Wednesday, October 20, 1999
Mother, daughter plead guilty in theft
BY JANE PRENDERGAST
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON — The mother-daughter team accused of sending the small city of Fairview's finances into the red admitted Tuesday they stole more than $70,000.
Maxine Born and her daughter, Michelle Still, pleaded guilty Tuesday to theft by unlawful taking. Mrs. Born, 44, was the city's clerk-treasurer when she and her daughter, 24, wrote checks to themselves and cashed them between January 1996 and August 1998.
Neither woman came up with much of an explanation when Kenton Circuit Judge Patricia Summe asked what happened:
Mrs. Born: “Why I did it, I don't know.”
Ms. Still: “I just cashed the checks.”
They each could be sentenced to five years in prison. But Commonwealth Attorney Don Buring recommended they be put on probation — as long as the money is paid back by the next court date, Dec. 13.
“The money is the important thing here,” Mr. Buring said.
The thievery caused difficulties in the Kenton County community of 250 people, whose total available funds during the time of the thefts was calculated at about $100,000.
New accounting procedures now make certain that no one person ever has sole control over finances. Officials have aggressively been collecting back taxes. And the mayor himself began mowing the lawn at city hall to avoid paying someone else to do it.
Even after hearing the women plead guilty in court, Mayor Harold Parks remained frustrated. He will be frustrated until the city sees its money back.
The women “thumbed their noses” at the city, he said.
Mrs. Born was making $100 a month as clerk-treasurer before she quit a year ago. Her husband, Lawrence Born, resigned from City Council shortly before she quit.
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