Case against former FRCC director is dismissed
Sharon Briggs was slated to go to trial in December
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Thursday, November 8, 2007 11:12 AM PST
PAYETTE — The criminal case against former Four Rivers Cultural Center Executive Director Sharon Briggs has been dismissed after Briggs apparently made restitution to the victim.
Briggs was charged in August, 2006, for grand theft, a felony, after she was accused by police of withholding $49,750 from Farmers and Merchants Bank in Fruitland.
According to court records, those charges were amended Nov. 2 to a charge of petit theft, which is a misdemeanor, for “wrongfully withholding U.S. Currency in the amount less than $1,000 from the owner, Farmers and Merchants Bank, a.k.a. Bank of the Cascades, with the intent to deprive another of property...”
Along with the amended charges came a motion to dismiss the case with the stipulation Briggs forfeit a $300 bond she had posted.
Payette County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Anne-Marie Kelso said the bond forfeiture “essentially closed out the case.”
“It’s not an admission of guilt,” Kelso said. “She paid full restitution to the victim, so we agreed to do a bond forfeiture to close it out.”
Prior to the Nov. 2 motions, Briggs was scheduled to go to trial in December.
Kelso said bond forfeitures can only be done on misdemeanors, which is why the charge against Briggs were reduced.
“And our goal was to make our victim whole, and that was achieved,” Kelso said, adding she was satisfied with the resolution.
The Nov. 2 resolution concluded a criminal case that began more than a year ago, which Kelso said is not atypical for a felony case that involved financial matters.
Kelso said the case began when Briggs apparently passed a fraudulent check at Farmers and Merchants Bank in Fruitland and had that check cashed.
In addition to criminal charges, the bank in question sued Briggs for the return of the $49,750 and attorney fees and interest.
The civil case asserted Briggs deposited a counterfeit check from “Cornell Industries Canada Company,” for $49,750 to Farmers and Merchants Bank and received a cashier’s check in that amount, according to an August, 2006 story in the Argus Observer.
Kelso said she did not know when Briggs made restitution to the bank.
Briggs was initially set to go to trial in January, 2007, but the case was delayed a number of times as attorneys on both sides negotiated for a settlement, and, failing to reach one prior to the Nov. 2 resolution, filed different motions in court, including a motion for dismissal by Briggs’ attorney. Incidentally, according to court records, in September, Briggs’ fired her attorney from Wiebe and Fouser, Caldwell, and hired another one.
