Former Caldwell County Deputy Clerk Marie Kay Brelsford has been sentenced in Clay County Court to three years suspended execution of sentence.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
Brelsford will spend up to 120 days in jail for shock time and will be eligible to apply for release into supervised probation. Judge Larry Dale Harman handed down the ruling on April 6.
Brelsford, a former employee in the Caldwell County clerk’s office, pled guilty to one count of felony stealing in February, following an investigation by the Highway Patrol and the Missouri Attorney General’s office. Brelsford entered her plea before Clay County Judge Larry Harmon.
Brelsford worked in the treasurer’s office at the time her husband was Caldwell County Sheriff. Following his defeat in his reelection bid, the auditor’s office initiated an investigation into the county. In the process of the investigation, the Highway Patrol discovered Brelsford had taken $2,500 in cash from a county voucher. Brelsford resigned and eventually confessed to the Highway Patrol that she had taken the money.
This is the second time Brelsford was convicted of stealing. Brelsford was convicted in federal court in 1992 of felony bank larceny. She was sentenced to four months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution of the $12,121 she stole while working as a bank teller.