District Attorney Paul Howard Announces Indictment in Theft of Over $140,000 from City of Roswell

Long-Time Employee Karen Neely Stole City Court Funds over Two-Year Period

Atlanta—Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard, Jr. (Atlanta Judicial Circuit) announces that Karen Neely (36) has been indicted by the Grand Jury on 55 counts of theft by taking by a government employee. Between May 1999 and August 2001, Neely stole $141,252 from the City of Roswell where she worked as a detention center manager. In that capacity, she was responsible for depositing the City Court’s bond money once a week at SouthTrust Bank and then forwarding copies of the bond and deposit receipts to the City’s Finance Office. (She had been a City of Roswell employee for over a decade.) Beginning in 1999, however, she would hold out certain bond receipts and the associated cash so that when she made a deposit, the receipts and cash would match. She would occasionally replace some of the stolen receipts in a later deposit with money from another stolen bond receipt, but she was never able to catch up. An audit ultimately confirmed the amount that was never returned to the bond account.

The investigation was conducted by the Roswell Police Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the Fulton County District Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit. “This department—and the citizens of Roswell—are extremely grateful to both the GBI and the District Attorney’s Office for the tremendous work they did on this important investigation,” says Roswell Police Chief T. E. Williams.

These charges are merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

CONTACT: Erik Friedly, 404.224.0560 (office); 770.583.6069 (pager); erik.friedly@co.fulton.ga.us