Seaman woman sentenced for nearly $420K theft from Highland County business owner

A Seaman woman who pleaded guilty in August to theft of nearly $420,000 from a Highland County business owner was sentenced in Wednesday, Sept. 25 in Highland County Common Pleas Court to three years of community control, plus three months in jail.

As previously reported, Lori K. Greene, 48, of Seaman was indicted by a Highland County grand jury in January, and then again in a superseding indictment in May, and charged with one count of aggravated theft from a person in a protected class, a second-degree felony. The indictment was amended again in August, after determining that due to a “typographical error,” the charge should have been classified as a first-degree felony instead of a second-degree felony.

On Aug. 13, Greene pleaded guilty to an amended charge of theft, a third-degree felony, one hour into a second jury trial.

As alleged in the revised charge, Greene pleaded guilty to “with purpose to deprive the owner of his property, knowingly obtaining or exerting control over … currency in the amount of approximately $312,066.53” between “Jan. 1, 2019 and continuing through Dec. 1, 2023, in Highland County and as a continuing course of criminal conduct in Adams County.”

However, as brought out by Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins, the total taken was $419,991.15, which is the amount of restitution ordered.

Under the plea agreement, the state agreed to “take no position as to sentencing,” but as part of the plea deal, Greene agreed to forfeit her Seaman home to the victim “in order to satisfy restitution in full.” Collins told Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss Wednesday that Greene has signed the deed over to the victim.

The victim asked to give a statement prior to sentencing, and he addressed Greene directly, asking her “why she thought she could do this.

“I think she’s mean. I think she’s evil. I think she’s nasty,” the victim told the judge. “I just hope she gets the max.

“I really think it’s no way to treat somebody who’s supposed to be a friend.”

Greene’s attorney, Bruce Wallace, argued in favor of community control, due to Greene being “compliant” with pretrial supervision as well as with the restitution order, signing over what “was in fact her home.

“She has given up family-owned property,” Wallace said. “She’s acknowledged by her guilty plea that she did in fact commit the crime.”

Greene also spoke to the judge, saying she wants “to apologize for the mess that I’ve made.

“I would like to finish my future in funeral directing and see my kids and my parents and make everything right that I can,” Greene said.

Coss then addressed Greene before announcing the sentence, as he referred back to comments made at trial.

As previously reported, Greene’s case was tried June 13, with Coss declaring a mistrial June 14 after the jury was deadlocked. A jury was again seated Aug. 13, hearing initial instructions, opening statements and partial testimony from the victim before counsel asked to approach the bench and arranged for Greene to enter a guilty plea.

During the first trial, Collins said that Greene was hired in 2019 by a Highland County business owner to be the business’s bookkeeper at an agreed-upon rate of $1,000 per month. Her duties were to include paying taxes and bills, including writing checks for her own salary. Greene also had access to a business credit card. An investigation by law enforcement and a forensic accountant found numerous discrepancies on the victim’s accounts.

During closing arguments at trial, Collins displayed a PowerPoint presentation to summarize all of the money discussed in the case: $248,428.51 in non-business-related charges; $66,502.59 in unauthorized checks; $10,146.01 in payments to one of Greene’s personal credit cards; and $94,914.04 to her other personal card, for a total of $419,991.15 in a “just under four-year period,” according to the prosecutor.

Greene took the stand in her own defense during the June trial, acknowledging that she paid “personal expenses” with the business owner’s funds. However, Greene said that it was “something [the business owner] and I did,” calling it an “offset” for “all the extra work I did, anything above and beyond,” as she said that she was constantly at the victim’s “beck and call.”  

“The crime that you committed had a serious impact on [the victim],” Coss told Greene Wednesday. “You did take responsibility, finally, after going through that trial. I think some of your testimony was probably less than credible.

“There’s no one who could possibly believe that someone would allow them to pay themselves whatever they thought they should get and pay all their expenses to the point where that person was broke. Basically, it makes no sense, taking virtually everything that he was making. It finally caught up with you.”  

The judge also referenced comments made by Greene after the trial, including at sentencing, where both she and Wallace spoke about Greene’s continuing education plans and desire to become a funeral director.

“I don’t see any real remorse here at all,” Coss said. “Looking at your interview, it said that you just wanted to get this behind you so you could move on with your career. It didn’t seem to me that you’ve got much in the way of true remorse.”

Coss said that the “deciding factor” in determining sentencing was restitution, because if Greene “had not taken responsibility” and agreed to pay the victim back through her real estate, “it would have taken quite a while for [the victim] to be made whole” through civil litigation.

“The fact that you did come to a point where you were accepting, at least, the fact you had done wrong, you did make — in this court’s view — pretty much a very unusual step in terms of agreeing to convey the farm to [the victim],” Coss said. “I think the fact that you’ve been found guilty of this offense is also significant because it is going to have an impact. I don’t know if you will be eligible to get a license, while your felony is on the record, as a funeral director.

“While my initial thoughts after you [pleaded] guilty and before today was that I would send you to prison, in the court’s view, there’s another way to hold you responsible. The fact that you did convey the farm saved him several more years, probably, of grief and difficulty in dealing with this situation.”

Coss sentenced Greene to three years of community control; ordered her to serve 90 days in the Highland County Jail, beginning Nov. 15; and issued an order of no contact with the victim. The jail sentence was delayed due to Greene having a medical issue and because she is still in the process of moving her possessions out of the property deeded to the victim.

“The only reason you’re not going to prison is because you did convey that farm and make him whole in a short period of time,” Coss told Greene. “That’s the reason the court is giving you that break.”

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