Former Starke County jail matron sentenced to 12 months probation for fraud

A former Starke County Sheriff's Department employee has been sentenced after she plead guilty to federal wire fraud earlier this year.

The United States Department of Justice shared that Pamela McDonald, 41, of Knox, was sentenced to 12 months of probation and ordered to pay $21,280.42 in restitution by United States District Court Judge Damon R. Leichty. 

Court documents state McDonald worked as the “jail matron” at the Starke County Jail. 

Her duties at the jail included paying invoices with funds from the jail commissary account. It was discovered that between August 15, 2022, and May 15, 2023, McDonald made at least 19 unauthorized withdrawals, pocketing at least $20,621.85 that she was not entitled to receive. She also used the Starke County debit card to purchase personal items that included a gaming chair, a memory foam mattress and full-size bed frame for her home totaling $658.57. The total loss to Starke County from McDonald's spending came out to be $21,280.42.

“McDonald was supposed to be a public servant in her role at the Starke County Jail, but she chose to use her position of trust to line her own pockets,” said Timothy J. O’Malley, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis Office. “The FBI and its law enforcement partners will continue to investigate all public officials who use their positions for personal gain.”

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Indiana State Police Organized Crime and Public Corruption Unit, the Indiana State Board of Accounts, and the Starke County Prosecutor’s Office. McDonald's case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jerome W. McKeever, as part of the Northern District of Indiana’s Small County Outreach Program, which aims to bring federal law enforcement resources to bear in rural counties throughout the Northern District of Indiana.