Former Jonesville clerk-treasurer Melissa Schultheis, 45, of 206 Market St., Jonesville, was sentenced to 10 years with the Indiana Department of Corrections at a probation revocation hearing Friday morning in Bartholomew Circuit Court.
Schultheis was also sentenced to five years of probation following her release from the state’s correctional system.
Earlier this month, Judge Kelly Benjamin determined Schultheis had committed new offenses including allegations of obstruction of justice and perjury in regards to the case and ordered that the former Jonesville clerk-treasurer be taken to the Bartholomew County Jail. She has remained there until today’s hearing.
The original case began with a state audit in late 2007 that revealed Jonesville was missing thousands of dollars in its accounts. It was almost a year later that Schultheis, who handled Jonesville’s finances from September 1998 to January 2008, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of felony theft.
The new accusations that resulted in the revocation of probation were committed since last fall, Nash said.
Prosecutor Bill Nash had asked that Schultheis serve all of the remaining 15 years of her sentence she received in February 2009.
In early 2009, now-senior judge Stephen Heimann suspended Schultheis’ sentence to allow her to make restitution payments of $300 a month. But as of Aug. 12, online court records show Schultheis still owes $78,279 after making $13,640 in payments over the past 10 years. She is also responsible for paying $6,944 for court costs and filing fees.
The new allegations involve forging a physician’s letter that excused Schultheis from either working or performing community restitution after she fell behind in making restitution payments, according to court documents. The alleged forged letter was submitted into court evidence, and Schultheis swore under oath the correspondence from Seymour physician Amanda Souza was genuine.
Souza testified in court earlier she would not have written a letter excusing Schultheis from work or community service at that time, and that the margins and style of the letter she submitted to the court did not fit templates used by her office.
The only related letter from Souza’s office was not written for the defendant, but rather for her husband, Souza said. The letter asked Charles Schultheis’ employer to give him occasional time off to care for his family after his wife underwent surgery.
Court records state the petition filed last winter to revoke Schultheis’ probation was the fourth such petition to be filed.
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
