VICKSBURG, Miss.–Taking taxpayer money while she was in office is why former Warren County Circuit Clerk Shelly Palmertree got a ten-year sentence Monday. She will serve five of those years, with the other five suspended.
Atty. Gen. Jim Hood said Lackey pleaded guilty before her sentencing and was also ordered to pay $12,000 in restitution and must report to prison on Oct. 15.
This sentence involves Palmertree taking $12,000 from the Warren County Circuit Clerk Criminal Account and putting $7,000 into her own personal account and $5,000 into her Circuit Clerk Fee Account.
The investigation of the case was conducted by the Department of Audit in the attorney general’s office.
But, Palmertree may have bilked the county out of more than $800,000 either directly, or by mismanagement, said Auditor Stacey Pickering.
Earlier this year, she was forcibly removed from office and the locks changed, after it was discovered she did not even live in Warren County, and was sending her children to Madison County schools.
The trouble stretches back to 2013, when she was originally indicted, but the charges dismissed because of a technicality.
A demand was issued for her to pay back almost $700,000 at that time. She was indicted again in January 2014.
