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Plea deal reached in case against former City Clerk in Mills County

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January 29th, 2016 by Ric Hanson

The Mills County Attorney’s Office has reached a plea agreement in the case of the former City Clerk for Pacific Junction who had plead not guilty to several charges associated with City finances. The Omaha World-Herald reports sentencing for 43-year old Kari Williams was set for Feb. 8th. Details of her plea agreement were not immediately released.

Williams was charged with first-degree theft, felonious misconduct in office, tampering with records and failing to publish city expenditures.The theft and misconduct charges are felonies. The charges of tampering and failure to publish expenditures are misdemeanors.

According to the criminal complaints, Williams accepted full-time employee benefits, such as vacation and paid sick leave, even though she knew she was not working the required number of hours. Williams, who resigned in March, also issued Christmas bonus checks to herself for amounts greater than what had been approved by the City Council. Authorities also alleged she knowingly published in a public notice in a newspaper city expenditures that were not accurate and concealed unpaid federal taxes.