Patricia Willis, Susan Everett and Vaunita Babb won't have to pay back the money they stole from the Levy County Sheriff's Office...after personal testimony from Sheriff Johnny Smith.
"I have known these ladies for a long time," he said. "Some longer than others."
The judge put the women on probation, then let them go as the sheriff requested.
"They come from very good families and they're good people. None of them have criminal records, your honor, and I will ask the court's leniency on them."
But one of them does have a different kind of record. According to Sheriff's Investigator Scott Tum:
"Yes, Susan Everett did have a prior disciplinary report with this office."
As a matter of fact, she has two. One is from 2008, when she was disciplined for stealing Oxycodone pills from another employee. The other is much more recent. In July of this year, Everett was given a reprimand for taking Oxycodone on the job and showing up with slurred speech, in addition to falling asleep on the Victim Advocate's couch. As a condition to keep her job, she promised to go to drug counseling. But the Sheriff's Office says these other indiscretions won't separate her punishment from the others.
"All three ladies are facing the same charges," Tum says, "so all three actions of disciplinary with this office would be the same."
Babb recently resigned after 20 years. But Willis and Everett are still employees of the Sheriff's Office. Whether or not they'll stay that way depends on an internal investigation.