Former PTA treasurer sentenced to three months for embezzlement

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Jessica Yeakey

A former treasurer of the Parent Teacher Association at Elizabeth Scott Elementary School was recently sentenced to five years in prison with all but three months suspended for embezzlement.

Jessica Yeakey, 42, of the 12000 block of Windsor Road, was sentenced Jan. 17 after pleading guilty. Judge David E. Johnson departed from the sentencing guidelines, which called for probation and no jail time.

Yeakey was ordered to pay restitution of $2,840 plus $445 for the cost of her defense and complete a Recovery Connection addiction treatment program. She was also banned from the Elizabeth Scott PTA.

The funds went missing between Sept. 1, 2016 and March 30, 2017, court records state.

Yeakey’s trial was originally scheduled for Dec. 11, 2017, but she went missing and was considered a fugitive.

In an application for indigent defense services, Yeakey said she only had $6 and was unemployed. She previously said she was a self-employed bookkeeper. However, after being released from jail on a recognizance bond Oct. 18, 2017, Yeakey failed to show for pretrial services. She had a blood alcohol content of .269 and .298 at two different times on Oct. 27, 2017, and said she had drunk alcohol “all night” the night before, according to a court document.

In an email written to the PTA, Yeakey said she did not steal from the PTA, but had been neglectful in making timely deposits. “I should never have accepted this position,” she wrote. “I don’t have the time … to do it.” She added that she was “overwhelmed in my life at this moment. I apologize for everything.”

According to a court document, Chesterfield police officer D.W. Bean said that Yeakey “sounded intoxicated” during a phone call with him that she made from her home.

Other news
Yeakey is not the first Chesterfield PTA official to be convicted of a financial crime.

On May 31, 2018, a former president of Matoaca Elementary School’s PTA, Christina Saunders, was sentenced to three years in prison with two years and 11 months suspended after pleading guilty to petit larceny for stealing $7,400.

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