Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Prescott Company Bilked By Camden Woman

A Ouachita County woman has pled guilty to theft charges in connection with a Prescott business.

Bobbie Linda Weathersby, 52, of Camden, had been charged with two separate counts of taking more than $500,000 over a five-year period from two businesses, including Godwin Trucking of Prescott.

Weathersby reportedly took more than $262,000 from Godwin Trucking, and another $276,000 from a different trucking company, Arnold Brothers Trucking.

Jamie Pratt, 13th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney, said the first charge led to an investigation of her suspected actions while she was employed at C.D. Sanders and Co. Accounting.

The accounting firm handled the accounts for both trucking companies, with Weathersby responsible for making the deposits and taking care of employment taxes for them.

The two companies would send payments to the accountant, and Weathersby was supposed to deposit the money in a treasury, tax and loan account for them at the First Bank of South Arkansas in Camden.

However, instead of making the deposits, she converted the funds for her own use by placing them in a personal account. This reportedly occurred from 1994 until 1998

The total amount taken during the five-year span, Pratt said, was around $530,000.

Weathersby, who pled guilty and was sentenced to 40 years with 20 suspended and to make restitution, said the checks were made payable to the bank and no endorsement was needed on them.

She told the court she had first been approached by another woman about taking some of the funds for the tax account, alleging the "other woman" offered to pay her for doing this, with Weathersby agreeing.

According to her testimony, a third woman was involved as well, but how this came about wasn't revealed.

Weathersby testified to keeping $100,000 of the money, but said the other two kept the rest.

Pratt, though, said the evidence in the case was considerably different from Weathersby's testimony.

He said copies of her bank statement did not show canceled checks, and usually indicated she had less than $1,000 in the account at the beginning of the month.

However, there were periods when the account showed several thousand dollars, more than her known income would be.

The records further showed there would be between 100-150 checks written on the account, bringing the balance back below $1,000 by the end of the statement period.

The evidence, Pratt said, did not show any involvement of any other persons, as Weathersby alleged, adding she never produced either of the two cohorts she said were involved.

During the investigation a search warrant was executed at Weathersby's home for the purpose of finding checking account statements and canceled checks, but none of either were found.

Her attorney, Tim Womack, said her account was truncated and didn't provide canceled checks with the monthly statements.

She was sentenced to 40 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections, with 20 years suspended, and will be eligible for parole in 40 months.

However, both trucking companies are now stuck with paying back taxes to the federal government, along with the interest and penalties incurred because of the theft.

Womack had asked the court to be lenient in its sentencing, saying because of her age, the medical condition of her husband and son, along with her having no prior record, she should serve her sentence in a community or regional punishment center.

However, Judge John Thomas, of Arkadelphia, went with the state's request of sending Weathersby to the penitentiary because of the economic impact on the two companies and the crime required a "high degree" of sophistication and planning, while occurring over a five-year period, along with Weathersby using her position to violate the trust of the companies.

To date, she has not offered to pay restitution to either of her victims, as ordered by the court. Pratt said there is little hope of either being repaid for what she stole.