The prison sentences ordered for two Walnut Ridge bank embezzlers were reduced by six months on Wednesday thanks to the sharp eye of their co-defendant's lawyer.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Givens confirmed that U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker had reduced the sentences for Brenda Montgomery and Cindy Tate from 57 months to 51 months to match that given to Peggy Sutton, the third participant to plead guilty to a 10-year conspiracy to steal almost $4 million from First National Bank of Lawrence County.
Montgomery had been sentenced last Thursday and Tate on Friday morning. But later on Friday afternoon, at Sutton's sentencing hearing, defense attorney Tim Dudley pointed out a discrepancy between the calculation of the numeric offense level in the plea agreement and the calculation included in the pre-sentencing report by the federal probation officer.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Jegley agreed with Dudley's interpretation, and Baker gave a shorter sentence to Sutton and then signed orders reduced the sentences for Montgomery and Tate accordingly. Each woman is responsible for restitution of almost $1.32 million, a third of the total stolen in cash from the bank vault between 2005 and 2015.