WATERFORD — Two years after pleading guilty to embezzling $158,000 from the town, former Deputy Clerk Jennifer Morin is now making consistent restitution payments, Selectman Richard Hunt said.

Hunt, who went to Oxford County Superior Court on Nov. 14 to represent the town in its effort to recoup $15,000 in restitution, said the former town employee has been paying $50 a week to the town directly from her paychecks since November.

“It’s coming in regularly now but she’s still far behind,” Hunt said. According to Hunt, Morin had paid the town $1,100 over a two-year period before she went back to court in November.

“We took her to court,” Hunt said of the move that was part of the original judgment if she did not pay the debt.

Morin, then 35, of 339 Norway Road, resigned as deputy clerk on Feb. 3, 2008,  shortly before the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation into town funds. She pleaded guilty in Oxford County Superior Court in January 2009 to stealing $158,000 from town accounts from 2002 through 2008. The initial discovery was made after an audit of the town books.

Morin was ordered to serve six months of a five-year sentence, pay a $1,000 fine, $15,000 in restitution and and serve three years of probation. Her guilty plea also allowed Waterford to receive a $100,000 bond payment to cover some of the losses, according to officials at the time.

The 10-year employee began serving time on Jan. 18, 2009, but was under house arrest on a medical furlough for a while because of an injury she received while in jail.

Hunt said Morin told the court in November that she could pay $50 a week out of her paycheck toward restitution. Morin’s parole officer immediately gained an agreement with her present employer, Food City in Bridgton, to have the money deducted weekly from her paycheck, Hunt said.

He said that based on the agreement, it will take about five years for complete restitution to be made.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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