A former Marshall County Rescue Squad treasurer has been ordered to pay restitution to the squad after pleading guilty to theft charges earlier this year.
Vallery West, 47, was ordered to pay $20,778 in restitution Tuesday, according to documents on file in Marshall County Circuit Court. West must pay an upfront total of $3,000 within 30 days and then $500 per month thereafter until the sum has been paid.
West initially pleaded not guilty last year to a felony fraudulent use of a credit card charge in Marshall County District Court. She later pleaded guilty in February to an amended class C felony charge of theft by unlawful taking. She was sentenced April 11 to one year suspended, with two years probation, according to court documents.
West must comply with the conditions of the court, which include committing no additional offenses, making restitution and keeping suitable employment, in that time or she will face a one-year sentence.
West was arrested in May 2016, following a Rescue Squad finance and audit committee investigation. According to a statement issued last year by Chief Kurt Schmidt, he first noticed inflated fuel bills in January 2016 after pulling bank statements for the previous three years to prepare a budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Schmidt requested itemized copies of the fuel purchases for three months from the squad’s credit card company and noticed one card in particular with heavy usage. The card was associated with a truck used “very infrequently,” according to Schmidt’s statement.
The committee pulled credit cards for each of the squad’s vehicles, and was unable to locate the card in question.
According to a Marshall County Sheriff’s Department report, surveillance footage at several Five Star gas stations revealed West’s son, Jeremy Stevenson, was using the card. Stevenson told investigators his mother had given him the card in September 2014 and said “it was OK to use.” Total charges on the card Stevenson used came to more than $3,503. Investigators said West also gave a second gas card to another son, Trevor Gamble, who charged more than $5,542.
West and her sons incurred charges on a total of six credit cards for personal use, according to the report. She was indicted in August.
West was the former Rescue Squad treasurer and secretary. She also served as an E-911 dispatcher.
“The Rescue Squad is and has always been an all-volunteer unit and we are deeply troubled and saddened by this person’s action,” Schmidt said in a statement last year. “We have continuously strived to provide highest level of training to our people and provide them with the best available equipment to perform their tasks. We certainly want the residents of Marshall County to know that this was one person that behaved wrongly and we are doing everything possible to make sure something like this never happens again.”