Ex preschool bookkeeper sentenced on forgery, theft charges

A Corbin woman accused of stealing thousands of dollars from the Corbin Preschool Center has been formally sentenced in Knox and Laurel County on charges against her, and will likely report to begin serving a 10-year jail sentence after she is sentenced in Whitley County early next month.

Donna Logan, 35, a former bookkeeper at the Preschool Center, appeared in Laurel Circuit Court Monday to be sentenced on one count of felony theft and forgery related to the case. Laurel Circuit Judge Greg Lay, at the recommendation of prosecutors, sentenced Logan to five years in prison, a $1,000 fine and ordered her to pay restitution to her former employer. Logan was indicted on charges stemming from the embezzlement scheme last year in Knox, Laurel and Whitley Counties.

Lay ordered that the prison term run consecutive with a five-year sentence she received earlier this month in Knox Circuit Court on similar charges. In that case, Knox Circuit Judge John Knox Mills ordered her to pay $35,000 in restitution to the Preschool Center – a facility managed by the Corbin Independent School System. She was also fined $1,000.

Logan is scheduled to be sentenced on the final charges related to the scheme Sept. 8 in Whitley County Circuit Court. But in that case prosecutors have recommended a harsher 10-year prison term and want her to pay $7,000 in restitution, bringing the total to $42,000. Her five-year sentences in Knox and Laurel County will run concurrent with the expected 10-year jail term in Whitley County.

On Monday, Lay allowed Logan to remain free on bond until she is formally sentenced in Whitley County.

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.