(Stillwater, Okla.) A 74-year-old Cushing bookkeeper has begun serving a six-month jail term imposed Friday by a Payne County judge who ordered her to pay $350,850 restitution for illegally obtaining that amount of money from a now-deceased elderly woman’s bank accounts – while serving as her accountant and overseer of her trust fund.
Lorna M. Myers was placed in the Payne County Jail Friday on the order of District Judge Phillip Corley, who told her she must begin paying restitution and a $35,000 fine when she completes her term of incarceration to be followed by 18 months of probation, court records show.
A Payne County jury consisting of six women and six men deliberated for about three hours on May 14 before convicting Myers of two counts of exploitation of an elderly person and two counts of embezzlement during a three-year period, a court official said.
Jurors recommended that Myers be given up to two years in jail and a $35,000 fine, court records show. Myers, who will be 75 in September, had been free on $25,000 bond until she was sentenced to jail Friday.
During her four-day trial in May, Myers testified that her client Glenora Ackley, who died in 2009, “had told me in the past I could borrow money as long as I paid it back,” which she admitted she had not done. Myers said she didn’t think she took advantage of Mrs. Ackley, who was 90.
She told the jury that on Mrs. Ackley’s instructions she regularly mailed envelopes of cash to Mrs. Ackley’s son, who lives in California and testified that he never received packets of cash from Myers.
On cross-examination from prosecutor Debra Vincent, Myers admitted that when she got off work, she would go to the casino.
Defense attorney Keith Ward of Tulsa told the jury in his closing argument, “There’s no evidence she spent any money at a casino other than her own.
“What this really boils down to – did Mrs. Myers send $200,000 in cash in the mail,” Ward told the jury.
“I wonder how many people go to the casino. My guess is most people don’t report to the I.R.S. when they win. She kept a ledger of how much money she put at the casino.
“There’s no evidence she lost money at the casino. There’s no trace of her having excess cash,” Ward told jurors.
During the trial, the jury was shown Myers’ bank records indicating times and locations when she obtained cash from ATMs at casinos.
In her closing argument, prosecutor Karen Dixon told the jury, “This is a story about betrayal, the exploitation of an elderly woman, who was 90.”
Regarding Myers’ claim that she sent large amounts of money to the victim’s son, the prosecutor suggested it was preposterous: “He had $200,000 in cash, really, and he shops at the thrift stores. He couldn’t eat in his own neighborhood because it was too expensive.
“His bank statements don’t show he had any $200,000 in cash. Mr. Ackley is the only party who presented his bank statements when asked.
“The defendant had to come up with an explanation where all this money went. She tried to come up with something that looked like she sent cash.
“She took Mrs. Ackley’s money to the casino. Mrs. Ackley didn’t say she could go gambling on her money.
“Day after day, after day, after day, she was using the money at the casino.
“There was money left until she stole it. She’s trying to tell you it was a loan. No. She wrote the check, deposited it in her account. She went and spent it on gambling.
“She deposited those checks. She gambled, gambled and gambled,” the prosecutor told the jury.
During the trial, certified public accountant Lyn Wyatt testified how the wrongdoing was uncovered.
“In November 2009, Mr. Ackley came to our accounting firm office and asked for assistance. His mother had recently passed away. He was concerned that the trust wasn’t being handled appropriately. He understood he was beneficiary of the trust. He asked for help.”
But when the C.P.A. asked Myers for records for the period in which she was the accountant for the trust and also was a trustee, “In January 2010, we received by mail a balance sheet and profit and loss statements for September, October and November of 2009.
“We didn’t receive any tax returns and we didn’t get bank statements,” as requested, the C.P.A. testified.
When the victim’s son obtained records from the bank, “We found many checks had been omitted from the general ledger, checks made out to Myers Accounting and Myers Construction. I was startled,” the C.P.A. testified.
“We found $285,000 had been paid to Myers Accounting,” but “Mrs. Ackley had signed an agreement to pay her $2,000 a month to care for her finances for 32 months,” plus additional fees for tax returns, the C.P.A. testified.
“We contacted Mrs. Myers. We asked for an explanation of that.
“Her explanation was Mrs. Ackley didn’t like her granddaughter and wanted to cut her out of the estate.
“Mrs. Ackley told Mrs. Myers to send cash to Steven Ackley on a regular basis through the mail.
“She (the defendant) provided a hand-written letter with a list of amounts and cash she reported she sent to Steve Ackley.
“I was kind of in shock about what she told me,” the C.P.A. testified.
“She told me she didn’t talk to Steve Ackley,” to see if he got the cash she said she mailed him, the C.P.A. told the jury.
In an attempt to keep Myers out of jail, her attorney filed a court document indicating “In this case, the jury explicitly inquired about its authority to recommend probation so it is clear that the jury considered it as an appropriate sentence.”
Myers was born in Yale, graduated from Cushing High School in 1958 and “has over 30 bookkeeping clients and prepares approximately 500 tax returns annually,” her attorney noted.
“If she is incarcerated, she will be forced to close her bookkeeping business and her ability to earn money to make restitution (or pay fines) will be extinguished with the closing of her business,” her attorney said.
Since Myers was convicted by the jury, she has been unsuccessful in her attempts to find a means to make restitution, her attorney said.
“She has attempted to borrow money by pledging her property as security to enable her to make restitution, but she has little equity in her property and lenders are unwilling to loan her money with the prospect of incarceration looming and with so little equity in her property,” her attorney said.
“In October 2011, Ms. Myers suffered a heart attack which necessitated a quintuple heart bypass…She has high cholesterol,” which requires health monitoring as well.
“As a 74-year-old person with a heart condition, Ms. Myers is obviously not an ideal candidate for incarceration,” her attorney noted in the court document.
***
