The former board president of a village library in southwestern Vermont has denied allegations that she stole $6,000 from the library.
Dorothea Kelly, 62, pleaded not guilty Monday to a felony count of embezzling more than $100 from the Dorset Village Library. The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.
Kelly, who lives in Dorset, is free on her own recognizance while awaiting trial.
The charge stems from the library staff’s discovery that Kelly allegedly withdrew $6,000 in cash from the library bank account on Sept. 9, while serving as president of the library’s board of trustees, according to police.
When police interviewed her the following day, Kelly said that the bank teller might have mistakenly written the library’s bank account number after she asked for help looking it up, and that she meant to take the money out of her personal account at the same bank, Bennington County Sheriff’s Department Cpl. Chris Miller said in his statement of probable cause for the charge.
The sheriff’s deputy said Kelly pledged to get the matter “straightened out” with the bank.
The library’s board of trustees gave Kelly opportunities to return the $6,000. But she failed to do so until last week, after she’d been cited to appear in court, said library director Erica Shott.
She was removed from the board around mid-September, after being a library trustee for at least six years, Shott said.
Kelly personally appeared for her arraignment in Bennington Superior criminal court, and has applied for a public defender.
Kelly formerly was a certified public accountant in Vermont. But in 2014, the state indefinitely suspended her privilege to have her license renewed after she and her namesake firm committed “unprofessional conduct,” according to records with Vermont’s Office of Professional Regulation.
The office’s board of public accountancy found that Kelly failed to satisfactorily participate in a peer review as required for renewal of a public accountant’s license and firm registration. The board said she also unlawfully offered her services as a CPA when she was no longer licensed and her firm wasn’t registered.
When asked whether the Dorset Village Library was aware of these findings against Kelly, Shott said neither she nor the board knew about them.
The Dorset Village Library, a nonprofit organization, serves Dorset and its neighboring communities. The library is partially funded with taxpayer dollars, including $20,000 in a voter-approved appropriation from Dorset residents this fiscal year.
