A former Corbin Preschool Center bookkeeper will remain in prison while the judge in her case decides whether to release her on shock probation.
On Oct. 5, Circuit Judge Dan Ballou sentenced Donna Logan, 36, to 10 years in prison and ordered her to pay $7,220 in restitution.
In all, Logan took nearly $42,000 from a fund at the center meant to help children, and she told Ballou during her sentencing hearing that she did it in order to buy things for her own three children.
Logan’s attorney, Warren Scoville, described her Monday as the "poster child" for shock probation, and noted that shock probation was made for people like Logan.
A defendant can apply for shock probation after serving 30 to 90 days in prison. Shock probation is designed for first offense, non-violent offenders, and works under the theory that a short jail or prison stay will shock them in behaving and obeying the law.
Scoville added that on the day Logan was sentenced, there was another person in court getting a three-year prison sentence for sex abuse.
Ballou took the motion for shock probation under advisement Monday afternoon. Ballou told Scoville that while he sympathized with some of his arguments, he was concerned that Logan hadn’t arranged to pay "one red cent" back in restitution yet.
Scoville said that Logan’s home is currently in foreclosure, but said that if she were released from prison, she could get back her job, which paid $800 every two weeks, and begin paying back her restitution.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Allen Trimble objected to the request for shock probation.
"She took money that was going directly to the benefit of young children," Trimble said. "I view it as a very serious offense what she did."
Logan was not in court for Monday’s hearing. Scoville noted that she is currently incarcerated at the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Pewee Valley.
Logan allegedly stole the money from an account entitled Parents for Play, in which parents of children that attended the Corbin Preschool Center would donate money for projects or events at the school. Initially, the account was used for the purchase and installation of playground equipment at the school. The playground was completed in the fall of 2005, but money remained in the account and it was used to purchase school supplies and other items.
Marr, Miller and Myers, an accounting firm in Corbin, found discrepancies in the account and school officials closed the account last August after an audit was performed.
Preschool officials were first alerted to the alleged theft when a security officer from Cumberland Valley National Bank brought them some suspicious checks cashed on the account at the bank.
Because the checks were cashed at area banks throughout the Tri-County area, Logan had faced theft related charges in Knox, Laurel and Whitley counties.
Her sentences in the other counties were ordered to run concurrent or at the same time as her Whitley County sentence.
