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Thursday, May 28, 2009
Former Girl Scout leader ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution to scouts
DAYTON — A former Girl Scout leader convicted of stealing $28,000 in cookie money was ordered Thursday, May 28, to pay $20,000 in restitution.
Tamara Jo Ward will report to the Montgomery County Jail on June 8 to start the 30-day sentence handed down by Common Pleas Judge Connie Price on May 18.
Under a restitution agreement reached between assistant Montgomery County prosecutor Jon Marshall and defense attorney Kevin Lennen, Ward will pay $5,000 up front, then pay $250 a month during her five-year probation period that will follow her jail sentence.
“It allows everyone to move forward, especially the girls,” said Marcia Dowds, a staff representative with the Girl Scouts of Western Ohio, who was present at the hearing Thursday. “We regret that the girls have had to go through with all of this.”
Ward, 45, of Union, pleaded guilty in April to a single count of grand theft of more than $5,000, a fourth-degree felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison. The charge was the sole count in her indictment.
Detectives arrested Ward on July 21 when she came to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Harrison Twp. offices to be interviewed.
Ward started Troop 2162 in 2000 and was the leader until the troop was dissolved in 2007. During that time, she had access to the bank account the troop used to deposit cookie funds, according to the prosecutor’s office.
That money was to be used for the troop’s recreational activities, but Ward got a debit card, and during a five-year-period, spent the money on vacations, personal expenses, utility payments and groceries, according to the prosecutor’s office.
