Former Rock Creek School secretary ordered to serve 15 days in jail, pay restitution for theft scheme
A Frederick woman on Thursday was ordered to serve 15 days in jail and pay $23,800 in restitution to Frederick County Public Schools for stealing from the Student Activities Fund at Rock Creek School, where she worked.
Rebecca Mae Main, 65, pleaded guilty on March 6 to one count of theft scheme between $1,500 and $25,000. The theft scheme lasted from 2020 to 2023 while Main worked as an administrative secretary at the school.
Rock Creek School, a part of FCPS, provides individualized special education programs for students age 3 to 21 with severe intellectual, physical, emotional, hearing, visual and learning disabilities, according to its website.
Over the course of the theft scheme, prosecutors said, Main made out three dozen checks to herself and deposited them into her personal bank account.
The checks were supposedly reimbursements for money that Main spent on behalf of the school, but FCPS had no record of why the checks were sent, The Frederick News-Post previously reported.
During a hearing in Frederick County District Court on Thursday, Assistant State's Attorney Morgan McLaughlin said that, although Main had no prior criminal record, the theft scheme amounted to "a brazen and continuous course of conduct" that directly harmed the county's neediest students.
McLaughlin said Main's original sentencing hearing was postponed for 90 days to allow time for her to come up with money to repay the school system. He said he did not consider the $400 Main came prepared to pay on Thursday "a good faith" effort on that front.
According to McLaughlin, FCPS wanted to send a staff member to speak at the sentencing hearing on Thursday, but could not because it is so close to the end of the school year. He said the school system sent a letter instead.
FCPS acknowledged, but did not respond to, a request for comment about Main's case on Thursday.
Gabriella Farago, a public defender who represented Main at the sentencing hearing, said the theft scheme took place against the backdrop of severe medical issues and financial problems Main was having.
"Sometimes when bad things happen to us, we make the wrong choices," Farago said.
"I'm very sorry and I regret it," Main told the court on Thursday. "I'll do everything I have to to rectify this." She did not say anything more in her statement to the court.
Frederick County District Court Judge Eric Schaffer on Thursday said that while "everybody has financial issues, not everybody steals." He sentenced Main to five years in prison and suspended all but 15 days.
Schaffer also ordered Main to serve five years of supervised probation, but said she could file for early termination if she pays the full amount of restitution before then.
As a condition of her probation, Main will not be allowed to return to the Rock Creek school or to FCPS in general.
"You're going to see the inside of a jail cell for 15 days," Schaffer said.
"I want you to think about what you did," he continued. "I'll take a very dim view of you if you don't make these victims whole."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
31 minutes ago
- New York Times
Abrego Garcia Is Being Returned to U.S. From El Salvador
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man at the center of a legal and political maelstrom after being mistakenly deported to El Salvador, is expected to return to the United States to face charges related to transporting undocumented migrants in the country, according to an indictment unsealed in federal court in Tennessee late Friday. The stunning move, which had quietly been planned for several weeks, could provide a much-needed offramp for the Trump administration, which has bitterly opposed a series of court orders to take steps to release him following his wrongful removal on March 15. The 10-page indictment also represents a potential effort to save face: Bringing Mr. Abrego Garcia back to face criminal charges — rather than complying with the dictates of three federal courts, including the Supreme Court — allows the White House to avoid an increasingly difficult legal confrontation, while enabling the administration to press its claim that he is a dangerous criminal who was worthy of removal in the first place. Since the start of the case, administration officials have sought to depict Mr. Abrego Garcia, a metal worker who has lived illegally in the United States without incident for years, as a member of the violent street gang MS-13. The charges filed against him in Federal District Court in Nashville accused him of belonging to the gang and taking part in a conspiracy to 'transport thousands of undocumented aliens' across the United States. His lawyers said they welcomed their day in court and pointed out that the government's decision to return him to the United States undercut its longstanding efforts to keep him in El Salvador. 'Today's action proves what we've known all along — that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so,' said Andrew Rossman, a lawyer for Mr. Abrego Garcia. 'It's now up to our judicial system to see that Mr. Abrego Garcia receives the due process that the constitution guarantees to all persons.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Wall Street Journal
34 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Fed Names Horowitz to Lead Office of Inspector General
Michael Horowitz, a former internal watchdog at the Justice Department, will lead the Federal Reserve's inspector-general office, the central bank said Friday. Horowitz succeeds Mark Bialek, who retired from the role in April. For 13 years, Horowitz served as inspector general at the Justice Department. While there he led a high-profile review that found fault with portions of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's examination of alleged links between Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and the Russian government.
Washington Post
35 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Wrongly deported Salvadoran man charged with human smuggling in 2022
The Justice Department has brought human smuggling charges against a wrongly deported Salvadoran man whose removal to a notorious gang prison ignited a standoff with federal courts, according to an indictment made public Friday. The charges against Kilmar Abrego García, stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, mean he could face prosecution in the United States and possible deportation to another country.
