Woman pleads guilty in fire hall embezzlement

A Lincoln County woman on Monday pleaded guilty to embezzling money from a small fire district while she worked there as a bookkeeper.

Amy Rose Chalcraft, 39, on Monday signed and submitted a plea agreement in Lincoln County District Court, in which she pleaded guilty to embezzling several thousand dollars in funds from the Trego/Fortine/Stryker Fire Department between December 2014 and November 2015. Her sentencing has been set for Oct. 17.

The case first emerged in January when a member of the TFS fire hall called Eureka Dispatch hoping to speak with a sheriff’s deputy about an issue with the fire department.

The caller had been informed a month earlier that Chalcraft had been forging checks from the fire department’s account. In December, members of the fire district had verified that checks cashed by Chalcraft had been signed with forged signatures. The original caller reached out to Lincoln County Treasurer Nancy Trotter-Higgins to report the forgery and asked for all checks written from the account since July 2014, when Chalcraft first began working at the fire district as a bookkeeper. The results turned up two other checks Chalcraft had forged. After discovering the two forged checks, fire hall staff denied three more checks Chalcraft had written to herself from the department’s account.

In January, fire hall staff met with Chalcraft to confront her about the forgery and she started the meeting with an apology, according to court documents. Chalcraft reportedly told the staff members that “she had made a bad mistake and bad decisions over the past year.” Chalcraft reportedly told the staff members that she had alcohol and financial problems over the past year, and in February of 2015 she had accidentally used a department credit card to make a Western Union money transfer. She realized her mistake the next month and, according to court documents, used the department’s account to transfer money from the account 12-17 times, totaling between $5,000 and $6,000.

Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy Dan Holskey arrested Chalcraft in January. After the arrest, Chalcraft reportedly admitted to writing forged checks and transferring money from the fire district account. She told Holskey she would be able to pay back the money she had embezzled, including a $250 check written from the county fire service area account and another $400 check written from the fire district account. Chalcraft told the deputy she had used the two forged checks to pay for gambling and alcohol. The Western Union transfers were made to her fiancé in Jamaica, she said, in order to help him travel to the United States.

In total, Chalcraft transferred money from the fire district account about 15 times totaling between $5,000 and $6,000, according to court documents.

A few days later, Holskey met with Trego/Fortine/Stryker Treasurer Tristan Miske, who provided him with statements of the accounts in which Chalcraft had taken the money. The statement showed that Chalcraft had forged 10 checks to herself or her business. The checks totaled $1,503.

Aside from the forged checks, Chalcraft had made 19 money transfers through the Western Union from the fire district account. The transfers totaled $5,774.14 between December of 2014 and November of 2015. Other illegal transfers and purchases totaled $972.99. Overall, Holskey found that Chalcraft had embezzled $8,250.13 from the Trego/Fortine/Stryker fire department accounts.

The plea agreement signed and submitted on Monday will dismiss the forgery originally charged to Chalcraft. However, the plea agreement will convict her of theft by embezzlement, which carries a maximum 10-year sentence in Montana State Prison and a maximum fine of $50,000. Her sentencing is set for Oct. 17.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 293-4124 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.