Three Cherokee County court reporters who allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of dollars by billing for transcript pages that didn’t exist have been indicted by a Cobb County grand jury on racketeering charges.
The investigation into the alleged billing irregularities began in mid-July at the request of Cherokee District Attorney Shannon Wallace, Cherokee sheriff's Lt. Jay Baker said after the court reporters were arrested in September. Investigators determined that three suspects were intentionally mis-formatting court records and receiving extra reimbursement, and believe the crimes date back to 2006, Baker said.
Wallace recused herself from prosecuting the case in Cherokee County, and Betty Petersen, 73, Kimberly Probst, 50, and Tammy Stine, 55, all from Woodstock, were indicted Wednesday by a Cobb County grand jury for violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act.
According to the indictments, Stine received in excess of $225,000 from fraudulent invoices, while Peterson and Stine received more than $55,000 each.
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