FARMINGTON — A grand jury indicted the former treasurer of the Share and Care Food Closet on Thursday.
A conviction on the charge of felony theft by unauthorized taking is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
O’Donal returned $15,000 to Farmington police Detective Marc Bowering while he was conducting an investigation into a discrepancy of funds at the closet. Bowering issued O’Donal a summons in April on the theft charge.
The Franklin County District Attorney’s Office contacted the detective to look into the matter after the missing funds were brought to state prosecutors’ attention by the executive director of the closet.
“A substantial amount of money” was missing, Bowering said in July, but he declined to say how much was believed to have been taken or how it was taken.
O’Donal voluntarily resigned as treasurer in November 2015, food closet Executive Director Leiza Hiltz Scerbo said last month. O’Donal had been treasurer for years, she said.
O’Donal appeared in a Farmington court on June 28 and her bail was set at personal recognizance, according to court documents. This month, her case was continued to October. The charge is a felony and she had not been indicted by a grand jury at the time, she did not enter a plea.
The only bail condition is that O’Donal not return to the Care and Share Food Closet on Fairbanks Road in Farmington.
Her attorney, Christopher Berryment, said Thursday that he was not able to comment at this time.
The food closet, a project of the Farmington Area Ecumenical Ministry, serves residents from Chesterville, Farmington, New Sharon, New Vineyard, New Portland, North New Portland and Temple who meet federal eligibility guidelines for food insecurity.
Hiltz Scerbo changed the accounting practices after she became the director last year to an approved checks-and-balance system. It’s implemented by a four-person financial team, which was set up to mirror the proposed three-person financial system of Farmington Area Ecumenical Ministry.
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