The former town clerk of Valeria has pleaded guilty to theft. The Jasper County Auditor reports nearly 18-thousand dollars was identified as improper spending and undeposited collections. It includes payments to the mayor, who was a housemate of City Clerk Tina Jaber at the time.
After the shortage of city funds was discovered, Valeria Mayor Tina Rivers told the council she’d been unaware that Jaber spent city funds as part of their living expenses. The audit also shows Jaber wrote fifty checks to herself for more than fifteen-thousand dollars, and three checks written to Mayor Rivers for around 400 dollars were also listed as improper. Jaber will be sentenced June 5 in the Jasper County Court.