Talk about a slap on the wrist. A felony charge gets reduced to 3 days in jail. I wonder how many other incompetent people are in charge of taking people's money at the local FOCs. It also makes me wonder how many incompetent people are making the hiring decisions. I only wonder these things, though, if I choose to believe that it actually was incompetence and not greed. What's even more interesting is how many people in the comment portion try to make excuses for her.
Lisa Hovis, ex-Muskegon County Friend of the Court worker, sentenced for embezzling child-support money
Published: Tuesday, July 19, 2011, 10:06 AM Updated: Tuesday, July 19, 201http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif1, 10:10 AM
mlive.com
A botched coverup of an inability to do the job: that, not greed, was the motive behind an account clerk's small-scale embezzlement of money from Muskegon County's Friend of the Court, authorities concluded.
And with that background, a visiting Kent County judge sentenced Lisa Renee Hovis to three days in jail with credit for one day already served; two years on probation; and 50 hours community service. Seventeenth Circuit Judge Christopher P. Yates also ordered Hovis to pay $512.22 restitution, a total that includes costs of investigation.
Because she is recovering from recent back surgery and is still using a walker, Yates allowed her to serve her remaining jail sentence any time in the next 60 days.
Hovis, 44, of Twin Lake on May 18 pleaded no contest as charged to one count of embezzlement by a public official of more than $50, a felony.
“I think what you did was much more a mistake than intentional theft,” Yates said to Hovis after pronouncing sentence late Monday afternoon. “You really seemed to be in over your head on the job.”
According to the presentence investigator's report, Hovis — a recent hire in Muskegon County 14th Circuit Court's child-support division in 2009 — often had trouble balancing her cash box, Yates said. At times it would come up short, at other times over. Sometimes, the judge said, Hovis would even put in cash from her own purse to try to make the box balance.
“On balance, it seems to me that you were doing a job that you couldn't do,” Yates said.
Although the sentence was relatively lenient, the judge said, he did want to impose some jail time “so that you understand that you never want to go there again ... to make sure that you get a sense of how awful the jail is.”
Hovis was technically an employee of all four of Muskegon County's circuit judges, leading to the case's transfer to Yates. Yates came to Muskegon County for the sentencing.
Hovis received child-support payments from clients as part of her job. Hovis became a court employee in August 2009. Soon the Friend of the Court administrator noticed repeated discrepancies and contacted the Muskegon County Sheriff's Office in December 2009. Hovis was placed on administrative leave soon after and was criminally charged in October 2010.
