Susan Manning Barney, 56, and a former finance administrator for the New Bern, North Carolina-based Garber United Methodist Church, pleaded guilty to 9 felony counts admitting that she embezzled some $946,000 from the church over a 7 year period. The judge sentenced her to 6 years in prison with 5 years probation, plus restitution. According to prosecutors, Barney used a church credit card to make fraudulent purchases and also wrote checks to herself, forging the church treasurer's signature. At her hearing, Barney claimed to have stolen the money to pay for her son's heroin addiction rehabilitation. Investigators say she used the money, in part at least, to buy clothes, a BMW, a Harley Davidson motor cycle and on numerous trips to Costa Rica. Her husband, Her husband Rick Barney, is a former Craven County Sheriff's Office investigator who has resigned from his job since the case came to light. He has reportedly emptied his 401(k) account to help pay the restitution due. Three separate polygraph tests supposedly convinced investigators that Rick Barney was not aware of the thefts. Susan Barney had been employed by the church for 13 years before the misappropriation came to light. The thefts occurred between September 2001 and January 2008.I am sorry folks, if your spouse steals nearly $1 million over the course of seven years, bringing home roughly $135,000 a year on average, you are going to be aware of the change in lifestyle and extra cash. She looks a bit arrogant in this mug shot, doesn't she?
5 comments:
Im a law enforcement officer and I know Rick Barney. He is a good man and the way things went down were not like you think. If you dont know all the details, dont bash him.
I am sorry, but it simply is not credible that he didn't either know what was going on or was complicit in his wife's crimes.
I totally agree Chris....I will NEVER believe that he was not involved in this and let his wife take the fall for the whole thing!
She was my youth leader years ago and I hope they throw away the key
In his defense, I spent 16 years married to a man who came up with every good excuse as to why things were the way they were. I was his business partner, his wife, parent to his children, and every time I questioned something the answer was plausible. Financially, we always seemed broke. But on paper, it didn't look that way. id I know something was going on. id I try to figure it out. Absolutely. His behavior and deeds, came to light after I left him for abuse. Yes it is totally possible. And I hope he has been able to redeem himself in his friends eyes. And for her? I hope she finds the value of the woman's mite.
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