BUTLER COUNTY, Ohio -- A Middletown woman is serving a prison sentence after pleading guilty to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a state nursing organization, the Journal-News reports.
Frances Neu, also known as Frances Shull, took $267,780 from the Ohio Organization of Practical Nurse Educators from 2008 to 2016, according to Butler County Common Pleas court records.
Neu, 73, pleaded guilty to aggravated theft in February. On March 19, Neu was sentenced to nine months in prison. She was also ordered to make restitution to the organization.
Assistant Butler County Prosecutor Gloria Sigman said a question about one transaction led to the investigation conducted by Middletown police.
Neu was spending the stolen cash on her family, including wedding expenses, Sigman said.
Alicia Warren, the organization’s treasurer, said she became suspicious in December 2016 of Neu.
“She wrote a check to herself,” Warren said, adding Neu was very guarded about the organization’s account access.
That is when the investigation began in Middletown, but Warren said the organization has members throughout the state.
“If the money Frances had embezzled had stayed in the budget, OOPNE could have lowered the conference fees for its attendees, provided more scholarships to nursing educators as well as nursing students and provided more healthy outreach services to communities across Ohio,” Warren previously told the Journal-News.
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The Journal-News is a media partner of WCPO.
