WARREN — Linda McCullough will have the next eight years to think about her actions.

That’s because McCullough, who served as Vienna’s fiscal officer from 2019 to early 2024, was sentenced to a total of eight years in prison Tuesday morning to be served at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.

Additionally, she’s expected to pay court costs and make restitution to both Vienna Township at $120,371, and the state auditor’s office, to which she owes $11,746.

McCullough’s sentencing comes a month after her trial was supposed to begin. She instead pleaded guilty to all 10 charges against her, which included two counts of theft in office, one count of telecommunications fraud and seven counts of tampering with records.

The charges stemmed from indictments in October 2024 and February of this year, which accused McCullough of using her elected position to pay personal credit card bills, as well as individual and private business expenses at several stores.

MERCY

Ahead of her sentencing, McCullough asked the court for mercy, noting that while she wasn’t good at expressing her feelings or opinions and her personality could come off to some as cold and uncaring, she was “really sorry” for what she had done.

She listed the ways she was involved in the community, giving her spare time for many of the township’s functions, such as the neighborhood watch and the fire and police departments — organizing and participating in events for both organizations, such as dinners.

“My actions betrayed my community. I am humiliated and will live with this humiliation for the rest of my days,” McCullough said. “I hope that individuals responsible for scheduling and approving excessive overtime and expensive equipment purchases will step forward and take some responsibility for their part in the township’s financial problems.”

“For my part, I stand ready to make restitution; I know what I did was wrong, and I will accept punishment. I am asking for mercy from the court, as I am the primary caregiver to my elderly parents,” she said.

J. Gerald Ingram, her attorney, said he “wasn’t even going to address” the potential for future crime, as there was none, as evidenced by her lack of a criminal record as both a juvenile and an adult.

Ingram said he keeps having to go against the “brick wall” of public trust, listing her age, 66, and that she took advantage of a financially vulnerable government victim.

“As to the public trust component, every defendant in a theft-in-office prosecution is going to have public official status; it’s an essential element of the offense,” Ingram said. “I believe the legislature has at least partially accounted for the public trust issue of this case, when it designated the degree of offense for theft in office.”

Ingram said theft in office for the amount in her case is deemed a third-degree felony, but for plain theft of the same amount, it would be a fourth-degree felony.

He agreed McCullough deserved punishment, adding that he sometimes thinks half of Vienna Township “screams” for it.

Ingram said the state’s statutes give a plethora of possible sanctions that were “punitive” in nature, such as a $10,000 fine per count.

“The offense of conviction is an economic offense, and I respectfully submit that it would be appropriate for an economic consequence,” Ingram said. “Community service in the community she defrauded — what more humbling of an experience could there be?”

Ingram also suggested an electronically monitored house arrest, because a prison sentence would have a “substantial effect” on McCullough’s parents and would force them to reconsider their living arrangements.

He listed the ages of her father and mother — 89 and 86, respectively — and the health issues they were dealing with, and her sister’s inability to step up because of her own health issues.

PEGG’S STATEMENTS

Before presenting the state’s arguments, Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Charles Morrow allowed Vienna trustee Phil Pegg to speak to the court.

Pegg said that McCullough may claim that she acted on behalf of the township’s safety services, but she destroyed them and tried to destroy the community with her actions.

Pegg said as far as her actions being declared a victimless crime, Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Cynthia Westcott Rice has seen the last victim in a statement he sent to her.

He recalled a woman in the township who was having seizures, who they did not know was having a stroke at the time. He said they no longer had ambulance services because of McCullough’s actions, which made them dependent on neighboring areas.

“That day, Howland, Fowler, Brookfield, were all already engaged; the only one we could get to come to Vienna was Liberty. (It) took 13 minutes,” Pegg said. “When you’re having a seizure and a stroke, anything after 4 minutes, your odds of survival go way down. And we lost a resident.”

Pegg said their ambulance’s response time, when they had services, was under 5 minutes, adding there was a “possible shot the woman could have survived.”

Pegg said the township is rebuilding its emergency services now as a community, but they are a “long way from getting back to where they were.”

“You rob a gas station, you go directly to jail – there’s no question. You rob a community, a township, you get to go on road trips to Michigan, you get to go out for dinner,” Pegg said. “No jail time; it’s been pretty soft.”

PROSECUTION’S ARGUMENT

Morrow said he found it intriguing that Ingram acknowledged McCullough had no issues with drugs, alcohol or gambling, but there was $116,000 missing.

“The only thing I can surmise is that it was for her own personal use with no explanation, no excuse, no justification, other than she saw a piggy bank that she could put her hands into and line her own pockets with this $116,000,” Morrow said. “Money that came from the taxpayers of Vienna Township that was taken from them.”

Morrow said that while there might have been mismanagement or possible mismanagement of other funds, the only money they can attribute to being lost to the township was by McCullough’s theft.

“Not only did she take this money, she undertook efforts to cover it up, to falsify records to the state of Ohio, to mislead where those monies were actually being spent,” Morrow said. “That was done through the remaining counts that were charged in terms of tampering with evidence.”

He said that Rice not imposing a jail sentence would “demean” the seriousness of McCullough’s offense, adding that there would be no deterrent for any future offenders.

“The deterrent should be, ‘don’t steal, because if we catch you, we’re going to send you to prison,” Morrow said. “But it’s when they steal and they can simply say, ‘Guess what? I’ll pay it back, I’ll make it whole, no harm, no foul.’ That’s not the way the law works around here.”

Morrow said McCullough’s actions have resulted in a “complete loss” in the public’s confidence in Vienna Township.

“Quite simply, when you have public officials stealing in their official capacity, it undermines the confidence in our government, in our system,” he said. “That’s also a reason to not demean the seriousness by not imposing jail time.”

RICE’S VERDICT

Rice said McCullough’s first three counts were merging, and the state elected to prosecute on the first one. The tampering with records charges, which made up counts four through 10, did not merge, as the offenses were committed with separate motivations to conceal her actions.

Ingram said McCullough would be able to make her first restitution payment of $86,000.

Additionally, she has roughly $30,000 held in her PERS (Public Employees Retirement System) account — which McCullough consented to be distributed as part of her plea deal.

Rice said McCullough had shown no genuine remorse for her offenses against the township, listing several examples.

“In her voluntary statement to probation, she only wrote one paragraph stating that she hoped the people responsible for overspending in the township would step up and take responsibility for their actions,” Rice said.

Rice said the township’s fiscal emergency was not solely created by McCullough’s actions, but her theft contributed to their issues, yet she hasn’t taken responsibility for her fraudulent actions.

She said that when McCullough met with investigators for her pre-sentencing investigation, she suggested that her payment of personal credit cards with township funds was an accidental click.

“When realizing that investigators didn’t buy her accident explanation, Ms. McCullough stated, ‘How do we make this go away?” Rice said.

Rice said McCullough referred to her spending as “emotional spending”, explaining to investigators that she overspent because people around her were overspending.

“Leaders may have overspent in the efforts they made to provide improved services to the township, such as a full-time ambulance service, but that in no way justifies Ms. McCullough utilizing township funds to pay her multiple personal credit cards and her father’s credit cards,” Rice said. “These offenses were not motivated by anything other than Ms. McCullough’s greed. This court has seen a lot of desperate people who commit crimes just to survive; that is not the case here,” she added.