Barnet sentenced Robert C. Oxley to a four-year prison term October 30. Earlier, Barnet had rejected Oxley’s offer to plead guilty to a lesser charge of theft after learning that the defendant had six felony convictions in Florida. Oxley said he didn’t remember anyone from the library asking him whether he was a convicted felon, the Muncie Star Press reported October 31.
Barnet criticized library officials for letting Oxley use their treasurer’s rubber signature stamp, adding that he had never seen an employer do this before, “but I have only been here for 25 years.” Oxley testified that he had signed checks using the rubber stamp without anyone approving his work. He then used the money to go on trips to the Bahamas, Jamaica, and New York.
MPL Executive Director Virginia Nilles told the Star Press that she hadn’t known the time of the sentencing hearing. She also admitted that no background check had been conducted on Oxley before he was hired in 2000, and assumed that the temporary agency he worked for earlier had completed the process.
Posted November 3, 2003.