Judging by her looks, Becky McCord appears more likely to be accused of burning an apple pie than stealing $134,000 from her job.
With her silver hair coiffed and her violet-printed dress pressed, the matronly woman who served for 17 years as Clerk of Superior Court in Dawson County cut an unlikely figure Tuesday in U.S. Magistrate Court in Gainesville. McCord, 62, is charged with tax evasion and bankruptcy fraud arising from the theft of Dawson County funds. She pleaded not guilty to the charges Tuesday, but her defense attorney said McCord intends to plead guilty at a later date.
Federal prosecutors say McCord wrote checks to herself between 2006 and 2009, taking a larger cut than she was entitled to receive for issuing U.S. passports through her office. She allegedly cashed the checks at various banks around Dawsonville and used the money to bankroll routine living expenses like her car loan and mortgage payments.
McCord did not report that income to the IRS, nor did she report income of $24,630 she received legitimately from collecting passport application fees as part of her job, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Grimberg. That money also was not listed among her financial assets when she and her husband filed for bankruptcy in 2007.
U.S. Magistrate Court Judge Susan S. Cole granted McCord a $10,000 bond Tuesday, with the provision that she cannot travel beyond North Georgia. McCord's defense lawyer, Jeff Talley, said she intends to enter a guilty plea in the near future. McCord had been scheduled to plead guilty at Tuesday's hearing, but Talley asked the judge to postpone it because he said there was an issue over the dollar amount of the theft in the prosecutor's paperwork.
McCord went forward with a formal arraignment hearing instead, where she told the court she was pleading "not guilty for the purposes of today." McCord is also facing state prosecution in relation to the theft of passport fees. She is awaiting trial in Dawson County on a charge of theft by taking.
McCord was arrested in February 2010 and released on $50,000 bond. Authorities said McCord's theft came to light after her niece, former Deputy Clerk of Court Donna Sheriff, was caught issuing checks to a contract worker from a bank account used for holding cash bonds. Investigators audited the court clerk's accounts and found evidence that McCord also was improperly taking money.
McCord's theft case will potentially be scheduled for June, said Dawson County District Attorney Lee Darragh.
Sheriff and the contract worker, Justin Disharoon, pleaded guilty to theft charges on June 8.
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