limitations.
Then-Probate Judge Harris Lewis fired Birge on Dec. 2, 2014,
in what was described as “in the best interests” of the court. He had
placed Birge on investigative suspension without pay Nov. 20, 2014,
during a probe of “discrepancies with the services that you are
responsible for handling,” Lewis said in a termination letter.
Wednesday’s action was the latest against Birge.
As
recently as two weeks ago in Chatham County State Court, Birge agreed
to provide half of her contested county retirement to 11 plaintiffs to
settle a civil case.
At issue in the civil case were mental pain
and suffering after the 11 victims learns the money was gone from
Probate Court, punitive damages and attorneys’ fee in what plaintiff
attorney Brent Savage contended was more than $409,000 that Birge took
from his clients over at least a four-year period.
And Chatham County Director of Internal Audits Jeannie Alday
testified that her expanded review of Probate Court ledgers and related
records uncovered about 80 victims, not the 42 earlier identified,
between 2009 and 2014.
Total thefts from the court totaled “right at $1 million” plus $190,000 involving another estate, she said.
In
October 2015, Birge was sentenced in federal court to six years in
prison and ordered to make restitution of more than $751,000 for her
admissions to stealing $232,000 from Chatham County Probate Court.
U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. also ordered Birge,
then 61, to serve three years supervised release after completion of her
custody term but imposed no fine citing her inability to pay.
She remains incarcerated in a West Virginia prison, but is expected to be released next year.
At
her sentencing hearing, 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.
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.
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.”
Full Article & Source:
Chatham County prosecutors charge former Probate Court Clerk Kim Birge in theft scheme
See Also:
Attorney tells jury Kim Birge stole more than $1 million from Savannah victims
Former clerk Kim Birge sentenced to six years in federal custody, ordered to make restitution
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
