Former university registrar Jill Megredy pleaded no contest Friday afternoon to two counts of theft under $1,000.
The plea came in Lyon County District Court before Chief Judge Merlin Wheeler, who accepted the plea and found Megredy guilty of the charges.
Two felony counts of theft over $1,000 were dismissed as part of a plea bargain for Megredy’s pleading no contest.
Defense attorney Rod Symmonds told Wheeler that Megredy planned to reimburse victims of the theft in each of the four original cases.
Wheeler talked to Megredy in detail about the documents she had signed and submitted to the court, to ensure that she understood her Constitutional rights.
“Part of my job as a judge is to guarantee that those rights are accorded and enforced,” Wheeler said.
By pleading no contest, he said, his accepting the plea and finding her guilty of the charges would be the final decision in the case and she would give up her right to appeal, among other rights.
“Those rights will not be restored to you in this case,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler told her that she could be sentenced to up to one year in the Lyon County Jail and fined up to $2,500 on each count, and that the sentences could be imposed to run consecutively.
He pointed out that felonies carry sentencing guidelines and, in some circumstances, probation is presumed.
No such guidelines exist for misdemeanors, where sentencing is at the discretion of the judge.
“You may be placed in jail and not granted probation,” Wheeler said.
Megredy said she understood, and that she had not been promised anything in exchange for her plea.
Assistant Lyon County Attorney Rick Buck said that he would not oppose probation.
Megredy will be sentenced at 10 a.m. on June 26. She remains free on bond.
Megredy had been charged on Dec. 29 with two counts of theft between $1,000 and $25,000, which are level 9 non-person felonies, and two counts of theft under $1,000, which are Class A misdemeanors.
She was accused with taking $4,100 from a Beta Sigma Phi social sorority account between March 20, 2008, and May 20, 2008. She had been treasurer of the sorority.
The deficit in the sorority’s checking account was noticed when Megredy dropped off the sorority’s checkbook at the workplace of a sorority member’s husband, to pass on to the new treasurer of the group.
According to an affidavit filed in the case, sorority members saw that Megredy had written four checks totaling $4,100 to herself on the sorority’s account.
Megredy said she had planned to repay the account after her husband got money for his education, but "things would come up" and she did not make any deposits, the affidavit said.
Megredy had resigned in early 2008 as registrar at Emporia State University.
railroadhorn (anonymous) says...
She got a good deal pleading to 2 misdemeanors after being charged with 2 felonies. I know a lot of people who have never gotten that sweet a deal. What gives? She hasn't even paid the money back....
May 20, 2009 at 6:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )