A former Holmes County employee is in legal trouble for embezzling public funds.
State Auditor Shad White announced on Wednesday that Melissa Upchurch has pled guilty to mishandling public money while serving as the county’s secretary for the water and soil conservation district. Upchurch was arrested in June 2023 and was served with a $48,160.08 demand letter.
Upchurch is guilty of issuing and then depositing district checks into her bank account from June 2020 to September 2022.
“Thank you to the investigators who worked this matter,” White said. “We’ve now recovered more taxpayer money in the last five years than any other five-year period in the history of the office, and we’re not stopping.”
The former secretary was sentenced by the Holmes County Circuit Court to five years of house arrest, five years of supervised probation, followed by five years of unsupervised probation, and ordered to pay restitution and fines.
