Bobbie J. Dawes (Franklin County Detention Center)

FARMINGTON —  A Jay woman was sentenced Friday in Franklin County Superior Court to one year with all but 30 days suspended in a plea agreement on a charge of theft by unauthorized taking or transfer.

Under the agreement, Bobbie J. Dawes, 46, was also sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay restitution of $51,629 to the Mile Ten Road Association.

Dawes received a stay on her sentence until Dec. 26, when she will turn herself in to Franklin County Detention Center. The probation period began Friday.

A charge of forgery was dismissed under the agreement.

Dawes was accused of stealing more than $10,000 from the Mile Ten Road Association in The Forks between Jan. 1, 2011, and April 18, 2017, by writing checks and forging the association president’s name on them. 

Dawes was employed as secretary and treasurer of the association but worked from her home.

“Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” Judge Maria Woodman asked Dawes. 

“Yes,” Dawes responded.

“Your cooperation throughout the investigation has helped you,” Woodman noted.

Under the plea agreement, Dawes is prohibited from gambling or visiting gambling establishments. She will also have to seek evaluation for gambling addiction.

There was no scheme to take the funds, her attorney, Walter Hanstein, said. She has a vicious gambling addiction, he said. If she had won, she intended to pay the money back to the association.

Dawes said she turned away from casinos the day the case broke open. She has been attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings.

If the case had gone to trial, Assistant District Attorney Joshua Robbins said Joe Gagnon, the former president of the Mile Ten Road Association, would have testified that he was contacted by a contractor who had worked on the road but had not received payment.

Gagnon contacted Dawes and told her to cancel any checks to the contractor and issue new checks to him. 

When the bank account was checked into, it showed 16-30 checks written to Dawes either without the president’s signature or with his name forged. These were cashed at a Jay bank.

Dawes cooperated, and apologized to the association president in April.

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