Sean Morgan and Scott Swanson
Former Sweet Home Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Katrina Crabtree pleaded guilty Thursday, May 2, in Linn County Circuit Court to three misdemeanor counts of fraudulent use of a credit card.
Crabtree was sentenced to 12 months of probation and 10 days of compensatory service. She was ordered to pay $300 in fines and $2,500 in restitution within 30 days.
As part of a plea agreement, a felony charge of fraudulent use of a credit card and first-degree theft, a felony, were dismissed.
On the first count of fraudulent use of a credit card, the state alleged that Crabtree used a Chamber of Commerce credit card for unauthorized purchases at Sweet Home and Lebanon liquor stores on or between Oct. 1, 2016 and Feb. 28, 2017.
On the second count, she was accused of using a Chamber of Commerce credit card for an unauthorized purchase online at Toddle Rock on Sept. 26, 2016.
On the third count, the state alleged that she used a Chamber of Commerce credit card for an unauthorized purchase at Great Clips on Feb. 18, 2017.
Dismissed were allegations she took more than $1,000 from the Chamber of Commerce on or between Feb. 1, 2015 and March 13, 2017, the charge of first-degree theft, and that between Nov. 1, 2015 and March 13, 2017, she had used a Chamber of Commerce credit card for unauthorized purchases at Safeway amounting to more than $1,000, the felony charge of fraudulent use of a credit card.
Crabtree told The New Era that she is innocent of all of the charges.
“There’s only one reason I’m taking a plea deal,” Crabtree said. “I don’t have the money to fight this.”
She said she didn’t have the $8,000 to $10,000 it would take to fight the charges, Crabtree said. She needed $6,000 up front to get started, and at 60 years old, “I can’t be dipping into my retirement.
“The only one I have to answer to is God, and he knows I’m innocent. I’d much rather write a check to the chamber than waste it in court. I don’t lie. I don’t cheat, and I don’t steal.”
Police arrested Crabtree on May 25, 2018. Crabtree was discharged from the Chamber of Commerce in March 2017 when the board cut the position. Police initiated an investigation after money was reported missing.
Crabtree had been director for approximately 2½ years and was involved with the chamber for about three years.
Then-chamber President Bill Matthews told The New Era in April 2017, after Crabtree left, “we essentially have no financial records.”
In a statement to Linn County Circuit Court Judge David E. Delsman at the sentencing hearing, Matthews said after Crabtree’s departure “all chamber computer information had been purposely deleted to the extent that most were not recoverable,” including “financial information, membership records, documenting correspondence and emails.” Also missing, he said, were correspondence with state and federal agencies, accounting information and other important documents.
He said financial reports from Crabtree, indicating that the chamber was in good shape financially, had been determined to be “materially false.”
“In fact, the chamber was over $100,000 in debt, with many creditors demanding immediate action.” They included federal and state agencies, banks, and local businesses and individuals.
“We had little money in the bank – certainly not enough to continue operations without an infusion of cash.”
Board members made personal loans to the chamber to keep it operating while they reorganized, he said.
Analysis of bank records showed “numerous irregularities” in the use of debit and credit cards, Matthews said.
He told Delsman that the amount Crabtree was charged with was “a fraction of what went missing during her 2½ years at the chamber. The true amount is unknowable due to the destruction of the records and her falsification of information.”
Crabtree told The New Era the chamber was not missing any records when she was discharged.
There isn’t anything missing,” Crabtree said. “There never was anything missing.”
Crabtree said she left all of the binders, computer records and a backup behind when she left the building.
The office computer started acting up while Crabtree and Jenna Schwab, a volunteer, were attempting to run credit card transcripts related to the chamber banquet in 2017, Schwab told The New Era. When the computer started going down, they backed up information to a flash drive, which they left along with building keys on a desk.
At the time, Crabtree said, she was in and out of the office a couple of weeks prior to her departure dealing with the death of her father and other issues.
“We don’t know what happened,” she said regarding missing records. “I was not there alone” to do what she said Matthews insinuated.
She made reports to the board and its members, Crabtree said. One told her not to worry about it – he trusted her; and in meetings the goal was to get in and out as fast as they could.
Also, she said, the chamber did not have a transition period where Crabtree could sit down with other chamber officials and exchange information.
As far as the charges she faced, “I’m just going to get up in court, and I’m going to lie (saying she is guilty) just to be done,” Crabtree said prior to her sentencing hearing.
The purchases she made with the credit card, items like cocoa, wine and small bottles of peppermint schnapps, were for gift baskets for events. She also purchased items to decorate Christmas trees for the annual Christmas tree auction.
“I had the authority to proceed with daily business,” Cabtree said. “I would often use my own personal funds to buy something when the chamber didn’t have money, and I would turn in a cash slip.”
She added that when she left the chamber, paychecks bounced and she had to wait until July 2017 to be paid.
When she was criminally charged, she said the amount of loss alleged in the charges was within a couple of hundred dollars of that July check.
Matthews, in his statement to Delsman at the hearing, said the financial straits after Crabtree’s departure forced the chamber to sell its building “at a deeply discounted price.”
He said board members decided to accept “her rather small restitution” and not pursue civil action “to get some closure.”
“She will never be able to repay the volunteers that contributed hundreds and hundreds of hours in this ongoing effort to rebuild community trust in the chamber,” Matthews said.
Dave Jurney, who was chamber treasurer at the time of Crabtree’s departure, was present at the May 2 proceedings as well.
He credited Matthews with pursuing the matter.
“I’m proud of Bill,” Jurney said. “If it wasn’t for him, this wouldn’t have happened. She would have gone home with the money.”