Former Vienna Township fiscal officer’s appeal denied by Ohio Supreme Court
Former Vienna Township Fiscal Officer Linda McCullough has exhausted all her appeals as the Ohio Supreme Court recently denied jurisdiction of her case, affirming her conviction and eight-year prison sentence.
In March, McCullough lost her appeal as Ohio’s 11th District Court of Appeals upheld her prison term on convictions of two counts of theft in office, one count of telecommunications fraud and seven counts of tampering with evidence. McCullough will continue serving consecutive sentences in the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.
McCullough was convicted of making 127 fraudulent electronic transfers with more than $120,000 of public money stolen, abuse of public office and left Vienna Township in fiscal emergency.
In her appeal, defense attorney Corey Grimm argued the trial court failed to make findings for imposing consecutive sentences under Ohio law. Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Charles Morrow argued for the state and said the court made the necessary findings. Eleventh District Judges Scott Lynch, Matt Lynch and Eugene A. Lucci agreed with the state’s position and upheld the conviction and prison sentence given by Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Cynthia Westcott.
Matt Lynch wrote that after reviewing the sentencing hearing and judgment of sentence, the appellate judges found the trial court made all the findings required by state law to impose consecutive sentences. The judges ruled that McCullough’s sole assignment of error is without merit.
As part of the sentence, McCullough must pay $120,371 back to the township and $11,746 to reimburse the state auditor’s office for its investigation into the missing township funds.