The former Madison County Treasurer accused of misconduct in office has reached a plea deal just before her trial, which was scheduled to start today.
Amanda DeVos was charged with a string of felonies, including tampering with records, misconduct in office, third-degree fraud and third-degree theft. Investigators say she used her position as county treasurer to obtain a vehicle registration sticker without paying the fee and marked her own property taxes as paid when they weren’t.
State Auditor Rob Sand released an audit of the county’s finances in June, finding what he described at the time as a bookkeeping “mess.” Sand, who is running for governor, was asked about the case late yesterday. “I was a prosecutor for seven years for public corruption cases similar to this in the Attorney General’s Office,” Sand said. “…I am now in a different role and we just have a rule in the State Auditor’s Office that we tend not to comment on cases where we’ve had involvement.”
DeVos resigned as Madison County Treasurer about a year ago. Court documents indicate she’s agreed to plead guilty to one count of third-degree fraudulent practice, an aggravated misdemeanor and she’ll be sentenced November 2. While Sand is not commenting directly on this case, for the past several years Sand has called for mandatory prison time for public officials found guilty of stealing taxpayer dollars. “I don’t think that we should be allowing people in positions of trust and power to abuse that trust and power to enrich themselves,” Sand said. “They should know there’s going to be a consequence on the other side.”
People convicted of an aggravated misdemeanor in an Iowa court can be sentenced to up to two years in a state prison and fined several thousand dollars, but judges have the option of ordering probation or supervised work release.