GREENFIELD — A McCordsville woman accused of taking about $128,000 from the Indianapolis homeowners association she was hired to supervise will serve time on probation after admitting her guilt in a Marion County court.
Marcy Smitley, 39, pleaded guilty to 20 counts of felony forgery as part of an agreement with Marion County prosecutors; one count of theft was dropped in the agreement, court records state. She also faces charges locally; Smitley’s case in Marion County prompted local investigators to look into her time as treasurer of Fortville Elementary’s PTO, and she is accused of stealing money from the organization.
Smitley, the owner of MCS Management Group Inc., has been sentenced to serve four years on probation, the first two of which she’ll be committed to home detention, for her Marion County crimes, according to Peg McLeish, a spokeswoman for the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office.
She has also been ordered to pay restitution of about $128,000 to the organization from which she stole, McLeish said in an email.
An investigation of Smitley began last year when board members of the Winslow Crossing Homeowners Association contacted police after noticing discrepancies in the organization’s books, according to court documents.
Smitley had been hired by the association to manage the Winslow Crossing Complex by billing vendors, collecting dues and funds and scheduling maintenance for the units, court documents state.
She was not allowed to write checks larger than $500 to any vendor without approval from the homeowners association board, court documents state. She was allowed to write one check per month to herself as payment for her services, but it had to be signed by two board members, court documents state.
An audit of the association’s accounts found Smitley had repeatedly written and cashed checks without the permission or knowledge of the association during the course of four years. In all, at least 70 checks were discovered as forged by Smitley, many for between $1,000 and $3,000, and one check for nearly $8,000, according to court records.
Board members found during certain months, Smitely wrote up to seven checks to herself or her company. Each check contained multiple signatures but were never authorized by the board, court documents state.
She was arrested in February and charged with forgery and theft. Police said the total loss to the association from 2009 to 2014 was found to be $127,983.39 – the exact amount Smitley has now been ordered to pay in restitution.
The allegations against Smitley in Marion County led leaders of the Fortville Elementary School PTO, for which Smitley served as treasurer, to look into the group’s accounts. Smitley was asked to step down at that time.
The internal investigation found roughly $6,700 missing from PTO funds, leading Hancock County prosecutors to file 14 counts of forgery and one count of theft against the Smitley. She was arrested in May.
At a change of plea hearing in Greenfield last week, Smitley agreed to plead guilty to all 14 counts of forgery as part of an agreement, Deputy Prosecutor John Keiffner said. Details of the plea will be finalized when Smitley is sentenced in Hancock County Superior Court 1 in December.