The former board president of a village library has been placed on probation for three years for stealing money from the library and a local business.
Dorothea Kelly, a former Dorset resident, pleaded guilty in June to two felony charges of embezzlement under a deal with the Bennington County State’s Attorney’s Office. She admitted taking $6,000 from the bank account of the Dorset Village Library in 2019 while serving as its president.
She also admitted improperly making nearly $26,000 worth of charges to a credit card owned by retail shop J.K. Adams between 2018 and 2019, when she was employed as its chief financial officer.
On Wednesday morning, Bennington Superior Court Judge Kerry Ann McDonald-Cady agreed with the recommendation of the prosecution and defense to place Kelly, 64, on three years of probation. If she successfully completes probation, the convictions would be wiped from her record.
The judge said probation was appropriate, given Kelly’s lack of a previous criminal record, her age, her low risk of reoffending and the nonviolent nature of the offenses.
But, McDonald-Cady said, it’s “distressing” that Kelly’s crimes impacted a nonprofit organization and a small business in her very own community. “Both of these don’t have the financial ability to reconcile these monetary losses on their own,” the judge said.
McDonald-Cady added several probationary conditions that she said would help prevent Kelly from committing similar offenses and would protect the public. Among the conditions is that, for the next three years, Kelly cannot engage in work that gives her direct access to company funds or allows her to transfer company funds externally or use them for donations. Kelly is also prohibited from joining any community board.
The judge also ordered her to make a payment back to J.K. Adams. Officers with the Dorset Village Library earlier said Kelly returned the $6,000 she took after she was criminally charged in 2021. She has since moved to New York.
At a Sept. 12 hearing, Kelly accepted responsibility for her actions and apologized to the victims.
In a court statement that day, Dorset Village Library Treasurer Jaymie Levine said Kelly’s crime had significantly affected the library’s operations. For instance, Levine said, the board had to spend time reassuring supporters and community members that their donations were safe and being used wisely.
Executives for J.K. Adams declined to comment on Kelly’s sentence when reached by phone on Wednesday.
If Kelly violates her probationary conditions, she could be sentenced up to the maximum penalty for her offenses, which is 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines on each charge.
