Skelton pleads guilty

Published 11:14 am Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Former Charlotte Court House Town Clerk Holly Megan Adams Skelton pled guilty to six counts of grand larceny in Charlotte Circuit Court on March 15.

Her pleas will be reviewed by a circuit court judge Aug. 2, according to Lee Harrison, the commonwealth’s attorney for Amelia County who acted as a special prosecutor in the case.

Skelton, of Drakes Branch, was arrested on Oct. 7 and charged with 30 counts of grand larceny, embezzlement and other related charges.

According to county court documents, the charges stemmed from incidents from 2010 through January 2012.

According to Harrison, the 30 charges all fell under the category of larceny, so Skelton pled guilty to six counts of grand larceny rather than 30 individual charges.

“They’re basically being rolled into those six (charges),” said Harrison.

Harrison said a circuit court judge will review the case and make a decision on whether or not to accept Skelton’s guilty pleas.

The judge, according to Harrison, will examine Skelton’s presentence report and her restitution plan — how she believes she should pay restitution.

“I will probably have a plan of my own as to how I think she should be making restitution,” Harrison said. “(The judge is) going to listen to (what) the defense counsel has to say as to how they think it ought to be paid back, and I’m sure he’s going to listen to how I think (it should be paid back).”

Harrison said he has not finished tallying all the funds that he thinks need to be repaid and didn’t wish to release an estimate.

“We want to be able to (provide) a definite figure as to the amount of money we know she took that we can prove,” said Harrison.

A Charlotte County grand jury indicted Skelton in October for six counts each of embezzlement of public funds, grand larceny equal or greater than $200, other forgery/uttering, other forgery: employ or true, and computer fraud: larceny/embezzlement equal or greater than $200.

Last year, Charlotte Court House Mayor Stephen Walker previously confirmed Skelton worked as town clerk for two years and was initially placed on indefinite administrative leave. Skelton no longer works as town clerk.