Tuesday, November 11, 2008
By Tommy Witherspoon
Tribune-Herald staff writer
It likely will be three weeks to a month before former Downtown Waco Inc. executive director Margaret Mills is transferred to prison for her nine-year felony theft sentence, courthouse officials said Monday.
Mills, 67, was formally sentenced Monday by 54th State District Judge Matt Johnson. She likely will have to serve slightly more than two years in prison before being eligible for parole, a prison official has said.
Johnson also ordered Mills to pay $307,968.99 in restitution to the downtown development agency she headed for 18 years.
Slide show from the sentencing, trialMills’ attorneys, Rick Bostwick and Pat Beard, submitted a check Monday for $100,000 that Johnson had ordered Mills to make in partial restitution before going to prison. John Hawkins, an attorney who represents Downtown Waco Inc., took possession of the check but declined comment about how it might be applied by the dormant board of directors.
As Mills was being led to the county jail after the brief sentencing hearing, she walked by her husband, Coke Mills, and son, Richard Mills, who were seated on the courtroom’s front row.
“I would say this is the closing chapter,” Bostwick said later. “It has been a roller coaster. It is horrific to think about going to prison when the reality of that is you are on the threshold, for anybody. It doesn’t make any difference what your circumstances are. On the other hand, getting closure to this ordeal has some benefit to her, even if it is not perhaps the closure you had hoped for.”
Mills, who pleaded guilty to reduced charges, put a halt to her sentencing trial last week after 2 1/2 days when she reached an agreement with special prosecutors from the state attorney general’s office. She previously had paid $70,000 in restitution after admitting before she was indicted that she had taken “certain liberties” with Downtown Waco Inc. accounts.
Mills acknowledged that she stole funds, misused Downtown Waco Inc. debit and credit cards and diverted members’ dues to her personal accounts. Prosecutors have said she stole about $500,000 but reached an agreement with her for restitution of almost $308,000.
Court officials have said it is unlikely that she will be able to pay the unpaid balance of the restitution. Four of her husband’s friends paid $25,000 each to help her raise the required $100,000 in upfront restitution, two of the men confirmed last week.
“On behalf of the office of the attorney general, it has been our great privilege and honor to represent the state in this matter,” said Deputy Attorney General Eric Nichols. “We believe very strongly that justice has been done in this case, and we are pleased to put the city of Waco and Downtown Waco Inc. in a position to be made whole. Justice can be done in the case, and this community can heal and move on.”
McLennan County Sheriff Larry Lynch said it would take almost a month before Mills is accepted into the crowded state prison system. In the meantime, she will be a prisoner at the State Highway 6 county jail, he said.
Bostwick said he remains amazed at the animosity expressed toward Mills throughout the community. He said he hopes that people see the ordeal as a cause for reflection, not celebration.
“The message, I would hope, is that this city ought to look to each person individually and recognize that there is good and bad in all of us, that people are capable of great things,” he said. “She accomplished some great things that we are enjoying and will enjoy while she is in prison. We also ought to reflect on the fact that we all have our human flaws and some are greater than others, but that was evident, and there are consequences for those.”
Bostwick said Mills is sorry for what she did.
“There is no question she is remorseful. What you see sometimes with her is a determination to deal with what is in front of her, and, frankly, she has a terrible ordeal in front of her,” he said. “It takes a determined person, particularly at 67, to be looking at that. There is a plethora of emotions I’m sure she is feeling.”
twitherspoon@wacotrib.com
757-5737
